Barber: 49ers beat Lions 30-27 despite lacking killer instinct

SANTA CLARA

The 49ers followed up their moral victory in Week 1 with a moral loss in Week 2. So, morally speaking, they are 1-1, with a one-game moral losing streak heading into Week 3. At least they haven’t morally tied anyone yet, like the Cleveland Browns.

“A win is a win, but it feels like a loss.”

Hey, don’t attack the messenger. It was veteran cornerback Richard Sherman who uttered those words after the game.

I’m not trying to dismiss what the 49ers did Sunday. They won a game, holding off the Detroit Lions 30-27. That is no small achievement in the NFL, and certainly not for a team that went 13-35 over the previous three seasons. The Niners earned their amoral victory. But if the result showed how far the Niners have come in a year, it just as clearly demonstrated how far they must go to be the team they think they are.

When Robbie Gould kicked a 36-yard field goal with ?11:25 remaining in the game, the 49ers owned a 30-13 lead. They were cruising against a Detroit team that looked like one of the worst in the NFL a week earlier, had outgained the Lions 328 yards to 245 at that point. They were playing at home. The Lions had lost one of their best defensive players, cornerback Darius Slay, to a concussion, and would soon lose the services of running back LaGarrette Blount, who would be kicked out of the game for coming off the sidelines to push an opponent.

None of that was enough to prevent a near-meltdown. Over the final 11:25, the Lions outgained the 49ers 182-17 (not counting a Jimmy Garoppolo kneel-down to finish it). More crucial, Detroit hung 14 points on the home team, turning a walk-over into a tightrope walk.

It got dicey. When the Lions received the ball for the last time with ?1:08 on the clock, they had 84 yards to go and zero time outs left. But they converted a third down, then gained 8 yards on a short pass to get out to their 39 - less than?25 yards from a legitimate attempt at a game-tying field goal.

How did it come to this? There are practical answers. The 49ers failed to get consistent pressure on Detroit’s Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter. He finally found some rhythm, which is exactly what you don’t want in an opposing quarterback who is known for late comebacks.

“(Defensive coordinator Robert) Saleh called an incredible game,” Sherman said. “And on third-and-15, with the game on the line, they run the same play over and over and over. The corner has to hinge on the backside; you’ve just gotta do your job. That was fundamental. That wasn’t like they just ran a better play. They actually ran what we expected them to run, and we just didn’t execute.”

I’m not sure exactly which play Sherman was referring to, but it was clear that Stafford was avoiding the former Seahawks all-pro and zeroing in young cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon. When the Lions began their final touchdown drive with three consecutive completions against Witherspoon, Saleh replaced him with Jimmie Ward. I don’t know if Witherspoon was exhausted, or if the moment was too big for him, but he wasn’t up to the task.

The 49ers were also having a problem with third downs. As in, they were having trouble converting them, and Detroit wasn’t. The Lions made good on third-and-17 when Stafford bought a little time and found wide-open Golden Tate for a 67-yard gain. And they got their final points on a third-and-15 play, when tight end Michael Roberts outleaped safety Adrian Colbert in the end zone.

“A win is a win, ,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I’m extremely excited about that and we’re all happy, but it was extremely frustrating there at the end. I thought we had a chance to completely finish them and put it away.”

But it isn’t just execution. It’s a mentality, too. Teams like the Patriots and the old Seattle squads for which Sherman played have killer instincts. They’re rarely perfect, but when they get on top of an opponent, they know how to clamp down. It’s a battle against reflex, against a mindset that Sherman described as “taking a sigh when you’re up 30-13.”

The 49ers took the sigh.

“You really try to fight it,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “I man, Jimmy’s always harping. He’s going up and down the sidelines, ‘We’ve gotta step on their throats, we’ve gotta step on their throats.’?”

“It comes down to mental toughness,” Garoppolo said. “Having all the guys think the same way. When you get an opportunity, you have to take advantage of it. … You can’t let human nature take over at that point.”

If the 49ers don’t have the toughness - that specific type of mental toughness - it may because they have yet to develop it. It’s hard to keep your foot on the gas pedal when you’re up by 17 points if you simply haven’t been up by 17 points very often.

Think of the young guys who came aboard with Shanahan and general manager John Lynch in 2017. They have virtually no experience in closing deals. By my count, the 49ers led by more than 10 points just five times last season. Twice they coughed up the lead entirely (against the Titans on Dec. 17 and the Jaguars on Dec. 24) before regrouping. Twice the opponent (the Giants on Nov. 12 and the Jaguars later in that Dec. 24 game) cut the lead to a single digit. Only against the Rams in Week 17 did San Francisco go up big and stay up big. And that LA team, with nothing to gain, played without many of its starters.

We know the 49ers are better with Garoppolo. We know that everyone is a little more steeped in the systems of Shanahan and Saleh, that the offensive line (when healthy) is improved and that the secondary is tighter with Sherman around. But if the Niners want to compete for a playoff spot, they’ll need to discern the smell of blood in the water.

The good news, obviously, is that the 49ers escaped with the W despite running out of steam. They can turn on the tape today and see where they were softened up by the Lions. But it won’t sting too badly, because they evened their record at 1-1.

“I think it’s a good learning lesson for a young team, that we needed,” Sherman said. “It’s a humbling lesson. Thank goodness we got the win out of it.”

If the 49ers can indeed learn from this, it will be another step toward the formidability that Shanahan and Lynch envision. Their thrashing of the Lions for three quarters was a good sign. But so is Sherman’s scolding. He knows the difference between a promising team and a champion.

As Garoppolo said, “I was talking to some of the guys. It’s a different mindset than last year. Last year, if we got a win we were happy with it.”

This year, the Niners are still happy with a win. But they aren’t necessarily satisfied with it.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.