The 49ers found out, officially, they had nothing to play against the Miami Dolphins just moments before kickoff. But that reality had already set in, and the stage for a meaningless game had been set.
San Francisco lost 22-17 in a hard-to-watch game that, if nothing else, helps them in the draft standings. They move from 15th before the start of the day to 12th, pending the results of the Dallas Cowboys-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.
A gruesome game
This game had it all. And when I say it had it all, it had all the ugliness you could hope for. It was riddled with penalties, including two personal fouls on the defense, along with a missed field goal, a terrible kickoff, and a barrage of injuries.
It's that last part that popped up again and again, and at one point, there was three-straight-play sequence in the fourth quarter with new injuries.
It began with Dre Greenlaw, who came out of the game early on with a right calf injury, and did not return. Left tackle Jaylon Moore also left the game for the 49ers with a quad injury, and in the fourth quarter, Aaron Banks suffered a knee injury and was quickly ruled out.
The Dolphins weren't immune, either. They had injuries to both defensive back Kendall Fuller and linebacker Jordyn Brooks.
The Deebo renaissance game
It's unclear, exactly, where this had been from Deebo Samuel. But the reason he had been so widely criticized is because this is not what he's looked like for the last few months.
But Sunday afternoon, Samuel was relentless. He was breaking and shaking the tackles that he had been unable to break in games past. He also had a near touchdown in the red zone that was called back for an illegal formation penalty on Ricky Pearsall, which happened more than once in this game.
Samuel has deserved plenty of that criticism for his play, including a would-be touchdown drop against the Rams and for his decision to criticize Jake Moody on the field, then declining to speak to media after a bad loss in Green Bay, then complaining about touches (they are not down) on Twitter.
Some of that criticism of his play has failed to acknowledge the poor play of the 49ers' offense as a whole, some poorly-timed calls from Kyle Shanahan, and a lot of miss blocks. But he used to do something with nothing, and he did that Sunday.
Samuel finished with seven catches for 96 yards and his second touchdown of the season, along with five carries for 25 yards. It was vintage Deebo. The question is whether that's an outlier for his future, or a return to the norm.
George Kittle, Hall of Famer?
One of the only consistent bright spots for the 49ers has been George Kittle. He has been ole reliable for them, in a season that should become his fourth with more than 1,000 receiving yards. He's at 969 yards as it stands.
The broadcast flashed a graphic in the middle of this game which showed Kittle is third all time in receiving yards per game amongst tight ends, at 61.8 yards per game (and counting).
Kittle had a game-high eight catches for 108 yards, and that graphic showed that Kittle was third behind (in order) Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski, and above Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez. He's above two Hall of Famers, and below two future Hall of Famers. That's a reflection that Kittle, assuming he keeps playing well for even a few more years, is likely headed in that direction himself.