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Why Kyle Shanahan is Responsible for the 49ers' Loss to the Seahawks

If the 49ers are going to turn their season around, they need to play their best players.

Grant Cohn

November 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches warm ups before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
November 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches warm ups before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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Technically, you could blame the defense for the 49ers' 20-17 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday because the defense couldn't close out the game. It gave up an 80-yard touchdown drive to Geno Smith in the final moments. That's not good.

But the defense did play well overall -- it gave up just 20 points. Meanwhile, the offense scored only 17 points. That's well below the 49ers' standards.

Just a month ago, the 49ers played the Seahawks in Seattle and scored 36 points. Granted, the Seahawks were missing a few key starters on defense and have since added three new starting linebackers, so they've improved. Still, Kyle Shanahan is primarily responsible for the 49ers' uninspiring offensive production.

In Seattle, the 49ers rushed for 233 yards. And that's because Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo were outstanding. Mason averaged 8.1 yards per carry and Guerendo averaged 9.9. And combined, they ran the ball 19 times.

On Sunday in Santa Clara, Christian McCaffrey rushed the ball 19 times and averaged a mere 4.2 yards per carry. He was not 100 percent himself. Meanwhile, Mason carried the ball twice for 13 yards (6.5 yards per carry) and Guerendo never touched the ball.

If Shanahan simply had featured the running backs who did so well against the Seahawks four weeks ago, the 49ers likely would have won. The Seahawks simply can't stop Mason in particular. We saw that this Sunday in his two carries.

Shanahan has accomplished a lot in the NFL, but his inability to consistently play his best players is troubling. It took him until this year to find out that Jauan Jennings is a Pro Bowl caliber wide receiver.

If the 49ers are going to turn their season around, they need to play their best players.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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