The 49ers lacked offensive pulse without their “system” QB and the stunning loss to Green Bay was the final nail in the Niners’ 2024 season

For desperately optimistic San Francisco 49ers fans, there will be a way through this brutal maze and into the playoffs.

They point to the extremely tight race for the NFC West crown that could be on the line until the final week of the season. They’re keeping their fingers crossed for injuries and hoping that three of their four best players – quarterback Brock Purdy, defensive end Nick Bosa and offensive tackle Trent Williams – all come out of the tunnel next week and turn things around against the Buffalo Bills (9-2). And they definitely won’t be thinking about how eerily similar this campaign has become to the 2020 season, when San Francisco struggled with health and identity issues following a Super Bowl loss the previous season, resulting in an extremely disappointing 6th overall record :10 led, which inspired an eventual roster shakeup.

As for that last point, it’s hard to ignore the symmetry of this lost 2020 season. The 49ers had a 5-6 record entering December, looked a shadow of their former self, and hosted the Bills in a game that felt like their last chance to salvage the season. San Francisco lost 34-24, in a game that was really never as close as that score suggested. In the end, it was clear that the season was over and the 49ers still had a lot of work to do.

In a week, the same thing could and probably will be said about the 2024 49ers, who look nothing like the team that emerged from last season’s Super Bowl loss. You could pick any 10-minute stretch within Sunday’s horrific 38-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers – the 49ers’ worst loss under Shanahan since 2018 – and find alarming features everywhere. A team that couldn’t dictate the run or find anything explosive when throwing the football. A defensive front that took a hit in the ear from Packers running back Josh Jacobs on his first run of the game and never seemed to recover. A general lack of concentration that led to this nine Penalties, several of which were imposed at critical moments. And an overwhelming display of disappointing football that suggests these 49ers won’t recover, just like the last edition, which lost in a Super Bowl the season before.

“The whole game was (disappointing),” Shanahan said afterward. “To just call it the biggest (disappointment), the first half, just the run defense, was really disappointing. … The fact that I was able to control the clock in the first half was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced in a half.”

Shanahan repeated the word “embarrassing” several times in his postgame press conference to refer to the entire team, which seemed the appropriate response to a loss that is part lesson and part warning.

The lesson: The 49ers are as mortal as any team that can’t survive without a star starting quarterback, an elite edge rusher and a key offensive tackle. When they’re wounded, they’re vulnerable, especially against top-tier NFC teams – which includes the Packers.

And the warning: Let this be the standard that ends all the talk about Shanahan being able to make it work any quarterback in his plan, especially if it’s a one-play situation. It’s a fallacy that has already been proven, but is conveniently forgotten whenever anyone dares bring Purdy’s name into a conversation about the league’s best quarterbacks. Yes, he had his ups and downs this season. But rarely has the offense seemed so flat and seemingly intent on shooting itself in the foot.

If anything, this Packers loss is a snapshot reminder of what life can be like when you don’t have a reliable quarterback running Shanahan’s offense. Certainly any problems were not just due to Purdy’s absence, but the inability to find any solution as the game progressed certainly had something to do with the quarterback position. As it turns out, the system usually looks best when the quarterback who fits and dominates that system is in control. That’s food for thought this offseason, when there will inevitably be conversations about the cost of Purdy’s contract extension compared to his actual value to the franchise.

Of course, that’s a conversation for later. Right now, the focus is on what this loss means for the 49ers. After the Los Angeles Rams’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, the NFC West remains in the hands of the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals – both of whom are 6-5 and simultaneously battling it out to see who will win the division and who will try qualify for the NFC’s final wild card slot. At 5-6, the 49ers aren’t quite in postseason limbo, but even with the score still unfinished, the spirit of what they’re striving for is problematic.

Purdy was already struggling with consistency before his recent shoulder soreness while throwing knocked him out of the game against the Packers. There’s no telling how big of a problem this will be when (or if) he returns. While it certainly suggests the 49ers needed to win in a game against Green Bay, his shoulder was such a big problem that he had to be taken out of the game. The same goes for Bosa’s hip and Williams’ ankle. While both are close to returning, it’s not guaranteed that neither will be playing at their highest level – for a team that needs them at their highest level right now. And if that wasn’t enough, two other key players, defensive tackle Jordan Elliott and offensive guard Aaron Banks, left Sunday with concussion concerns.

With the loss to the Packers, those health issues are now intersecting in the most all-terrain of road games: Sunday night’s prime-time matchup against a Bills team that’s in its final stages. A franchise that will be rested, coming off a bye week and aiming for the AFC playoff No. 1 spot after a convincing win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11. Next game, the bye week and postseason seedings are guaranteed for the Bills effectively that they are ready to rock.

If we’re honest about what awaits the 49ers from a scheduling standpoint, it was time to win against the Packers. The fact that they couldn’t win on Sunday makes this game against the Bills and every game after that a pseudo-playoff game. Basically, it’s the 49ers. They will compete in a single-elimination postseason tournament starting this week. And after the Bills, it’s the Chicago Bears (who are still working through their own issues but are getting better), the Rams (who beat the 49ers in September), the Miami Dolphins (who are a handful with Tua Tagovailoa under center ) and the Detroit Lions (Super Bowl favorites, winners of nine straight games and looking for revenge for their loss in the NFC title game) and finally a road game against the Arizona Cardinals, who will no longer be pushed around.

If we want to downplay San Francisco’s problems, we don’t have to dwell on the injuries, concentration and inconsistencies within games. All we can do is look at this climb – which at this point is more like climbing Mount Everest – and it tells us everything we need to know.

The 49ers’ 2024 season is over. We just haven’t seen it yet.