Instant analysis of 49ers’ 38-10 loss to Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wisc. – Kyle Shanahan and his first-year defensive coordinator, Nick Sorensen, covered their faces with playsheets for a sideline chat. Shanahan was hot. There was no hiding why.

The 49ers’ disheveled defense drew back-to-back penalties for having 12 men on the field from its own 10-yard line. That set up an inevitable touchdown by the Green Bay Packers: the first of Josh Jacobs’ three 1-yard touchdown runs in their 38-10 route at Lambeau Field.

It was the 49ers’ most lopsided road loss in Shanahan’s eight seasons, and it was the Packers’ biggest rout in their 74-game history with the 49ers, who rallied to win last season’s divisional playoff game against them.

Beyond the defensive-penalty doubletake, a lot else went wrong Sunday for the 49ers (5-6) as they lost a second straight game, with another road game looming next Sunday night in Buffalo.

With quarterback Brock Purdy (shoulder) and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) unable to suit up, it wasn’t in the 49ers’ best interest to force Purdy’s fill-in, Brandon Allen, into a high-scoring affair with the host Packers (8-3).

And with Nick Bosa missing his first game, the 49ers’ defense figured to look inferior — but not incompetent. Down 10-0 and unable to stop Green Bay’s ground game, the 49ers bafflingly drew consecutive penalties for too many men on the field. Linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, formerly of the Packers, was summoned to the sideline after that second penalty. Two snaps later, Jacobs scored, giving Green Bay a 17-0 lead with 6:33 until halftime.

Safety Ji’Ayir Brown blamed “miscommunication” for the extra personnel and linebacker Fred Warner termed it “unacceptable, across the board.”

Shanahan explained it two-fold. The initial too-many-men penalty was the result of the Packers bringing in a wide receiver in place of a tight end then quickly snapping the ball before the 49ers could change from their base defense to nickel with an extra defensive back. “It was a strategic play by them but one I feel shouldn’t have been allowed. They didn’t give us time to sub on that,” Shanahan said.

It’s the follow-up penalty that was more damning, because the officials did allow the 49ers time to substitute, and Shanahan acknowledged: “The second one was on us.”

What Shanahan blamed even more was the 49ers’ run defense that allowed 169 yards and three touchdowns, as well as their nine penalties and then a trio of second-half turnovers that led to Green Bay’s final three touchdowns.

The 49ers lost fumbles on consecutive one-play drives in the fourth quarter, first by Allen on a sack at the Niners’ 9-yard line, then by McCaffrey on a 23-yard catch-and-run to midfield.

Allen called his fumble “just brutal,” citing slick conditions more so than the broken middle finger on his left (non-throwing) hand from a practice mishap three weeks ago. McCaffrey (11 carries, 31 yards; three catches, 37 yards) stewed extra long at his locker after the game, saying of the offense under Allen: “We have to be a lot better for him. I have to be a lot better.”

Allen was 17-of-29 for 199 yards with an interception, a touchdown pass, and the lost fumble. Counterpart Jordan Love was 13-of-23 for 163 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers.

Littering Lambeau with turnovers, penalties, injuries, and missed tackles — hallmarks of a bad team, which the 49ers have become only a year after marching toward the Super Bowl, a run that included that comeback playoff win over the Packers.

“One thing led to another and it went downhill,” said right guard Dominick Puni, noting he was “just off-beat, off-key” in drawing three penalties.

Highlights? Well…

George Kittle, a Wisconsin native, scored his first-ever touchdown at Lambeau Field to bail the 49ers out of a first-half funk and pull them within 17-7. Allen capped the 11-play, 65-yard drive by finding Kittle over the middle once he slipped past linebacker Quay Walker. It was Allen’s 11th career touchdown pass, and his first since 2021 as Joe Burrow’s backup in Cincinnati.

Kittle’s 3-yard scoring catch was his eighth touchdown of the season. He has scored in seven of nine games he’s played, having missed last Sunday’s loss at Seattle and a Week 3 loss at Los Angeles because of hamstring injuries.

Kittle caught all six passes Allen threw to him, including a back-shoulder snare. His 21-yard catch led to the 49ers’ other points: Jake Moody’s 48-yard field goal, cutting their deficit to 24-10 with 2:12 left in the third quarter.

Allen led a pair of promising drives into Packers’ territory earlier in the third quarter, only for one to end on a fourth-and-2 incompletion to McCaffrey and the other to be halted by Xavier McKinney’s interception of a third-down pass that went off Deebo Samuel’s hands. The Packers parlayed that turnover into Jacobs’ second touchdown run, which was set up by Renardo Green’s pass-interference penalty in the end zone.

Jacobs’ first touchdown run came after the too-many-men penalties. At that point, Allen and the 49ers had run only six offensive plays, they’d been outgained 197-21, and they had possessed the ball all of 4 minutes, 22 seconds (while the Packers had it the other 19:05).

The Packers generously led only 17-7 at halftime, denied a bigger margin when Christian Watson dropped a potential 49-yard touchdown catch at the 5-yard line with 30 seconds to go.