SANTA CLARA — On the Bengals’ third play from scrimmage Sunday afternoon, the 49ers’ defense surrounded quarterback Joe Burrow with the kind of pressure it lacked six days earlier, failing to record a single sack in a Monday night loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
On third-and-10, Burrow backpedaled as the pocket collapsed around him and found no safe haven. Arik Armstead’s 290-pound frame soon hung from his shoulder blades. But soon enough, the 49ers defensive lineman and another one of his cohorts, Nick Bosa, were on their backs in the backfield. Still upright, Burrow unleashed a completion to Tee Higgins, converting the first down, and five plays later was celebrating in Levi’s Stadium’s north end zone.
The tone was set. The 49ers’ defense, which looked so daunting just a few weeks ago, was hardly able to slow down the Bengals’ All-Pro quarterback, let alone take him down, in an eventual 31-17 defeat, entering their bye week with a third straight loss and newfound question marks.
“It was a huge play. I missed the sack on that play. That was my fault,” Armstead said. “I’ve got to do a better job of being lower and getting him down to the ground. I felt that was a huge play, a momentum shift. We get them off the field on their first possession, it’s a different game. But they go all the way down and score.”
After two incompletions to start the game — including a near-interception dropped by Isaiah Oliver — the escape act started a streak of 19 straight completions for Burrow, who ended the game 28-of-32 for 283 yards passing and a trio of touchdowns.
The Bengals put up 400 total yards, their most of the season. By halftime, they had already strung together 20 first downs, more than they totaled in four quarters in their last game.
“Dang,” Armstead said upon being informed of Burrow’s stats, “I didn’t know he played that well.”
Ja’Marr Chase caught 10 passes for 100 yards. Higgins added five for 69. And East Bay native Joe Mixon contributed a season-high 87 yards on the ground — 134 total for Cincinnati, which hadn’t been averaging even half that many — ending his day by high-stepping into the end zone for the game-sealing score with 5 minutes to play.
Burrow extended multiple plays with his feet — the injured calf that hampered him to start the season benefitting from their bye week entering Sunday — and even picked up 10 yards on third-and-9 with a designed run, scampering through an empty middle of the field on a quarterback draw.
“Joe looked really mobile. He definitely had his eyes on the rush,” said defensive end Nick Bosa, who has only 2½ sacks through eight weeks after recording 18½ last season. “He was manipulating the pocket really well, which I don’t think he was able to do early in the season. That was big, those scrambles for yards (and) first downs.”
San Francisco was able to wrap up the quarterback for three sacks, which was three more than last week.
Armstead provided a pair — his first in the regular season since 2021 — including what looked to be a pivotal third-down stop in the first half, pushing Evan McPherson’s field goal attempt back seven yards. He shanked the 50-yard attempt wide right, keeping the 49ers within a touchdown, 14-7.
But they were also flagged for five penalties, two of them the Bengals declined because they preferred the result of the play. And a defense that prides itself on flocking to the ball also let numerous ball carriers slip out of their grasp, two issues coach Kyle Shanahan and defensive captain Fred Warner were quick to flag after the game.
“I thought our tackling was extremely sloppy today, especially in the first half,” Shanahan said.
“I think tackling has been an issue when it hasn’t been in the past,” Warner said. “Players got to execute at a higher level, including myself. We got to play more as a unit. There’s got to be more hunt to the football at all three levels. There’s got to be more penalty-free football.”
But it wasn’t just Sunday.
In the last three weeks — three losses — San Francisco has surrendered an average of 395.3 yards per game. The opposition has scored an average of 24 points in those games.
That’s quite the step back from their 5-0 start to the season, when the 49ers were allowing 266.8 yards and 9.7 points per game.
“Not the performances we wanted to have these last couple weeks,” Armstead said. “It’s been different each game. I feel like getting off to better starts is always helpful. Then just stacking series. I feel there is a little bit of inconsistency with our defense right now. We have a good drive, then the next drive we don’t play so well. So just getting that consistency back of being dominant for an entirety of a game is what I think we need to do.”
It was an ill-timed blitz call that drew the ire of fans — and Shanahan — directed toward defensive coordinator Steve Wilks last week.
But in the aftermath of a third poor showing in a row, Wilks received only words of support in the locker room after Sunday’s loss.
“Nothing’s on Coach, honestly,” Hufanga said. “He says a call, we’ve got to play it. We’ve got to bring the call to life.”
“That’s the least of my worries, honestly,” Warner said. “I think players win games, not coaches.”
Whether it comes from Wilks or elsewhere, the 49ers enter their bye week in need of solutions.
The trade deadline is coming up Tuesday, but Shanahan said “I do believe we have the answers in our building.”
The team already made a splash by acquiring pass rusher Randy Gregory from the Broncos. Suiting up for the first time three weeks ago, Gregory is still waiting to celebrate his first win. He was credited with one tackle against Cincinnati.
“It’s a learning experience,” Gregory said of joining the team mid-year. “I’ve picked up on a lot the last three weeks. But I want to go out there and put a better product out on the field and make some plays.”
Gregory observed the 49ers’ once-dominant unit from afar, and its identity has been instilled to him on a daily basis since joining the squad.
How would he describe it?
“Hard-nosed,” he said. “We’re supposed to get after the passer. We hit well. We hit hard. All the fundamentals you want.”
Translating that to the field, however, has been a different story.
“You’re going to have games where you get outplayed, out-schemed, and at that point, you have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what your foundation is and get back to the fundamentals,” Gregory said. “I expect a lot from us. Obviously, Bosa being over there, Armstead, those are guys I’ve watched throughout the years. Having them out there is obviously a huge, huge plus. They do their job.
“I think it’s up to the other guys. A lot of us have to pick it up, myself included, just trying to fill in those gaps. It’s going to be a four-guy type of thing to make that (expletive) happen. It can’t just be one guy or two guys on one play. It’s gotta be the whole unit.”