49ers vs. Rams live blog: Fourth quarter

SANTA CLARA — This is the live blog for the fourth quarter of the 49ers’ Week 9 game against the Rams. I will update this frequently with information and analysis from the press box.

3:19 Austin Davis completes a 13-yard pass to Bennie Cunningham on third-and-2.

3:20 Three plays later, Davis completes a 7-yard pass to Tavon Austin on third-and-4.

3:22 Tre Mason loses 1 yard on first down and Dan Skuta is injured.

3:25 Davis messed up a nice drive by completing a pass to Mason for an 8-yard loss near midfield.

3:27 The 49ers start at their 6 after Ellington is flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the punt.

3:29 Next play, false start Mike Iupati.

3:29 Next play, false start Frank Gore. First-and-14 from the 2.

3:30 Gore gains three up the middle. Second-and-11.

3:31 Next play, Kaepernick gets sacked for a 4-yard loss.

3:31 Gore runs up the middle for 6 on third-and-15. Lee will punt from the end zone.

3:32 Lee shanks the punt. It wobbles out of bounds at the 49ers’ 29.

3:38 Dan Skuta has a left ankle injury and is questionable. Brandon Lloyd has a hamstring injury and also is questionable.

3:40 The Rams use their first timeout on third-and-10. They ran up the middle on first and second down. They want the field goal, but it’s no gimme.

3:41 Davis completes an 8-yard pass to Cunningham. Zuerlein will attempt a 39-y33ad field goal.

3:42 It’s good, and the score is 13-10 Rams with 5:25 to go.

3:43 Raise your hand if you predicted the Rams would be winning almost two-thirds of the way through the fourth quarter.

3:45 Ellington returns the kick to the 49ers’ 21.

3:47 Crabtree drops a short pass on third-and-4 and the Niners go three and out.

3:48 Austin returns the punt to the Rams’ 39. 4:14 left.

3:50 Cunningham gains 8 yards up the middle on second-and-9 and it’s third-and-1. Niners use their second timeout.

3:51 Little Schotty calls a pass and Davis throws the ball away. Ellington makes a fair catch at the 49ers’ 12. Why throw on third-and-1? An incomplete pass stops the clock. Run and force the Niners to use their final timeout. 3:11 left.

3:55 Lamarcus Joyner is flagged for holding Boldin on third-and-2. Automatic first down. It’s the two-minute warning. First and 10 at midfield.

3:57 The 49ers are flagged for illegal formation on first down. Anthony Davis was not on the line of scrimmage.

3:58 Next play, Kaepernick completes a 20-yard pass to Boldin.

4:00 Kaepernick hits Johnson for 5 yards on first down. E.J. Gaines knocks away a deep pass intended for Johnson on second down. Gaines is hurt. Third and 5 from the 30 with 51 seconds left.

4:03 Kaepernick throws deep for Crabtree and Trumaine Johnson is flagged for pass interference. First and goal at the 5.

4:05 Kaepernick completes a pass to Crabtree near the goal line. The ball appeared to hit the ground. The officials are reviewing the play.

4:07 Ruling stands — complete at the 1 yard line

4:08 Roman calls a play action pass and Kaepernick throws it away.

4:09 Kaepernick sneaks up the middle on third-and-goal and fumbles. The Rams recover in the end zone. Touchback. The officials are reviewing it.

4:12 The officials  confirm their ruling. Rams win.

This article has 195 Comments

  1. Aaron Donald is a nice looking player. I was hoping that Tank Carradine was going to that type of guy.

      1. A lot of teams get by with a lack of continuity on the OL, injuries happen, and I’m not asking for dominance just competence.

      2. Wrongo! It’s all Kaepernick’s and Roman’s fault, you gotta pay closer attention to your own comment section to learn the real facts of the matter.

  2. Frank Gore doesn’t false start, the rest of the team forgot the snap count.

  3. Not sure what’s up with this Oline. I feel like they need to get cohesion with running the ball and they don’t now. They are awful

  4. I thought that coming out of the bye week that the 49ers would look more polished. Not so. Especially the offensive line. The O-line has looked bad for over a year but the 49ers have worked around it and won a lot of games despite the poor play by the Oline. This is beyond bad.

