The San Francisco 49ers looked like a California team playing in the snow. They were slipping around. No catch was a given. No common football act came easy.
And it would be easy to write that off if the 49ers looked anything like their normal selves this season. Instead, the 49ers sunk even deeper in the standings, their playoff hopes likely being buried in the Buffalo snow.
The Buffalo Bills are a Super Bowl contender and the 49ers somehow probably aren’t even a playoff team. That’s how Sunday night’s game played out, with the Bills cruising to an easy 35-14 win in snowy conditions. Buffalo clinched the AFC East title with the victory.
The 49ers took last season’s Super Bowl to overtime and brought practically their whole roster back. There have been injuries, which haven’t helped. But when this miserable season is over, and finished much sooner than anyone expected, San Francisco must examine exactly what went so wrong. There’s going to be a lot to sort out.
The Bills' Josh Allen (17) dives for the end zone to score against the 49ers on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
49ers get embarrassed again
Snow games provide a fun setting, and often very sloppy play. The 49ers were a comedy on Sunday night. Sure-handed players like George Kittle dropped easy passes. Reliable fullback Kyle Juszczyk fumbled right before crossing the goal line when the ball was punched out, and Brock Purdy lost a fumble when he went to pass and the ball simply fell out of his hands.
The 49ers' defense looked slow as it tried to chase James Cook on the Buffalo running back’s 65-yard touchdown. They looked foolish when Amari Cooper lateraled to Josh Allen for a 9-yard touchdown to put the Bills ahead 28-3. Officially, Allen got a touchdown pass and a touchdown reception on the play. According to NBC, Allen became the fourth player in NFL history to get a receiving touchdown on a pass he threw.
The 49ers got embarrassed last week 38-10 in Green Bay and they were down 21-3 at halftime on Sunday night. Early this season the 49ers lost some close games that put them in an unexpected hole. With the season in the balance the past two weeks, they haven’t even been competitive.
The McCaffrey injury is another setback. McCaffrey missed the first eight games of the season with an Achilles injury. He returned and in his fourth game back he started limping right after taking a pitch and fell to the ground. He got up and ran awkwardly to the sideline and never returned. If he misses time, it makes life even harder for a 49ers offense that has been stuck lately.
Brandon Aiyuk suffered a season-ending ACL injury weeks ago. Stalwarts Nick Bosa and Trent Williams were among the players out for the 49ers on Sunday night. Fred Warner has been playing through a fractured ankle and fellow linebacker Dre Greenlaw hasn’t played at all this season.
Injuries have been a problem, but many of the players who have been on the field haven’t played to their normal level. In many ways, the 49ers look exactly like a 5-7 team.
Bills look good again
Just because Bills players live in Buffalo doesn’t mean they’re accustomed to playing football with inches of snow on the ground. They just handled the conditions much better than the 49ers.
Allen made some key plays, including his touchdown pass that was officially to himself and an 8-yard touchdown run that put Buffalo up 35-10. Allen was lifted from the game with more than 12 minutes to go, with the outcome decided.
With the division in hand and still five games to go, the Bills are still chasing the No. 1 seed in the AFC, hoping for the Kansas City Chiefs to finally lose a close game. The Bills look like a complete team capable of winning it all and have the 10-2 record to show for it. That’s what the 49ers were expected to be.
The 49ers aren’t completely finished but might need to win out or close to make the playoffs. It’s December and San Francisco is in last place in the NFC West. It won’t get easier going forward with some of the 49ers' core either approaching 30 years old or already in their 30s, and Purdy soon to get a lucrative extension that will change their salary-cap situation.
The past two games might have ended the 49ers’ playoff hopes for this season, and perhaps will be looked at as the last gasp of what looked like a championship run in San Francisco. Nobody anticipated the 49ers playing meaningless football this December and early January. But after two straight blowout losses, the 49ers look like they’ll be irrelevant the rest of the season.
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Yahoo Sports Staff
In their 35-10 win, the Bills also won the AFC East and are the second team on the AFC playoff bracket
Josh Allen's night is over and Mitchell Trubisky is in to close the deal
Close the book on the Allen's night, and here are the numbers 13-of-17 for 148 yards to go along with two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown. An outstanding night in a snow globe to get the Bills on their way to another win.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Perhaps the only bright spot tonight for the 49ers was Deebo Samuel returning kickoffs, and then this happened.
