Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow and Andrei Iosivas celebrate a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday OCT 29, 2023. (Cincinnati Bengals)

by Marko Ukalovic

The sky is not falling in Santa Clara…yet.

Joe Burrow threw for three touchdowns and the Cincinnati Bengals defense created three turnovers in the second half en route to a 31-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.

San Francisco has lost three straight games after beginning the season 5-0. Cincinnati has won three in a row after starting the season 1-3.

It was a long day for the 49ers defense as for the second straight week it was outplayed by the opposing team’s defense. Burrow was 21 of 23 for 170 yards with two touchdowns in the first half. It was the first time he had thrown multiple touchdowns in a first half this season.

Burrow connected with Tyler Boyd for his first touchdown, a seven-yard reception on a fade route to the right side, on its first possession to complete a 10 play 85-yard drive.

San Francisco answered back on its second possession. Running back Christian McCaffery barreled his way in for a two-yard rushing touchdown to complete an eight play 75-yard drive. The big play on the drive was a 31-yard reception by Brandon Aiyuk from Brock Purdy.

McCaffery has a scored a touchdown in 17 consecutive games which tied Lenny Moore, who achieved the same feat from 1963-64 with the Baltimore Colts, for the all-time NFL record.

The Bengals responded with a six play 58-yard scoring drive. Burrow found Andrei Iosivas for a two-yard touchdown reception to give Cincinnati a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Cincinnati had a golden opportunity to go up double-digits just before halftime. However, Celine Ferrell stripped the ball from Irv Smith Jr. after he caught the ball on a screen pass. Isaiah Oliver recovered the ball at the five-yard line with 38 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Purdy used his legs as he was the 49ers leading rusher in first half with 43 yards four carries. Run CMC only had 31 yards on six carries, 16 of those came on the last place of the first half.

Cincinnati opened the second half with a 56-yard field goal from Evan McPherson on a 3:51 drive to go up 17-10. Then both defenses forced punts as they settled in during the third quarter.

It was a nightmare final 15:04 for Purdy as he committed three turnovers, two INT’s and one fumble, that allowed Cincinnati to take control of the game in the fourth quarter. Purdy tried a flip pass intended for Elijah Mithcell at the Bengals four-yard line, but Germaine Pratt deflected the ball to himself for an interception with four seconds left in the third quarter.

The Niners defense held their ground and gave the ball back to Purdy as they forced a three and out on Burrow’s offense. However, Purdy gave the ball back immediately on the next play when his pass over the middle intended for Aiyuk was intercepted by Logan Wilson who returned it to the San Francisco 17-yard line.

Burrow made the 49ers pay on the next play with his third touchdown when he connected with Ja’Marr Chase for a 17-yard touchdown reception to give Cincinnati a 24-10 lead. Chase led the Bengals in receiving with 10 catches for 100 yards.

“He made some bad picks there at the end,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan regarding his quarterback’s five interceptions in his last three games. “I thought he was one of the reasons we were in the game today. Some of those throws he made out there were unbelievable. The mistake in the red zone, missing the handoff was the biggest part. And then once you do that, you can’t throw it or you’re going to get the penalty, but worse that he got the pick.”

San Francisco answered back on its next drive when Purdy found McCaffery in the middle of the endzone for a four-yard touchdown reception to cut the lead down to seven.

The 49ers defense could not get the ball back as Burrows led a methodical 10 play 78-yard scoring drive down the field that ate up 5:18. Running back Joe Mixon pranced into the endzone on a five-yard rushing touchdown to ice the game for Cincinnati.

Burrow finished 28 of 32 for 283 yards to go along with his three TD’s and no interceptions. Mixon led all rushers with 87 yards on 16 carries. Tee Higgins chipped in five catches for 69 yards.

Purdy went led the 49ers in rushing with 57 yards on all scrambles out of the pocket. Tight end George Kittle led the 49ers in receiving, as he has a big fourth quarter, with nine catches for 149 yards. McCaffery chipped in with 54 yards on the ground to go along with six catches for 64 yards.

San Francisco heads into the bye week with things to shore up on both sides of the ball.

“I’ll talk to them more tomorrow. But my message was we’ve got to take that. I mean, we didn’t play well. That team beat us straight up. We talked about tackling better, having less penalties. I think we only had five, but in comparison to them, I think it was one. We had some ones in some crucial situations that gave first downs. My bottom line to them was we’ve got to get better in every aspect. The things that disappointed me today were some of the fundamentals of just throwing and catching, tackling and some of those penalties that cost us,” Shanahan said.

GAME NOTES: San Francisco finished 5-for-9 on third down conversions. Cincinnati went 3-for-8.

UP NEXT: San Francisco is on their bye week. They return back to action on Sunday 11/12 on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars at 10:00am at TIAA Bank Field.