The San Francisco 49ers head into their bye week, and things are looking pretty miserable. The 49ers lost their sixth straight game, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a final score of 34-17. The 49ers are now 1-6 heading into the bye.
The game actually started off well, with the 49ers jumping out to a 14-0 lead. The defense did a solid job in the first quarter, forcing a turnover on downs, a punt, and an interception, on the Bucs first three drives. However, the defense that has struggled all season arrived, and things went south in a hurry. The Bucs ran off 27 straight points en route to the victory.
The 49ers put together another embarrassing defensive effort. The Bucs surpassed 300 yards of offense in the first half, marking only the second time in 25 years they have done that. They gave up 513 yards of total offense for the game, including 249 rushing yards. The 49ers gave up 562 rushing yards combined between Week 6 and Week 7, which is a franchise record. Nothing has changed, this unit still stinks.
The big story of the game, aside from the continued defensive struggles, was the numerous injuries. In the second half, at one point or another, the 49ers lost Arik Armstead, Gerald Hodges, Rashard Robinson, Aaron Lynch, and Nick Bellore to injury. Robinson was carted to the locker room with what appeared to be a foot injury, while Lynch walked to the locker room with an ankle injury. Armstead was not taken to the locker room after his injury, but was ruled out with a shoulder injury.
Up next: Bye, then @ Arizona Cardinals vs. New Orleans Saints
The 49ers defense gets some time to get healthy through the bye week. Of course, given how badly the 49ers defense has performed, it might not really matter. And so, we head into the bye near the halfway mark. The 49ers are a bad team, and I don’t know what can change after the bye.