49ers endure another long day in a season of dismay

SANTA CLARA - Folks were trying to stay upbeat in the 49ers' postgame locker room at Levi's Stadium.

“I told one of the guys on the bench today, two, three, four years from now, they might win the Super Bowl,” linebacker Ahmad Brooks said.

“I've seen teams go 1-7, and turn around and go 7-1 on the back end,” wide receiver Jeremy Kerley offered.

The current state of reality isn't so rosy. After Sunday's 34-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 49ers are 1-6; only the winless Cleveland Browns have a worse record. The team has dropped six consecutive games, its longest losing streak since 2008, and seems to be worse than the squad that finished 5-11 last year.

In the big picture, the only good news is that the Niners have entered their bye week. Everything else seems to be in turmoil.

Asked whether doubt had started to creep into the 49ers' minds, or whether improvement was just a matter of execution, defensive lineman Arik Armstead said, “Probably a little of both. We're making mistakes that kill our momentum.”

And it's true that the 49ers have had a little momentum lately. They were up 10-7 in the second quarter at Buffalo a week earlier, but wound up losing 45-16. Against the Buccaneers it was even more dramatic. San Francisco scored two touchdowns in its first four possessions to stake a 14-0 lead, then entered a death spiral.

“That's the key, I think, right there, that you have to be able to sustain it … over the course of an entire game,” 49ers coach Chip Kelly said. “It just can't be in spurts, and right now it's in spurts.”

The 49ers were bad across the board on Sunday, but their biggest vulnerability was run defense. Doug Martin, Tampa Bay's starting halfback, missed the game with a hamstring injury. You wouldn't have guessed it from the stat sheet. Jacquizz Rodgers, who used to battle Chip when he was at Oregon State and the coach was at Oregon, had 100 rushing yards by halftime. Rodgers finished with a career-high 154 on 26 carries.

“There's a couple of times it looked like we had him wrapped up and had him in good situations, but he came out of some things,” Kelly said. “But there were some other times it looked like he got right through. I'd have to evaluate the film before I could make a blanket statement on what the reason was for that.”

Late in the game, with the Buccaneers up 27-17 and Rodgers getting a breather, third-stringer Peyton Barber found a huge hole on the left side as DeForest Buckner was shoved out of the way, and galloped to a 44-yard touchdown.

All told, Tampa Bay ran for 249 yards. The Bills had 313 the week before, and the 49ers' radio team said the 562 combined yards were the most ever given up by this franchise in consecutive games. Needless to say, this will be a big point of discussion during the bye.

Some of the 49ers were willing to float some ideas after this latest loss.

“Everybody is responsible for a gap,” safety Eric Reid said. “When you get blocked you have to get off of those blocks, and I think we have to do a better job at getting off of blocks, securing tackles and not letting big plays happen. We have to just get rid of those explosive plays.”

Brooks was even more specific. “I just think that the guys that get double-teamed maybe have to do a better job at taking on the double-team. I know that is difficult, but this is what we signed up for.”

With the 49ers yielding an average of 407.6 total yards, 185.1 rushing yards and 31.3 points per game in 2016, the spotlight has landed on defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil. Kelly said Sunday that he will not consider any changes to his staff during the bye.

Meanwhile, quarterback Colin Kaepernick's second start of the season went much like his first. He directed the 49ers on a crisp scoring drive to start the game, and completed 3 of 6 passes for 58 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. Over the final three quarters he was just 13 of 28 for 85 yards and an interception. Kaepernick did run for 84 yards.

With the 49ers' passing game imploding and the defense going soft, the Buccaneers scored 27 consecutive points to take command.

San Francisco was down just 17-14 at halftime, but the third quarter was a disaster. The 49ers quickly forced the Bucs to go three-and-out to start the second half, but Jeremy Kerley muffed Bryan Anger's punt when a teammate ran into him, and Tampa Bay's Keith Tandy recovered at the Niners' 36. Five plays later, Roberto Aguayo kicked a 37-yard field goal for the visitors.

The 49ers got the ball back and picked up a couple of first downs, but Kaepernick was blindsided by blitzing cornerback Jude Adjei-Barimah on third-and-12 and fumbled; Gerald McCoy recovered for the Buccaneers at the 49ers' 27. And on third-and-3 from the 5-yard line, Jameis Winston drifted left before throwing to Mike Evans in the end zone; cornerback Rashard Robinson was late getting there, and Evans scored to put his team up 27-14.

Winston finished 21 of 30 for 269 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception. Evans had eight catches for 96 yards and two scores.

Many of the 49ers insist their problems are fixable, and that no one has stopped fighting. Still, less than two years after Jim Harbaugh's departure, there's a pervasive feeling that this team is miles away from competing for a playoff spot.

“We're a 1-6 team,” Kelly said. “You are what you are.”