  5. It’s all going down hill … The only bright spot is the D. Let’s hold them to a field goal.

  6. Way to give the home crowd a good show today guys, I bet they feel those ticket prices are totally justified with this product on the field.

  7. Who is worse the Niners OL or these officials. Plus this should let the Spams score now and wrap up a win.

  8. Harbaugh always loses out of the bye week. This is his last year. This team I picking 5th in the draft and yes I took that 8-8 beat preseason. Damn 3-3 in the preseason prediction.

  9. This team sucks bad… Just a bad day all around; botched punt by Andy Lee lets me know that it’s not their day. I’m sure the coaching staff is wishes they could redo the bye week. I didn’t think they could have too much time off but looks like I was wrong!

  10. This coaching staff is too loyal to veterans. Dial and Carradine need a chance. Ellington, Stevie, and Hyde need to be utilized more, Carrier, Patton, Lynch, Dontae Johnson.

    The Niners, with Crabtree, Boldin, Davis, and Gore, are old and slow. Rombaugh’s schemes are tired.

    Seriously, it’s time the coaching staff gets a hard kick in the ass from upper management.

  11. Don’t worry, after this loss, kaep will get back to the laboratory and dissect his weaknesses by doing some bicep curls & wind sprints! Roman & him need to get together and subscribe to luminosity by working on some sudoku puzzles. Baboons are working out the wrong muscles!

  12. It might just be the opportunityies. but niners may have had the best draft ever. so many rookies are on the field today

    1. Oh wait I’m sorry it was the O-line that caused Kaepernick to over throw a wide open Crabtree for a first down. Or was that one somehow on Roman?

      1. Kaep plays like a bionic cyborg! Every pass is a bullet, Needs Barry zito touch, not madbum ho hummers!

      2. You mean how KAEP threw it 70 MPH on a 4 yard slant. when there was no one near Crabs. And then you see the replay of the exact same play that the Pats run, and Brady throws it so that Edelman can catch it.

        Regardless, Crabs is not exactly catching everything, why did they call his number to win the game? Why wasn’t Boldin in there? Why in God’s green earth do they keep calling Crabs number? Why not Vernon? Or at the very least, Stevie Johnson.

  13. Our offense as a collective group looks terrible. It’s bad all the way around. I pray someone offers Roman a head coaching job. There’s needs to be a change.

  14. Amateur hour blows another crucial third down pass by throwing into the dirt in front of another wide open Crabtree.

  15. In the meantime, a serious normal pocket kind qb with a not so great OL is beating the Broncos

  16. Kaep has no touch on short throws. The guys right in front of him and he throws it as hard as he can. Seems like he just tries to show off his arm strength all the time.

    1. Wrote the same thing before I read your post. Up until the end I fully expected him to blow it.

  17. Harbaugh should be fired for this. Such terrible leadership at the end of the game. Such horrific playcalling inside the Redzone, inside the 5.

    1. Pains me to agree, either he or Roman is coaching sacred! Either way if he won’t fire Roman than he should be on the chopping block.

  18. Well, I think that puts a bow on this season. Maybe a bad record would be good, then if we are lucky Baalke might actually draft some real talent for once. OT, OG and a pass rusher are desperately needed.

  19. That was the season right there. Kaepernick has regressed. Fine you don’t get the td but don’t fumble the ball!!! Kaepernick is the new Tony Romo.

  20. Rams deserved it. Congratulations. Now can we fire roman? If there’s any silver lining, harbaugh looks incredibly calm & zen

    1. You’re right, I saw Roman streak out onto the field and slap the ball out of Kaepernicks hands, it was totally his fault.

      1. This game wasn’t lost at the goal line coffee loser, there was a dearth of strategy, tactical execution, rhythm & flow, certain intangible qualities that a brute Neanderthal is unable to feel. A kinetic energy to a game.

        1. There was still time on the clock and we were in position to win the game with a TD, pretty hard to say that game wasn’t just lost at that goal line. I thought the play before the sneak was the right call but the Rams played it well, nothing you can do there that just plain happens. The sneak wasn’t what I would have called but I didn’t argue with it either but to fumble takes away any chance of either scoring to win or kicking the FG to tie. That game was lost on the goal line. Hmmm bad play from Kaepernick near the goal line in the 4th quarter to win the game, haven’t seen that before, twice.

