Maiocco's Observations: Disastrous season ends with loss to Cardinals

Maiocco’s Observations: Disastrous season ends with loss to Cardinals

Posted by Admin January 6, 2025 Sports

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The 49ers ended a disastrous 2024 NFL season on Sunday with plenty more things going horribly wrong.

In the first half alone, two promising, young players sustained knee injuries, the kicker missed again, and wide receiver Jauan Jennings blew his chance at a 1,000-yard season when he, well, blew his top with back-to-back penalties.

The end of the season could not come soon enough, and the 49ers closed the book on the 2024 campaign with a 47-24 loss against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.

Coming off a Super Bowl appearance and with high hopes to finally get over the top this year, the 49ers finished the regular season in last place in the NFC West with a 6-11 record and hold the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Here are the takeaways from the 49ers’ season finale against the Cardinals:

Jennings’ Untimely Ejection

Jennings did not reach the 1,000-yard milestone on Sunday.

And he has nobody to blame but himself.

Coach Kyle Shanahan and quarterback Joshua Dobbs clearly made it a priority for Jennings to get to 77 yards receiving in order to reach 1,000 yards on the season. But Jennings was called for back-to-back unnecessary roughness penalties and was ejected with six minutes remaining in the first half.

Jauan Jennings was ejected from the game after a scuffle with Cardinals CB Sean Murphy-Bunting pic.twitter.com/clCgiyeD4n

— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) January 5, 2025

Up to that point, Jennings had seven receptions on 10 targets for 52 yards. He finishes the season with 77 catches for 975 yards and six touchdowns.

Jennings was fined $11,817 for unnecessary roughness in the 49ers’ Week 17 game against the Detroit Lions on Monday night. The NFL also fined two Lions players for their actions on that play.

On Sunday, Jennings and Arizona defensive back Starling Thomas were penalized for unnecessary roughness at the end of a running play in the second quarter.

On the next play, Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jennings mixed it up after the whistle. Both players were penalized and ejected. Jennings almost certainly would have achieved 1,000 yards if he just could have remained in the game.

In the long history of the 49ers, only two players drafted in the sixth round or later have produced 1,000-yard receiving seasons: Dwight Clark in 1981 and R.C. Owens in 1961.

Clark was a 10th-round pick in the 1979 draft, while Owens was a 14th-round pick in 1956.

The 49ers selected Jennings in the seventh round with their final pick of the 2020 draft. The team released him before the start of his rookie season, and he spent most of that year on the practice squad. Jennings made the active roster at the start of 2021 and has been a significant contributor ever since. The 49ers signed him to a two-year, $15.6 million contract extension in the offseason.

Rookie Injury Concerns

Nothing for the 2024 season was at stake for the 49ers on Sunday, so the focus was on setting up the team for next season.

However, starting safety Malik Mustapha and backup running back Isaac Guerendo exited the game in the first half with knee injuries.

Guerendo sustained knee and ankle injuries on a play that resulted in a 2-yard gain on the 49ers’ fourth snap of the game.

Guerendo was in obvious pain, and he was taken back to the locker room on a cart for further observation. The 49ers immediately announced that Guerendo was out for the remainder of the game.

Isaac Guerendo (knee, ankle) has been ruled OUT after being carted off the field pic.twitter.com/awDwzcah9Q

— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) January 5, 2025

Later, Mustapha sustained a knee injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the game. Mustapha had a successful rookie season with 12 starts for the 49ers after being a fourth-round draft pick from Wake Forest.

Guerendo, a fourth-round draft pick from Louisville, had a successful first season in the NFL but was plagued by injuries. He finished the season as the 49ers’ second-leading rusher with 420 yards on 84 attempts for a 5.0-yard average. He scored four touchdowns.

Guerendo showed enough to put himself in position to compete for the backup job behind Christian McCaffrey next season. The 49ers’ leading rusher, Jordan Mason, is scheduled to be a restricted free agent. Mason led the 49ers this season with 789 yards on 153 carries (5.2 average).

The severity of the injuries sustained by Mustapha and Guerendo were not immediately known.

The 49ers turned to Patrick Taylor to finish the game as the team’s top running back.

The 49ers experienced more than their share of injuries at running back this season. McCaffrey sat out training camp and the first eight games of the regular season with bilateral tendinitis. He appeared in just four games before sustaining a season-ending knee injury. Elijah Mitchell was placed on season-ending injured reserve before the start of the regular season with a hamstring injury. Mason’s season came to an end in Week 13 at Buffalo with a high-ankle sprain.

Moody, Special Teams Par For Course

Jake Moody finished his second season handling the 49ers’ kicking chores.

It figures to be a controversial decision if he is still around when the 49ers open next season.

Moody has been wildly inconsistent in the second half of the season, and that trend continued on get-away day for the 2024 campaign.

Moody hit an ugly line-drive kick on a 51-yard attempt that was not blocked and made it through the goalposts.

His next attempt looked better off his foot, but he hooked the 47-yard attempt wide to the left.

Moody, a third-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, opened the season 13 of 14 on field-goal attempts before sustaining a right high ankle sprain on Oct. 6 against the Cardinals.

After missing three games, Moody returned and made just 11 of 20 attempts to end the season.

The 49ers figure to bring in competition for Moody during the offseason, assuming they opt to keep him around in order to give him the opportunity to win the job for 2025.

The 49ers’ special teams this season under coordinator Brian Schneider has been abysmal, and Sunday was more of the same.

The 49ers capped the season with more blunders in the kicking game, including a repeat mistake from earlier in the season.

On a fourth-and-4 situation from the Arizona 43, the 49ers did not keep their defense on the field. The Cardinals took advantage with a direct snap to DeeJay Dallas, who gained 22 yards over the left side. The play helped the Cardinals get into position for a field goal that tied the game at 3-3 in the first quarter