San Francisco 49ers Reach New Low in Loss to Browns

CLEVELAND – The San Francisco 49ers are an utter disgrace.

They got blown out Sunday by the NFL's worst team, the Cleveland Browns, who had only two wins and had lost seven games in a row and had zilch to play for coming into this game.

The final score was 24-10, but the Browns led 24-3 until late. The Niners had 98 net yards when the fourth quarter started, and the Browns had 481 net yards when the fourth quarter ended. Tough to say which unit played worse, the Niners defense or the Niners offense. Then again, who cares? The entire team’s performance was one of the poorest in franchise history.

With this loss, the Niners established themselves as the NFL's worst, most dysfunctional franchise. That is sad. A franchise like the 49ers never should be this bad. Tennessee Titans, sure. Jacksonville Jaguars, OK. But not the Niners. They’re supposed to be the New York Yankees of football—the NFL's crown jewel.

Now, the Niners are a joke—nothing more. What an utter disgrace.

After the game, Jim Tomsula tried to make sense of what went wrong.

David Richard/Associated Press

A reporter asked, “How do you explain what happened today?

Tomsula took a dramatic five-second pause. You got the feeling he was thinking of something smart to say.

“I don’t want to take away from the Cleveland Browns,” was the first thing he said.

Oh, don’t worry, Jim—you didn’t. You took away nothing from them, and they took whatever they wanted from you.

Back to the coach. “They obviously played a good football game and won the football game.”

Yes, we saw that.

Back to the coach. “San Francisco 49ers played a poor football game.”

And that was the gist of Tomsula’s response. There you have it. How can the Niners be so bad with a coach who has all the answers?

A reporter asked Tomsula another question: “Do you think you guys had a difficult time bouncing back after an emotional win? It looked like you guys weren’t playing with much emotion at all.”

“It was a very emotional week,” Tomsula said. “It was emotional yesterday.”

Yesterday?

“Yeah, very good. Very good energy. Been good all week.”

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Note to Jim: NFL teams usually play on Sunday, not Saturday. College teams play on Saturday. Saturday energy doesn’t count in your league. Keep this in mind next week if the Niners don’t fire you before then.

Jim, how was the effort today?

“The effort was…I mean, the effort…the guys come out, the guys were…I mean, you see the guys getting in position. I didn’t believe it was an effort problem. I believe it was an execution problem.”

Wha? We saw the guys getting in position? What does that even mean? Reader, do you have a clue what he was trying to say? I don’t.

After Tomsula’s press conference, I walked to the locker room to interview someone articulate. Someone like left tackle Joe Staley.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Joe, Coach Tomsula said the emotion was really good all week.

“I don’t care about energy all week,” Staley said. “I just care about energy on Sundays, and I don’t feel like it was where it needed to be.”

Totally dismissing his coach’s statement.

Why didn’t the team play hard?

“I think we’re a team right now that thrives off of momentum. We saw that last week. We get a big play out of Blaine, all of a sudden the game turns and we get two touchdowns. This week, we didn’t have success early, and it kind of deflated the whole team…you’ve got to take every single play individually and move on.”

Staley actually says things that make sense. He is more qualified to coach this team than Tomsula. What an utter disgrace.

Andrew Weber/Getty Images

Ahmad Brooks spoke at his locker after Staley wrapped up.

“They had us on our (heels),” Brooks said. “They were able to do whatever they wanted to do on us today. Professional football is a chess game, and they were a step ahead.”

But Ahmad, I thought you were going to beat these guys.

“I thought so, too. Maybe we just came out a little flat. It’s not an excuse, but that’s what happened. We didn’t match their intensity. And I thought in the second half the team was going to rally together and go out there and wreak havoc, cause havoc. But, we came out in the second half flat again.”

That is what bad teams do. The once-proud 49ers have reached a new low. What an utter disgrace.

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow @grantcohn.