      2. well he did put the game in my hands with pass plays and a sneak from the 1 yard line instead of Gore’s.

      3. No but he gave Keep the ball on that series; he didn’t run Gore once vs the worst run D in the league.

        1. Hyde would have been the better choice in that situation. He might not get much more then 1.5 yards a carry but he’ll get at least that much.

  21. I’m fan here deserved to lose that was some of worse football I saw, the referees were just as horrid as our Oline. I really believe we won’t make the playoffs and unfortunately coach will be the scapegoat.

  22. On the bright side, Iupati pitched a shut-out against the invisible man. While pass rushers were blowing by Martin’s left gap, Iupati was several yards upfield planting invisible man on his back.

  23. I’ll be the 1st one to blame that loss solely on Kap. The man takes at least 6-7 of those sacks in the 1st half by not throwing the ball away. The fumble from the 1 yard line is pathetic.
    I don’t there’s any way I can say that Kapernick is a franchise QB. He is not. He is not ready for the big moment. He can’t perform late in games. He looks no different than a upgraded Romo late in games. He finds a way to F — it up! That is scary.

    1. He’s not getting any help with an inconsistent O-Line. At the same time he’s always trying to make a play then steps up into the pocket for a sack. In the flow of that game, you can’t expect to EXECUTE BETTER, you have to figure you have 3 secs to throw. Get rid of it instead of making the down and distance worse.

      That fumble on the goal-line. Hard to tell if he got in but either way, hang onto the ball and we get a FG to tie the game.

      I know Gore was only 14- for 49, but DeMarco was having a so-so game against the Seahawks, but they stuck with it and then he broke one.
      This team doesn’t stink with the run long enough to wear people down. And they’re so-so at pass protection and Colin is too antsy in the pocket — and that’s why the Niner offense looks so dysfunctional most of the time.

      If the answer is for Colin to run around improvise, we’re in serious trouble. Not because he’s not good at it, that’s just not an offensive philosophy.

  24. Yes kapernick messed up. But coaching doesnt put him in that position. Coaching plays the odds of a QB sneak and u call a pass play with NO Timeouts that way u can kick a FG and go to overtime

    1. The QB sneak is the right call, the only right call on that sequence of plays but still the right one. Kaepernick just blew it.

  25. Two weeks to game plan and this is what we get , good job Jim F- grade
    Season is done don’t see them getting a wild card and division is way out of reach only thing good is they will clean house after this season can’t Waite

  26. I thought the Roman hate was a bit much this season but today was just awful. He had no idea what he wanted to do the whole game and couldn’t establish a rhythm to save his life. Only touchdown came on improvised play, just fire him and Solari already. What a terrible end to the season

  27. I dont understant why no run from inside the 5 this is horrible this team sucks bunch of underachieving. Bad drafting bad coaching hyde only 3 carries dont get understand frank is always 2 yard gains time to move on. And even whene the game is still there to win they choke again we are going to get killed against seattle and arizona so thats a garanteed atleast 7 lost games you do the math 9-7 in this division/confrence no playoffs

    1. I disagree, we have the most talented roster in the league with the worst offensive coordinator

  28. The season just ended today!!!! This coaching is a joke other then fangio.. I was a big Jim fan at one point but his time has run out.. The O coordinator needs to be fired tommorow no questions asked.. Our QB just performed one of the biggest choke jobs I have witnessed!!!! No excuses this was a fudging embarrassment!!!!! Our QB is far from ELITE!!!! This team needs a new direction I hate to say this.. What does Jim do? Our offense has talent every where and yet our offense is terrible… I’m so pissed I can’t even talk anymore.

  29. Has Kaepernick ever run a sneak? What a time to introduce that play. Too bad Roman refused to try and establish the run game when every time we passed it was almost a sack. Whatever happened to Kaepernick the runner, he didn’t run once in this game on a designed play that I can remember. Fire Roman, fire the OL coach, and slap Hairball upside the head and tell him touchdowns win games, field goals lose games.

  30. This team is built on big lineman that love to run block.. They’ve totally gotten away with whats been successful for them as a run first offense with the allure of their WR depth. Every side of the offense was bad today. –The calling, line play, QB, dropped passes and dumb penalties. This season is about to be over, the only thing we can hope for is that the rest of the division beats itself up.

