The 49ers had a few firsts on Sunday that were cause for celebration.
The San Francisco 49ers took no solace in this defeat. The NFC playoffs are held at Levi’s Stadium, and San Francisco is still the top seed.
In light of this, the Los Angeles Rams, who are primarily a second-team, defeated the 49ers with a dominant second half, ending the 2023 regular season with a 21-20 loss to San Francisco. Sam Darnold had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type game. He led the 49ers to a lead in the first half, but in the second half, everything fell apart, and the Rams came out on top.
Here are Sunday’s losers and winners for the last time in the regular season:
Winner: Long first-half drives
In a meaningless game for San Francisco, the offense performed as well as they could have.
Sam Darnold led touchdown-scoring drives of 75, 75, and 90 yards to help the 49ers score all 20 points in the first half, giving San Francisco a 20-7 lead at the break. San Francisco ran 22 more plays in the first half and won the time of possession battle by 13 minutes, setting a new record for the team.
Sam Darnold finished the first half of the game with 14 of 19 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns, one passing and one rushing. He also completed his first six passes of the game. The two-minute drill was executed almost perfectly on a nine-play, ninety-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown for Ronnie Bell. Elijah Mitchell and Jordan Mason combined for 16 carries for 75 yards, which was the foundation of the run game.
The 49ers offense appeared to be operating normally even without Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, and George Kittle (and without Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel after the first quarter). To maintain its lead in the second half, it only needed to play at a pace that was similar to it.
Loser: Short second-half drives
The offense appeared completely different in the second half than it did in the first.
The 49ers offense managed just 26 total yards off offense for zero points and zero plays ran in Los Angeles territory after three scoring drives of more than 75 yards in the first half. The 49ers’ last drive, which lasted 18 yards and ended with a Darnold fumble that the Rams recovered, was their longest drive of the second half.
After throwing just five incomplete passes in the first half, Darnold attempted only seven second-half passes, completing only two for 21 yards. With the limited plays, the running game saw only six second-half rush attempts, gaining just 19 yards during the back half. Mitchell and Mason had four of those touches, with Mason and Darnold sharing the longest runs of the second half at five yards on consecutive plays late in the third quarter.
Even after dominating the time of possession in the first half, the game ended with the Rams running four more plays and holding onto the ball for two minutes longer, a stark difference from the first 30 minutes of the game. The 49ers offense couldn’t stay on the field, and the defense couldn’t hold, resulting in the San Francisco loss.
Winner: Career firsts
Playing backups for the majority of the game produces some pretty amazing moments, but it also creates situations like two entirely different offenses on either side of the half.
Security Tayler Hawkins had not played a snap this season going into Sunday, but he made the most of his chance to be in the right place at the right time on Sunday. The Rams offense, led by Carson Wentz, attempted to start their drive with a short pass to Tutu Atwell after the 49ers scored their second touchdown to take a 14-7 lead.
At the line of scrimmage, Javon Hargrave got a hand on the ball and quickly altered its trajectory so that it bounced off Atwell’s hands and into the air. In his debut game, Hawkins made a play with the ball and intercepted his first pass of the career.
Robert Beal, a fifth-round pick, made his first memorable play of his rookie season later in the game. Despite being on injured reserve until the end of December, Beal has only played in 15 defensive snaps this season. However, on Sunday, he was given a lot of playing time.
He used that playing time to collect the first sack of his career in the third quarter, sacking Wentz to force a third-and-17 that the Rams offense would convert en route to the Rams’ second score of the game.
Loser: K Jake Moody
I tried my best to separate what happened on Sunday and not use it to project what the postseason could look like for San Francisco, but Moody made it impossible.
Since the Minnesota game, Moody had converted all 10 of his field goal attempts and didn’t have a miss on attempts from 40 yards or less. That was at least before Sunday when Moody miss
Had that been the kicker’s only miss after the game on Sunday, perhaps things would have felt better, but he was unable to move past it. Moody demonstrated earlier in the season that his misses are frequent; in those two losses to the Vikings and Cleveland that followed, he had missed three of them, and against the Rams, he continued to do so. Moody failed to make the PAT following Darnold’s touchdown pass to Bell in the second quarter; it was his first failed PAT of the year.
All four of Moody’s misses in 2023 came in losses and one-possession losses, with his misses being the difference in both the loss to the Browns and the loss on Sunday. While the 49ers’ offense scores plenty of touchdowns, it might not be a concern in the playoffs. Still, it’s a situation to monitor as the regular season turns into the postseason.
ed a 38-yard attempt in the second quarter that would have extended the San Francisco lead to two scores.
Loser: The receiving corps
After finishing their first-quarter reps, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel appeared to be in playoff shape as they combined for 46 yards on five catches. Apart from those two, the receivers exhibited problems.
Just seven receptions for 96 yards were made by Chris Conley, Ray-Ray McCloud, and Ronnie Bell combined; the majority of the yardage came from a 48-yard reception by Conley. The problem for the trio was drops, as those seven receptions came on 15 targets. Just prior to Moody’s miss in the first half, Bell dropped a pass on a third down. The 49ers were trailing going into the fourth quarter when McCloud and Conley had baskets.
On the opening play of the 49ers’ second-to-last drive, McCloud dropped a deep pass from Darnold, and Russ Yeast would hit to guarantee the incomplete pass on a play that would have gained a minimum of thirty yards. Then, just before Yeast intervened and broke up the play, Darnold connected with Conley along the sideline for what would have been a 20-yard gain on the 49ers’ last drive. The game would end after three plays when Darnold would fumble.
The bright spot is that the receiving corps is unlikely to play much in the postseason, but overall, it was a forgettable day for the backup group at the position.
Loser: Streaks
The 2023 49ers, who were already guaranteed the top spot going into Sunday, were unaffected by the loss, but the Rams’ victory ended a few streaks for San Francisco.
The 49ers’ nine-game winning streak during the regular season ended on Sunday with a victory over the Rams. The 13-3 (and Super Bowl-bound) Rams defeated Nick Mullens and the 4-12 49ers in December 2018, the last time Los Angeles defeated San Francisco in the regular season. At that time, Nick Bosa was still a few months away from being drafted. Since then, the rivalry has only centered around the 49ers (don’t ask about the playoff game), but the Rams’ bench was able to overcome the 49ers’ bench to snap the losing streak.
In addition, the defeat was San Francisco’s first divisional regular season loss since their December 2021 loss in Seattle, back when Russell Wilson was still a member of the Seahawks’ offense. Since then, the 49ers have triumphed in 12 straight division games, including their first 6-0 result against the NFC West since the division’s realignment in 2002. Before Los Angeles ruined it on Sunday, the 49ers had a chance to have consecutive perfect seasons against the West.