How 49ers' Penalties Are Ruining San Francisco's 2014 Season

There are plenty of problems when evaluating the San Francisco 49ers' start to the 2014 season.

The lofty number of costly, stupid penalties are right up there at the top.

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

All of these issues have presented a 49ers product that, in the second half of games, is neither fun to watch, nor is it competitive enough to warrant our hopes for another postseason run. Two games against the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals, respectively, have provided enough evidence of this.

While the myriad of problems could fill hours of discussion surrounding San Francisco's woes, let us shift our focus onto the multitude of yellow flags that has graced the 49ers' previous two games.

In Week 2, San Francisco suffered a total of 16 enforced penalties for 118 yards.

But the primary focus of the 49ers' problems in that game centered around the performance of quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick was responsible for four turnovers during the game—including three interceptions—but also graced the discussion on penalties for an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh was asked about the penalties following the Sunday Night Football loss. Here is what a portion of the transcript went like, per Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee:

"

Fifteen or 16 penalties for the Niners, is that a major problem? It was today, I guess.

“[Nods head].”

What would you attribute that to?

“Don’t know exactly.”

What was the explanation given for the penalty on QB Colin Kaepernick? Did the official explain more what the inappropriate language was?

“No, he did not.”

Did you hear anything?

“I did not.”

What happened with the delay of game on the final drive?

“That shouldn’t have been a delay of game. Just took too much time at the line of scrimmage.”

There were a lot of penalties. Any penalties in particular that you took issue with or were the flags okay in your mind?

"

"

“Not allowed to talk about that.”

"

Fast-forward to San Francisco's 23-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3.

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The 49ers' attempt to shore up the costly penalties that helped down them against Chicago must fave fallen on deaf ears as the team committed a further nine penalties for 107 yards.

Again, it is tough for any team to win games when faced with that many penalties. Doing so against an opponent almost guarantees failure, and we should be somewhat surprised that the 49ers were remotely in the game following the encompassed problems.

Taylor Price of 49ers.com sums up the impact of some of these costly penalties:

"

Three defensive penalties on Arizona’s second drive allowed the Cardinals to march down the field. [Eric] Reid was flagged twice, Ahmad Brooks, was the other guilty party. San Francisco’s secondary, however, made up for it in the final two plays of the drive. Ward broke up an end-zone pass to Michael Floyd and Chris Culliver broke up a 3rd-and-goal pass to Ted Ginn Jr. Arizona settled for a 32-yard Catanzaro field goal. Dan Skuta and Patrick Willis were also flagged for roughness penalties on Stanton in the third quarter. Both penalties allowed Arizona to move the ball down to San Francisco’s 25-yard line. Stanton found Brown again the end zone, this time, it was a 21-yard touchdown pass to give Arizona its second lead of the game, and first since the 12:23 mark in the first quarter. The 49ers were penalized nine times for 107 yards on Sunday. It wasn’t as much as the 16 flags against the Chicago Bears in Week 2, but the penalties were costly in a close game.

"

Willis' two penalties were a bit of a shock. The first call on Willis was a 15-yard penalty for a questionable hit on Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton.

According to Mindi Bach of CSN Bay Area, Willis is unsure what he did to warrant the call but is instead focusing on what needs to be done moving forward.

All this discussion could be directed to the thought that the officials are calling a bad game, and these calls are going against San Francisco.

Perhaps they are and that is a legitimate argument being made by 49ers wideout Anquan Boldin.

“For me, it’s been obvious the last two weeks the amount of calls that have gone against us and the amount of calls that we’ve gotten,” Boldin said via Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area. “It hasn’t been close. And every week it’s the same thing."

Boldin finishes his assessment:

"

If you look at it, it’s unbelievable. And we’ll send the tape in, and they’ll tell us, ‘We made a mistake.’ But yet they got 30 yards down the field. And some of those are coming at crucial points, third downs when the defense is getting off the field. And now it’s first and 10. They’ll say we had a lot to do with it, and we did. We could’ve played better here and there, but it’s crazy.

"

This argument is certainly going to be a popular one among analysts and fans alike. The officiating is always an easy target during a tough loss.

But there is a bigger problem here that needs to be addressed.

Since when have the 49ers become known as a penalty-happy team? That's typically a moniker in reference to San Francisco's cross-bay rivals, the Oakland Raiders.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Now, it's the 49ers who lead the league in penalties, and they stand alone in that category.

Sure, penalties are going to happen and the occasional player will "lose his cool." But the seemingly endless repetition of costly 49ers mistakes and yellow flags is an indication that deeper problems reside within this franchise.

This author has always felt that penalties fall almost entirely upon the coaching staff. Costly calls, and the actions that caused them, can destroy even the best of teams.

On top of that, the plethora of calls potentially reveals a disconnect between coaches and players. This is an aspect that should be maintained through the entire culture of the club—with the focus on composure and calmness.

In years prior, the 49ers might have overcome such problems given that they simply didn't implode in the second halves of games. In 2014, that hasn't proven to be the case.

We won't get into the speculation that Harbaugh is losing his team, the locker room and the respect of the front office. That talk is out there, and it's easy to speculate given what has happened of late, but let's not jump to those steep conclusions just yet.

Instead, let's shift focus on what we know: Penalties, combined with a myriad of other problems, are ruining the 49ers' chances for another playoff run.

Yes, it's early and panic mode has not set in. But if this sort of thing continues and the yellow flags continue to fall, one can bet the discussion will only get more heated moving forward.

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com and ESPN.com unless otherwise indicated.

Peter Panacy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers. Be sure to check out his entire archive on 49ers news, insight and analysis.

Follow him @PeterMcShots on Twitter.