    1. That being said, this season was a disaster to begin with.. I blame this season failures just as much on players holding out in training camp and not gelling with the team and certain player that has been suspended for 9 games and yet to help. This is what happens when selfishness seeps in to a locker room. are they their for themselves or to win a title?

  31. If you want to question the play calling I’d ask why would you take sure hands catch in the middle of 11 players Boldin out of the game when you’re planning on throwing a pass in a clutch situation. He’s their best receiver and he was watching that final pass from the sidelines. That’s the type of question they don’t answer but they should.

      1. Do the Lions take CJ out of the game on the final couple plays in the hopes of fooling the defense?

  32. How do you.fumble with.the. game on the line on a QB sneak. Kap is NOT the guy. Case closed! On another note, at least Vernon Davis finally showed back up today.

  33. Predicting Grant will give Kaep a C+ and blame the whole thing on the o-line and Roman’s play calling. He’ll want to give him a B- but feel compelled to lower the score to a C+ on account of the fumble.

    1. Is your name Kirby? Because you live in a vacuum! Kaep grades out at a solid C,,,,pedestrian numbers but not too many mistakes. A Shaun hill performance

      1. These kids around here have probably never seen a Kirby let alone heard of one.

        There’s no denying the o-line played bad but Kaepernick did nothing to help them. I’m willing to bet that at least 1/2 of those sacks if not more were avoidable. His passing numbers are good on the day but he didn’t help the team win and frankly he again is directly responsible for the loss with his choke job on the final play. He’s getting pretty predictable at that, remind you of any other NFC QB’s?

        1. Coffee,

          You’re right. Kap took 6-7 sacks on his own in the 1st half. Never tried to run once today. The guy can’t think without the coach in his hip pocket. He can’t think on his own, no instincts . Well at least we know why his contract was structured as such. The Niner brass know he still has question marks as well.
          Big game QB’s are hard to find. We don’t have one. We can’t win a super bowl in this era without one. Kap is not the guy. You can’t fumble the game winner on a QB sneak. You just can’t do that. You just can’t!!!!!

  34. I said before the season started that this team has too much chaos surrounding it to win a super bowl. I didn’t think that we would also miss the playoffs. Wow!

  35. Looks like the Raiders are playing with more spirit than the Niners today. In fact the Raiders maybe playing Seattle better than the Niners will in Seattle.

  36. Harbugh needs to take a page from big brother and fire his offensive coordinator if he wants to save this season.the unfortunate part of this is harbs is probably gone after this year there is no doubt we dont do none of what happend in this 3 year window whiteout him. Balke is the real one that should be fired. Whitout Harbs and balke still around we are going back to 10 years no playoffs and no wining record

    1. Your an idiot! Niners have assembled the most formidable roster albeit a paper tiger. Nonetheless, balkes a bonafide tobacco chewing scout with pubes that have more gridiron IQ than your entire DNA will ever be able to accrue in a lifetime child

  37. Could be the nail in the coffin for this season. O-line is a disaster, our qb can’t hold the ball, our center can’t get him the ball, our punter picked the perfect time to kick like I would if I was punting, we have a receiver who doesn’t seam to be happy, a tight end who was a ghost today….. See where all the problems are? Oh and our Offensive Coord is as bad as they get. Coach lost this team. You DO NOT come out of a bye looking this bad. That is on coach. Season is more than likely done!

  38. Even when and if they get all the defense players back its not going to save this season, kc is garbage never liked him or Jim , Niners please go for Mike Holmgren at least he would bring the real west coast offense back

  39. On the fire Hairball note, he still hasn’t figured out how to get plays in on time. Another wasted time out early in the second half coming after a penalty. Completely unacceptable. I think we might have wanted that extra TO on the final series of plays.

  40. Why not hand off to gore or hyde? To what extent was our inability to convert on 2 separate 4-1 recently in the mind of roman/harb?

    How many times will the kap to crab end of the game play come up dry?

    Once again the niners come up short in the redzone at the end of a game

  41. PFF doesn’t have any stats up yet. Did anyone count screen passes? I don’t recall seeing any, but I missed a few plays.

