Yeah, we need the time to lick our wounds and healthy up. But a 2-week break to stew over the sudden departure of our defense is gonna lead to tons of speculation. This talk of moving Wilks to the field is pretty stupid to me. He obviously doesn’t want to do it. So, why force the issue when the problem isn’t where he is, it’s where his players are.

This team used to smother short passes and slants with 3-4 guys hitting every WR/RB/TE on every play. Now? Well, we are chasing every pass catcher and are 3-4 yards away from every one. Our dominant D line would stuff every run play for a 0-2 yard gain. Now we regularly get gashed for 5-6 yards. On 1st down. This defense was forcing 3-and-outs 5-6 times a game. Now we don’t get one.

Once all that short shit and run game is rolling, then we are primed to get beat downfield. Which is happening. In the end, the 49ers end up in chase mode. And our second coming of Joe is kinda gagging it up. He;s forcing shit late and it shows.

Four 4th quarter picks in these last 2 games is not finishing strong. Granted, we don’t get the ball nearly as much as we were even at the beginning of the season, but Purdy’s ridiculous fuckup on the 8 yard line was stupid beyond belief. It was 1st down for fuck’s sake! Fall down. Take the 2 yard loss. We should have tied the game there, but instead are still trailing.

And the thing is, the defense finally made a stand. We have great field position at our 45 so, Purdy throws another pick that is returned to our 24. Next play? Burrow TD pass. Game over.

Well, not even then. There’s more.Purdy does bounce back and lead a fairly quick TD drive of 75 yards. The D however is not up to the task of slowing down Cincy. They go on a 6 minute drive of 78 yards. In that drive we didn’t even force a 3rd down, let alone a 4th down.

So yeah. Game over. 31-17. Purdy does lead another drive where he throws another pick that is happily negated by a roughing the passer call. But Purdy then gets strip-sacked.

3 turnovers to finish the game off. Yeah, the defense isn’t playing well. But those turnovers will kill any effort. Our huge early turnover plus has taken a big hit.

Games 1-5 – 9 takeaways, 2 giveaways = +7
Games 6-8 – 4 takeaways, 7 giveaways = -3

Say what you will about our defense, but this offense bears a big part in these losses.