SANTA CLARA — The 49ers’ charmed run is over.
There’s simply not enough luck in the football world to overcome the kind of slop the Niners put on the field Sunday against the Jaguars.
Four turnovers, a punt return allowed for a touchdown, and an offense that couldn’t move the ball on the ground all combined into a 26-21 Jacksonville win at Levi’s Stadium.
The only good news for the 49ers? They won’t have time to dwell on all their errors.
But that is also the bad news. The Niners only have three days between the final horn and their next game on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Here were the Studs and Duds of a game that had a lot more of the latter:
STUDS
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Deomodore Lenoir • CB
An exceptional tackling game from the corner. I know he’s doing well outside, but with Nick Bosa out and the run defense suffering, wouldn’t having him in the slot against three-wide sets be an asset on Thursday? (This is presuming Renardo Green is back.)
Eddy Pinero • K
He’ll receive no accolades for his 23 and 26-yard field goals, but he did have a sweet kickoff that pinned the Jags at the 7-yard line.
Jauan Jennings • WR
A warrior of the highest order. The Niners’ offense started moving the ball when Jennings started making plays.
Ricky Pearsall • WR
He’s one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. Amongst all the problems the 49ers had on offense Sunday, you cannot include him on the list. That said, his knee injury was unquestionably a problem for this offense Sunday and moving forward this season.
Jake Tonges • TE
Isn’t it telling that the Niners trust the former practice squad player as their No. 1 tight end in both the run and pass game with George Kittle out? I seem to remember the Niners signing a TE to a rather large deal this past offseason. All that said, Tonges was excellent again on Sunday, running the Kittle routes to perfection and proving serviceable in the run game. His touchdown in the fourth quarter gave the Niners an improbable chance.
Jordan Jefferson • DT
Limited reps, but solid output for the first-time Niner against his old team. Let’s see some more of that.
Thomas Morstead • P
The 39-year-old reached 20.4 miles per hour, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, chasing down Parker Washington on the Jaguars’ punt return for a touchdown. No, he didn’t catch him, but that is faster than any Christian McCaffrey carry from this season.
DUDS
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Jordan Elliott • DT
The other team will tell you who the weak link on a line is. The Jaguars told the world that they don’t think much of Jordan Elliott, as they ran duo — two blockers on the interior — towards him play after play after play Sunday, knowing they could land massive rushing lanes on the interior every single time. Elliott did nothing to disprove that theory.
Alfred Collins • DT
See Elliott, Jordan. (At least Collins is a rookie.)
Luke Farrell • TE
So much for his revenge game — Farrell must still have some affinity for his former team, as his second-quarter fumble turned into seven points for Jacksonville one play later.
Jason Pinnock • S
It was only a matter of time before Pinnock burned the Niners — he’s been living on the edge for three weeks. His strange stutter-step dance move in front of Travis Etienne on the Jags running back’s 48-yard touchdown run was inexplicable and catastrophic, taking a bad play and turning it into the worst-case scenario.
49ers Special Teams
Despite all the lip service and all the investment in special-teams-only players, they’re still not good.
The 49ers’ defensive front
Trevor Lawrence had all day to throw, as the Niners rarely pressured him (such snaps were so rare none come to mind — perhaps they never even happened) and registered zero quarterback hits.
Add in abysmal run defense — Etienne had 124 yards on 19 carries — and you had a front that was apparently totally held together by Nick Bosa.
Dominick Puni • RG
We have to keep including him because the 49ers continue to play him, but his right knee is clearly not right — he has no pop off the line whatsoever — and Jacksonville exploited it early and often.
He was worked off the line on the fateful strip fumble, so while Jake Brendel’s mark forced the fumble, the pocket had completely collapsed because of Puni.
Trent Williams • LT
If the Niners cannot run left, they cannot run the ball. They couldn’t run it left on Sunday. Ignore his cool block into the benches — Trent did not look like himself Sunday.
Brock Purdy • QB
It looked like the quarterback hadn’t played football in a few weeks. Sailed passes left right and center and was a beat or two behind on most plays. You can’t win with that at quarterback unless you post a brilliant team effort around it. That, of course, didn’t happen.