    1. Don’t worry guys, just got off the phone w/ kaep. He said he’s getting back to the laboratory and dissecting his flaws and shoring up his weaknesses by doing some bicep curls & wind sprints! wait..wait…just got an update that he set a new bench press record and celebrated by smashing a Mountain Dew can on his forehead! Awesome

  42. A lot of blame to go around, but the entire offense looked slow and out of sync and CK was unable to rise to the occasion to pull them out of their lethargy.
    Still had a chance to win on the last play.

    This one hurts, because it allows Seattle to push ahead of us and it gives the Cardinals space to take control of the division.
    Suddenly, we’re in a must win situation for every game because it does not look as if the Cards will falter.
    It would have been an ugly win had we not fumbled, instead it’s an ugly loss with many negative ramifications.

  43. Tough loss. We could hav
    Be used that win. Looked to me like a bad snap on last play. Really bad protection. Has to improve rapidly.

  44. Most talented roster? McDonald bust ward? Reed after last year cant find him, LMJ bust jenkins bust lemoneier or whatever bust patton bust crabbtre like sherman said SORRY! And tank where. The hell is he. Need more?

  45. Kaepernick threw over 30 times and Frank Gore only had 14 carries. Based on those numbers statistics say we will always lose. Kaepernick needs to throw less Gore/Hyde need to be ran more. This whole keep Gore fresh is a bunch of bs. Run straight into the ground.

    1. Here’s the problem with Gore and Hyde, either they aren’t good anymore or the line is crap meaning they can’t block the run or pass protect. So we are forced to throw.

  46. Tkamb
    Look on the bright side we will get apology letter from the NFL saying it was a bad call , and that will make every thing better

  47. I guess the photo above is a fake ha that ball is not breaking the white line or any thing

  48. Why didn’t Roman give Frank Gore a chance at the goal line? Roman never learns does he?

    Kaep makes a better throw to Crabtree and it would have been a TD and we would have won.

    Martin with a bad snap to Kap but Kap handles it, he crosses the goal line, fumbles, the Rams recover and win. Should have been a 49er TD but with the scrum it was to hard for the refs to overturn. I thought the ball clearly broke the plane.

    That being said, why didn’t Gore get the ball at least once? Does roman never learn?

    1. I think we all know by now that indeed, Roman never learns. Roman is not nearly good enough. FIRE ROMAN! FIRE ROMAN! FIRE ROMAN!

  49. Some asshole mocked me earlier in the year for wanting to start a campaign to #FireRoman. Well, dickward, what do you think now?

      1. Grant’s too busy trying creating macros for his word program that say “Roman should have” and “Kaepernick can’t carry this team on his shoulders.”

    1. A2DF

      Excuse the caps , but ROMAN IS NOT THE PROBLEM; MELTDOWNS LIKE THIS GO RIGHT TO THE TOP. UNTIL HARBAUGH IS OUT THE DOOR, THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN REGULARLY. Too much ego…cannot accept his role as coach…wants to be on the front page. It ain’t going to get better….

  50. eight ( 8 ) sacks
    two ( 2 ) fumbles
    Colin, do not even think about kissing your bicep.

    10 points in the entire first half
    0 (zero) pts in the second half

    New Orleans and Arizona (7-1) put up 28 pts today
    Seattle scored 30 and is now 5 and 3.

    Colin, you are now 4-4….halfway to an 8-8 season.
    What are you not telling us about playoff readiness?
    …. a home loss to the St. Louis Rams…my, my, my..!

    Whatsay you go home and burn that tennis shoe collection…
    Toss the Beats headphones on the burning embers, okay?

  51. If you’re going to qb sneak, how about out of shotgun with a few wrs out there? Where’s the sprint right option? How about a Hyde dive? On 2nd down instead of that pass play?
    Gro must go!!!

  52. What I want to know is how did Colin go his whole entire college career without any touch on his passes no finesse whatsoever

    1. By having nearly half as many rushing attempts as he did passing. At least when the o-line struggles he’ll be able to make plays with his feet….oh wait no he sucks doing that too.

    2. Well college football and the NFL are totally different. Many of those guys playing college football wouldn’t stand a chance in the NFL. Playing at Nevada I’m sure things were a lot easier than they are now. More than likely he was throwing bombs because teams were afraid of him running.

