San Francisco's epic collapse of a season continued Saturday night, as the 49ers blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and eventually fell to the San Diego Chargers, 38-35, in overtime.
The 49ers raced out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter on the strength of their running game and some efficient passing from Colin Kaepernick. They led 28-7 at halftime. After San Diego cut the lead to seven points late in the third quarter, Kaepernick extended the lead back to two scores with a touchdown run of his own.
But San Diego's passing attack proved too much for a 49ers defense that had actually been quite strong this season. Philip Rivers led two touchdown drives in the last 8:55, finding Antonio Gates and Malcom Floyd to tie the game and send it into overtime, where Nick Novak's field goal won it after Quinton Patton fumbled on San Francisco's opening possession.
This loss marked the fifth time this season San Francisco failed to win a game it led at halftime, and the seventh time the 49ers were outscored by at least 10 points in the second half. For the season, San Francisco has outscored opponents by 51 points in the first half of games, only to be outscored by 88 points after halftime. Colin Kaepernick still hasn't thrown a fourth-quarter touchdown pass all season, and Frank Gore is averaging less than 3.5 yards per carry in the fourth.
This second-half trend works as a sort of metaphor for San Francisco's season as a whole. The 49ers entered the year as a dark-horse Super Bowl candidate that was only a dark-horse thanks to numerous injuries. They weathered the storm and managed to get off to a 7-4 start, but now they've lost four straight games as they've fallen out of the playoff race and the season has spun off the rails.
2. On the playoff trail
Things are different for the victors. Entering the game, San Diego needed a few things to go their way in order to get into the playoffs.
If the Chargers want to get into the playoffs, this is what they'll have to do: http://ift.tt/1zjekY0
— NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) December 21, 2014One win down, one to go. The Chargers still need some help even if they beat the Chiefs in Kansas City next week, but this was a start.
3. It's all about the matchups
In this week's Five for Friday, we picked out the matchup of Philip Rivers against San Francisco's pass defense as the one that would help decide this game.
Within that piece, we noted that the Chargers were down No. 1 receiver Keenan Allen and lacking reliable options on the outside in his absence (except apparently Dontrelle Inman, who we'll get to in a minute). Seyi Ajirotutu and Malcom Floyd don't exactly inspire much fear in defenses, after all.
Instead, we posited that Rivers was likely to attack San Francisco with tight end Antonio Gates and slot receiver Eddie Royal, the former because Gates is the team's best remaining receiver, and the latter because the 49ers have struggled covering slot guys all year. And that's indeed where Rivers had his most success. Rivers targeted Gates and Royal a combined 21 times, completing 17 passes for 186 yards and three of his four touchdowns.
Gates caught two of those TDs, the 98th and 99th of his illustrious career. That dude is on his way to the Hall of Fame for sure.
4. Who is Dontrelle Inman?
Who is Dontrelle Inman? We know now. (Getty Images)
Inman is an undrafted wide receiver out of Virginia, who is apparently on the Chargers. After spending a season on the Jaguars' practice squad, Inman played two years in the CFL, both with the Toronto Argonauts. He caught 50 passes in each of those seasons, for a total of 1,542 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Argos then released him so he could pursue NFL opportunities.
He caught on with the Chargers in preseason, where he secured his roster spot with a three-catch, 107 yard game (including a 70-yard touchdown) against the Cowboys, which he followed up with another three-catch game for 54 yards in the preseason finale.
Inman appeared in only five games for San Diego prior to this tilt against the 49ers, but he hadn't yet registered a catch. With Allen out and Ajirotutu not producing much, Inman got some burn and took advantage of the opportunity. Rivers threw his way nine times, with Inman catching seven passes for 79 yards, including a 17-yard catch on 4th-and-10 on San Diego's game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter.
5. Bruce Ellington's breakout cut short
Rookie 49ers wideout Bruce Ellington was more involved in the gameplan than in all of the previous games combined. Ellington was a fourth-round pick out of South Carolina in the 2014 draft, but he's been stuck behind Anquan Boldin, Michael Crabtree and Stevie Johnson on the depth chart all season.
Finally given a real chance at snaps, Ellington was targeted a season-high tying four times, and though he only caught one of those passes, it did go for a touchdown. He was also given three hand-offs on jet sweep runs, and he took one of those into the end zone too, though just barely.
Melvin Ingram was THIS close to making the stop... But Bruce Ellington had "TD" on his mind: http://t.co/fdixhbN887 http://ift.tt/13q6kXa
— NFL Now (@NFLNow) December 21, 2014Ellington also had two big returns, one on a kickoff and one on a punt. But his night was cut short by an injury that forced him to exit in the second half.
6. Not one, not two, but three
Philip Rivers wound up having pretty good passing numbers overall (33-of-54 for 356 yards), and of course he led the big comeback, but he wasn't very accurate throughout much of the night and along with his four touchdowns, he tossed three interceptions, each one looking worse than the next.
Here's the first, which he tried to force deep to Seyi Ajirotutu:
The second, which got taken back to the house by Antoine Bethea:
GIF - Antoine Bethea 49 Yrd PICK 6 #SDvsSF https://t.co/siVFyocwO4
— FanSided GIF (@FanSidedGIF) December 21, 2014And then there was the third, which really just had no chance.
7. That had to hurt
Anquan Boldin has always played with a little bit of anger, and tonight was no different.
After a touchdown catch that was called back for a penalty, Boldin decided he'd had just about enough of Shareece Wright, shoving him twice, including once in the facemask.
8. Crazy sequence
After the Chargers cut San Francisco's lead to 28-14 with a few minutes left in the third quarter, the Niners started working their way down the field with a couple first downs. Then Kaepernick hit Vernon Davis on a crossing pattern and Davis sped his way down the field, and ran over two defenders on his way into the end zone to give San Fran a 35-14 lead... only the play was called back on a chop blocking penalty.
On the following play, a third-and-20 from the 22-yard line, this happened:
That play came with a 15-yard personal foul that was tacked onto the ensuing kickoff, so San Diego kicked off from the 50-yard line. That kick was only returned to the 6, so San Francisco was backed up in its own end, having given up 14 points in less than three minutes, and looked to be on the verge of a collapse. But then, after a 4-yard run on first down by Frank Gore, Kaep took off:
That four-play sequence all happened in a little more than a minute of game time. And the craziness did not end there, as we know San Francisco did indeed collapse.
9. Wasted effort
Frank Gore had his best game of the season by far, toting the rock 26 times for 158 yards, nearly breaking the century mark in the first quarter alone. He went on this 52-yard romp:
And he had four other runs that went for at least 10 yards.
Kaepernick ran seven times for 151 yards and a 90-yard touchdown, his first rushing touchdown of the year.
San Fran's 355 rushing yards (on 40 carries) were the most ever by a team in a losing effort.
Jim Harbaugh looks on as his team blows another second-half lead. (Getty Images)
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