Deebo is averaging 35 yards per kickoff return tonight —and he's been busy — but like Kyle Juszczyk and Brock Purdy before him tonight, the 49ers just aren't getting any breaks in the nasty weather, while the Bills have been just as sharp as if it was 50 degrees and clear.
Is a passing touchdown, receiving touchdown and rushing touchdown a hat trick? If not, they have to come up for a name something like that. The rout is on in Buffalo, with the Bills up 35-10
Kyle Juszczyk fumbles it away inside the 5-yard-line
Taylor Rapp punched it out and Christian Benford returned it into 49ers territory. A terrible ending to a promising San Francisco drive and now the Bills are back in business.
Rushing games dominate in first half as Bills take big lead into Locker Room
The Bills have a big lead heading to halftime, but both teams have been getting gashed on the ground. Buffalo has 16 rushes for 142 yards and San Francisco has 17 attempts for 119 yards. thats 33 rushing attempts for 261 yards total in the first half, and the two teams are combining to average 8.0 yards per rush. The difference is that Buffalo is getting touchdowns and the 49ers are getting field goal attempts — and Jake Moody has missed twice as Buffalo leads 21-3 at halftime.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Josh Allen to Mack Hollins for the score
The Bills cash in on a 97-yard drive with the 3rd and Goal touchdown pass. Bass converts the PAT and its 21-3 with less than a minuted to go in the first half in Orchard Park.
Josh Allen finds mad scientist Mack Hollins in the end zone! 🧑🔬
This time he goes for 16 and gets out of bounds....and follows it up with 10 more. He's having a huge half, with 8 carries for 100 yards and the long touchdown run.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Dawson Knox getting in on it now
A 39-yard pickup to get the Bills off their own goal line has Buffalo on the move at the two-minute warning. They're out near midfield, looking to add to this lead before halftime.
McCaffrey coming out of the game took the wind out of the 49erts' sails on that drive that comes up empty. The slick conditions may have contributed to the Moody miss, as the nasty weather is playing games with the special teams in a game Buffalo leads, 7-3.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Christian McCaffrey pulls up lame and heads directly to the blue tent
This was a bad look for the 49ers, as McCaffrey went down after no contact and went to the sideline. He missed the first half of the season with Achilles tendonitis in both legs, and this would be a devastating blow if he were to miss much time tonight, or going forward.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Damar Hamlin pick wiped away by penalty
Hamlin was flagged for illegal contact after stumbling into George Kittle, and what would have been his third interception of the season became a 49ers first down.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Christian McCaffrey is off to a HOT start
He's touched the ball eight times and is already up to 72 yards, early in the second quarter.
Christian McCaffrey running like there's nothing on the ground 😮
The Bills marched right down the field to answer the San Francisco field goal and Davis was able to plow through the snow into the end zone to get Buffalo up 7-3.
Ray Davis takes it in for the TD! Time for snowballs in Buffalo ☃️
Jordan Mason and Christian McCaffrey found some space on the ground for a couple of big gainers and the 49ers were able to open the scoring after stalling in the red zone where they've been one of the worst teams in the NFL at gettin touchdowns once they've gotten inside the 20 yard line.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Brock Purdy active for the 49ers
Shoulder trouble kept him out of last week's game in Green Bay, and he'll have to get it done in the snow and windy conditions in Buffalo in his first game back. He completed his first pass of the game to George Kittle, as the snow continues to come down and cover the field.
Yahoo Sports Staff
Bills open with the ball first in the snow
And they'll be up against a banged up 49ers defense. Nick Bosa and Deommodore Lenoir are out with injuries and the Bills have been great on offense over the past couple of weeks, scoring 30 points in each of their last five games.
There's already a lot of snow on the ground in Buffalo, and the area has been in a lake effect snow warning with more on the way. Tonight's game could get interesting...
QB Brandon Allen (3rd QB) OT Trent Williams (ankle) DE Nick Bosa (oblique) DT Jordan Elliott (concussion) G Aaron Banks (concussion) CB Deommodore Lenoir (knee) LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
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Facing one of the weaker rushing defenses in the NFL, San Francisco instead utilized McCaffrey in a different phase, and climbed back above .500 in a Super-Bowl-or-bust season.
Week 13's Sunday slate is in the books and there were performances and injuries that will have long term fantasy implications. Andy Behrens joins Matt Harmon to breakdown all the action and place the games in three categories: Games we care about the most, games we sort of care about and games that could have been an email.
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