Juju Smith-Schuster and Travis Kelce celebrate reaching the end zone during the Kansas City Cheifs 44-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday OCT 23, 2022. (Kansas City Cheifs)
by Marko Ukalovic
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In a battle of good offense versus good defense, offense won.
The Kansas City Chiefs offense scored 28 points in the second half en route to a convincing 44-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.
San Francisco has two in a row and dropped to 3-4 on the season. Kansas City bounced back after a tough loss to the Buffalo Bills last week and entered their bye week at 5-2.
“You know 5-2 looks a lot better than 4-3,” said Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. “I think it comes where we’ll look forward to getting a little bit healthier. I think this leads them into a nice positive week where they can have some recovery time.”
The game marked the debut for running back Christian McCaffery in a 49ers uniform. McCaffery was acquired late Thursday evening for four future draft picks. He started out well with two rushes for 19 yards. McCaffery finished with 38 yards on eight carries and added two receptions for 24 yards.
The day belonged to the Chiefs as they dominated both sides of the ball. On defense they took advantage of two returning offensive tackles for San Francisco who were playing less than 100% health wise. They consistently pressured quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and won the battle in the trenches in the second half.
On the offensive side of the ball, they made San Francisco’s high-ranking defense look subpar as they scored 28 of their 42 points in the second half as the 49ers had no answer trying to keep the high-ocatane offense out of the endzone.
It was the worst performance for San Francisco’s defense on the season, despite having defensive end Nick Bosa back in the lineup after recovering from a hamstring injury. They gave up over 500 yards of total offense and were undiscipline with motion penalties. They also failed to get off the field on two separate long third down conversions that led to touchdowns for Kansas City on both drives. A third and 11 was converted for a 57-yard reception by Marquez Valdez-Scantling with a deep throw down the field by quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Then a third and 20 was converted on a screen play to Jerick McKinnon for 34 yards.
“Whenever you play the best teams in the league, you want to show what you’re all about. I believe the 49ers are one of the best teams in the league, obviously one of the best defenses. So, for us coming off a loss against the bills, you don’t want to have two losses (in a row) heading into the bye week. So we knew this was an extremely important game. That bye week is a lot better when you’re coming off a win,” said Mahomes.
San Francisco actually started the game well in the first quarter. An interception by safety Talanoa Hufanga set up the 49ers first touchdown. Garoppolo connected with Ray-Ray McCloud for a nine-yard touchdown reception to give San Francisco a 10-0 lead with 6:29 left.
Kansas City started to find its groove as they answered back on their next drive. Mecole Hardman took a quick shovel pass from Mahomes and raced in for an eight-yard touchdown, the first of his three-touchdown day.
Hardman gave the Chiefs their first lead with 7:09 left in the second quarter when he rushed for a 25-yard touchdown for a 14-13 lead Kansas City went into halftime with.
San Francisco had a chance to regain the lead after Skyy Moore fumbled a punt return that the Sam Womack recovered at the Chiefs 12-yard line. However, the 49ers failed to capitalize as three plays later Garoppolo was intercepted in the end zone by Joshua Williams.
“You know that’s a good team,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan summarizing the game. “You know they’re going to make some big plays, but I thought the most frustrating thing was the spots we hurt ourselves. In that first half, some of the false starts that we had on offense, lining up in the neutral zone on defense. For us to have that false start on the field goal, I was obviously so excited because they muffed the punt the next time, but for us to have a turnover there was a real big mistake. Ended up being alright when they missed that field goal. We talked about some of that stuff at halftime. We come out, give up a huge kick return and then have a really stupid penalty to add 15 yards at the end of it. Those are the things that disappoint me the most.”
While San Francisco was getting field goals on their drives, Kansas City responded with touchdown drives. The opening kickoff in the second half had Isiah Pacheco return the ball for 48 yards. To make matters worse, Jauan Jennings hit Pacheco out of bounds tacking on another 15 yards with an unsportsman like penalty.
The Chiefs only needed three plays to score and extend their lead when running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire ran for a 16-yard touchdown. After a San Francisco field goal, Kansas City marched back down the field on a nine play 75-yard drive finished off with a four-yard touchdown reception from Mahomes to Justin Watson.
San Francisco cut the deficit to 28-23 when Garoppolo connected with tight end George Kittle for a 15-yard touchdown reception where Kittle jumped up high to reel in the ball.
That was as close as the 49ers would get as the Chiefs sealed the deal by scoring the final 16 points on two touchdowns and a safety when Frank Clark sacked Garoppolo in the end zone.
Penalties, turnovers and missed opportunities were the combination of what became an embarrassing loss for San Francisco on their home turf in front of the Niners Faithful.
Mahomes finished a great afternoon going 25 of 34 for 423 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Hardman had 60 total yards to go alone with his touch rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. Juju Smith-Schuster led all wide outs in receiving with seven catches for 124 yards and one touchdown.
Garoppolo finished went 25 of 37 for 303 yards (the most he has thrown for this season) with two touchdown and one interception in what was a frustrating afternoon for the veteran quarterback. Jeff Wilson Jr led the 49ers in rushing with 54 yards on seven carries. Kittle was the leading receiver for San Francisco with six catches for 98 yards and one touchdown.
“I thought, especially early on in the first half, just getting those field goals instead of touchdowns, I thought that was a big difference. Just momentum and things like that, we knew going into this game that we had to score touchdowns and match with these guys, and we didn’t. And I think that with the combination of the turnovers and penalties, that’s the result you’re going to get,” Garoppolo said.
GAME NOTES: San Francisco finished 8-for-14 on third down conversions. Kansas City went 6-for-9.
The 49ers are now 1-20 when they enter the fourth trailing by three or more points.
Bosa recorded his seventh sack of the season in just the seventh game of the season. Bosa and Hall of Famer Bryant Young are the the last members of the 49ers to register seven or more sacks through the team’s first seven games.
McCloud’s touchdown reception was the first of his career.
It was the 11th time in Garoppolo’s career he has thrown for 300 plus yards in a game, his first since against the Los Angeles Rams on 1/9/22 (316 yards).
UP NEXT: San Francisco travels to Los Angeles to take on the Rams in an NFC West showdown on Sunday 10/30 at 1:25pm at SoFi Stadium.
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