49ers Notebook: George Kittle’s Sunny Optimism; Fred Warner on ‘unfortunate’ loss; Shanahan explains ’12 people’ fines

After losing to the Packers 38-10 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers felt like a team whose season was on the brink. The loss left them just one game behind the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West standings, but a poor roster coupled with their poor overall performance against the Packers made it look like the 49ers could be in real danger miss. postseason, especially with a tough game on the schedule against the Buffalo Bills next week.

However, there was at least one 49er who didn’t hang his head after the game. It was tight end George Kittle, who showed unrelenting optimism as he discussed the state of the team with reporters.

“No,” Kittle said when asked if this season has tested his optimism. “Why would that be?”

If Sunday’s game hadn’t tested Kittle’s optimism, it’s hard to imagine what might have happened. Despite everything that went wrong with the Packers, Kittle maintained a half-full view of the 49ers’ situation.

“We are by no means where we want to be,” Kittle said. “To lose by a margin – what did we lose by, 28? To lose by 28, you know, it’s terrible. We by no means want to do this… But my optimism is by no means broken. We still have a lot of very talented players. We’ll get some guys back (from injury) and I still have full confidence in the coaching staff to get our guys playing and I’m not worried about that.”

After a road game against the Bills, the 49ers have two winnable home games against the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams, assuming they once again have the healthy bodies on the roster they need to be more competitive. But things would get tough again toward the end, with a road game against the unexpectedly popular Miami Dolphins, a home game against arguably the best team in the league, the Detroit Lions, and a season finale on the road against the Cardinals. Making the postseason in this situation isn’t an impossible task, but it’s at least starting to look unlikely.

Kittle, however, is eager to take on the challenge.

“We’ll definitely have a tough time and (we’ll) see what we’re made of, which I’m looking forward to,” Kittle said.

Kittle was among the few players who spoke to reporters after the loss, although none were all that optimistic. We have a look at what some of them had to say in this edition of the 49ers Notebook.

Without mincing words

Linebacker Fred Warner wasn’t going to go into detail about how the 49ers played Sunday.

In seven seasons with the 49ers, Warner has seen more good times than bad, but he’s still had his share of dark games. However, Sunday’s game was hard to top in terms of awfulness.

“This is probably one of the worst projects I’ve been involved in,” Warner said. “It’s embarrassing.”

The 49ers got off to a particularly bad start on defense, allowing over 200 yards on 15 missed tackles in the first half and 10 in the first quarter. Despite this, they managed to stay within striking distance as they trailed 17-7 at halftime, but the lack of resistance the 49ers put up early in the game against the Packers was undoubtedly a sore spot for Warner.

“This is as bad as it gets,” Warner said. “Probably the worst thing I’ve been a part of. And you know, even then it was still that, 17-7 at the end of the first half, a 10-point game, it was still in front. We just didn’t do it. We couldn’t play the way we needed to.”

There were 20 missed tackles in the game, helping Packers running back Josh Jacobs rush for over 100 yards and three touchdowns.

“It’s just poor technique and poor execution across the board,” Warner said. “We knew the challenge our running backs gave us before the game, but we just didn’t deliver.”

The defense began to find its footing late in the first half and into the third quarter before turnovers on offense helped the Packers pull away. Overall, though, this is a game to forget for the defense, who will have their work cut out for them again next Sunday against the Bills.

“You have to take it like a man and move on,” Warner said.

Another sketchy defensive moment

One of the worst moments of the first half for the 49ers came when they were flagged for putting 12 players on the field on consecutive plays. Seeing this penalty in back-to-back games is unusual and embarrassing, but head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game that only one of them was the fault of the defense.

“They had 12 men in the first one, two tight ends in a huddle, which means we have no base protection,” Shanahan said. “They put another receiver on the field to substitute, and when they substituted, they should have let us substitute. So, as soon as they did that, we started changing our personnel, and then they rushed to the line and – he snapped. It was their strategy game, but I don’t think it should have been allowed to happen. They didn’t give us time to do it and that’s why I was upset about it.”

The live feed shows Shanahan visibly upset after the second penalty, but that is at least partly due to what happened during the first penalty.

“Because they got away with it the first time, they tried to do it again on the next play, and then I went out there again and started arguing,” Shanahan said. “This time we were allowed to substitute. I was screaming the whole time, so I don’t really understand what happened to our 12 guys. But obviously we had 12 guys give us time to change and we didn’t get one, so the second one was ours.”

Warner blamed the entire defense for the second penalty that preceded the Packers’ touchdown.

“It’s all over the place,” Warner said. “In this particular situation, there is no one to point the finger at. We’re not all on the same page. We have to get better.”

Take responsibility

Sunday’s game marked the low point in a standout rookie season for cornerback Dominic Puny, who proved he can intercept the ball after being selected by the 49ers in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Pougney was flagged for two false start penalties and one holding penalty in the first half, accounting for three of the nine penalties the 49ers committed in the game. During a subsequent conversation with reporters, Puni, without any prompting, invited himself to these punishments.

“I need to get better,” Puni said. “I had three penalties in one half. This is ineffective football. It’s hard to win a football match when one guy scores three penalties. I just need to get better, really.”

I don’t blame Deebo

Wide receiver Deebo Samuel drew some criticism from fans for dropped passes during the game, one of which came on a third-quarter interception by Packers cornerback Xavier McKinney.

A pass from quarterback Brandon Allen went through Samuel’s hands on the play and into the hands of McKinney, whose return into 49ers territory changed the game and resulted in a touchdown and a 24-7 lead.

Allen, however, told reporters after the game that Samuel would have had a tough time and that he probably would have made the same decision and thrown the ball his way again.

“Tight window,” Allen said. “I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know, but obviously it’s a tough catch. If he was going to catch it, it would be a really tough catch.”

“But you know, I have a lot of trust in Deebo. I’d probably throw it again, but it’s definitely a tough catch. It was a difficult shot, but we didn’t succeed.”