  53. With the legs and speed he has he should be able to move around like Steve Young back there , he would be so dangerous if you’d learn to move up in the pocket and scramble

  54. Seasons over , I’ll talk to you 9er fans next year One word that describes this season despicable

  55. Kaepernick is Randal Cunningham II who was also known to play poorly in the 4th quarter.. The quarterback you want is in Seattle. When are Baalke’s draft picks going to make a difference?

    1. I’ll take their offensive coordinator before I take their QB. We have the players, we DO NOT have direction.

  56. What color headphones does one wear to a press conference after a game like this.

    Fashion challenged hipster wanna be’s are waiting with bated breath to find out.

  57. How sure was quarterback Colin Kaepernick that he crossed the goal line before fumbling? “I know I crossed the line,” he said. “I did bobble the snap, but regardless.”

    How do you know Colin? How in God’s green earth can you even see the goal line with all those bodies. Or you bobbled it? Then why don’t you just fall on it. Or did you forget whether or not the team had a time out? Why don’t you admit you didn’t execute and move on.

    That part bothers me the most about his attitude and his game. As much as people want to paint me a hater, I want him to get better and play better fast. I have my doubts and this game didn’t do anything to make me think he’s growing up and understanding the mental aspects of playing the position.

    1. Fan77,
      I must admit that Kaep gave you a lot of ammunition for you to take shots at him this coming week. I would expect that you will have plenty of company to join you on the shooting range.

  58. Colin – eight ( 8 ) sacks in one game?
    my, my, my. (The record is 12; shared by three QBs.)
    Think you will break that one this season?

    …probably not the way you wanted to set yourself apart, huh?

    Note to the Quarterback Whisperer:
    you might want to speak a little louder, fella….

    1. Note to the Quarterback Whisperer:
      you might want to get a qb without a headphone so he can hear your whispers.

  59. Well, maybe Goodell will feel sorry for us and release Aldon Smith this week and have him ready to play against the Saints.

    Actually the defense had a good game today in only giving up 13 points. One would think that our offense would be better than 10 points against the Rams. After all, it was my thinking at the start of the season that our highly talented offense would carry the team until our key defensive players were all back.

    Also, I know that Roman is a longtime friend of Harbaugh, but at this point Harbaugh needs to begin contemplating other options.
    I don’t blame the last play (CK’ fumble) on Roman, but I do blame him for his lackluster offensive calls and his penchant for not going with the strength of our offense which is ground and pound.
    I don’t see how Harbaugh/Baalke can be satisfied with Roman’ overall work this season.

  60. Ultimately the problem is Kaep’s physical characteristics. He is long and so does not have a quick first step, which Tarkenton, S. Young, and R. Wilson have. He is a strider. Similarly, though he has an enormous power in his arm, he has a slow release. Again, I think part of the issues we are reacting to is his physique itself.

    He is also seems somewhat slow intellectually and particularly affected when the pressure is on such as at the end of games. The slow intellectual issue can be seen in the weird slowness in getting plays off that just cannot be solved after 2 YEARS. This lateness means that defense knows when the play will be called — if you have two seconds left the play must be called in duh 2 seconds. This removes the O lines’ advantage over the defense of knowing when the play will be called. Progressions remain a problem. Is this lack of intellectual capability? Because teams do not respect him as a passer they pack the box, which ends up overwhelming a weakened and disadvantaged O line and killing the running game.

    Of course, the O coordinator is not calling a good game, which is sinking the entire enterprise. He cannot see Kaep’s strengths. Kaep is essentially a good Tieboe. I confess guilt in wanting to get rid of Alex, but I now see this as a mistake.

    The offensive coordinator cannot understand that Kaep is an unusual physical specimen, and cannot be treated as a traditional pocket quarterback. To not understand this after two years is a failing and probably a fireable failing.

    Finally, Harbaugh is so emotional and sometimes appears out of control He is hated by officials,other teams, and coaches. He seems somewhat unprofessional. The team seems overly emotional and this leads to these tidal waves of penalties on SF. I mean in this game three plays in a row? This really is a problem that will sink SF.

    Probably the short term solution is replacing O coordinator. Of course, there are other problems — Crabtree must go.

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