We did kind of have a bye taking week 17 off at Home.
Defensively it started to become apparent we were gassed as they pounded the ball. Offensively, man... I hate what we were doing on those first few drives when the score was 7-7 and we got the ball with a chance to take the lead. I wish we'd have spread them out, had a quick strike multi-route attack, went uptempo, handed the ball of to Dalvin out of the shotgun, and eased into heavier packages and the screens. Our gameplan should have been backwards from how it was run today. I feel like we funnel ourselves into pressure situations by being overly basic and not being aggressive. Even if we were going to take some sacks early trying, at least hey; maybe we get the cracks we need to start actually establishing the stuff we ran.
Both defensive lines came in with similar accolades and reputations. Both offenses had drastically different approaches with how they read the defense, how they used formations to stress it and the playcalls they went with to attack it. San Fran looked like the team that played against Seattle at the end of the year and we unfortunately looked a lot like the team that played against Green Bay.
That's not to say the San Fran line isn't good. They just went quick rhythm around their line - it negated our rush early more than their skill level. When they picked up our blitz and had Jimmy G on an extended type drop back, they always had a shot ready. When Cousins did have time earlier in the game, our routes were a bit more... i dunno... simple? basic? I didn't really find it surprising they were getting after Cousins as we were in obvious passing situations running really intermediate-deep routes as the game got away from us. I didn't find it surprising Cousins was suddenly holding the ball either. Our route schemes have been a major weakness/blindspot since Shurmur left.
blah... rambling... i'm just disappointed we didn't have more offensively to show than that. I wish our offensive blaze of glory would have been a little more creative early on or something, i dunno...