The 49ers’ season from hell hits a painful rock bottom in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — It was the first day of December, and the 49ers’ season from hell moved to the NFL’s North Pole — otherwise known as western New York.

Under the wrath of a lake-effect blizzard, the Buffalo Bills landed what might’ve been a 35-10 knockout punch against the besieged 49ers. A team that began teetering in triple-digit heat two months ago — collapsing late to the Arizona Cardinals — was out cold by the end of this freezing affair.

For the second straight week, the 49ers — now in sole possession of last place in the NFC West — were obliterated by four possessions. In the end, they were outscored 73-20 on their catastrophic cold-weather swing through Green Bay and Buffalo.

The individual frustrations in this one might be considered microcosms of the 49ers’ torturous season.

Running back Christian McCaffrey exploded out of the gate, racking up 53 yards on seven carries. The 49ers’ run blocking, which had suffered through dismal games against the Seahawks and Packers, looked back on track, thanks in large part to some road grading from left guard Ben Bartch, who filled in well for the injured Aaron Banks. McCaffrey roared back to full form as a result. It took a touchdown-saving tackle from Buffalo safety Taylor Rapp to stop him.

But McCaffrey hurt the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee on the play. It presented an agonizing duality: The difference between a potentially season-saving 49ers touchdown and a potentially season-ending McCaffrey injury was a shoestring tackle.

“It was frustrating,” Shanahan said. “He had a great week of practice. I could feel his urgency.”

Said quarterback Brock Purdy of McCaffrey: “He was on fire, man.”

McCaffrey, perhaps trying to will this latest injury out of existence, tried to run one more time after that play. But he immediately slid into surrender, recognizing that his knee was not up for the task. A couple of hours later, McCaffrey hobbled through the 49ers’ crowded locker room with crutches and a brace on his right knee. He’ll undergo an MRI on Monday back in the Bay Area.

McCaffrey’s injury stunned the 49ers offense, which was called for a delay of game before the next snap. Three plays later, kicker Jake Moody missed the first of two field goals in the snow. Buffalo’s ongoing scoring avalanche would bury the visitors 21-3 by halftime.

Still, the 49ers — like they had the week prior — showed fight coming out of the locker room. Deebo Samuel opened with a 60-yard kick return, and the offense marched to within a yard of pay dirt.

But in a play that seemed simultaneously emblematic of the 49ers’ inability to finish red-zone drives and games in general — remember their three blown fourth-quarter leads to divisional opponents — Rapp punched the ball out of fullback Kyle Juszczyk’s grasp.

The fumble killed the drive and forced Purdy to effectively turn into a safety. He chased down Bills cornerback Christian Benford, who’d recovered Juszczyk’s fumble, to make the tackle after a 43-yard return.

That wasn’t the type of play that the 49ers wanted their QB making, especially since he’d missed the previous game with an injured shoulder. And it only temporarily prevented the Bills from scoring. The 49ers defense simply wasn’t up for the task yet again. It fell victim to one of the most sensational plays of this NFL season, which saw Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen — who grew up a 49ers fan in the San Joaquin Valley — log a throwing and receiving touchdown on the same play.

But it was clear that the 49ers defense was cooked far before that wild touchdown. Before removing their starters, the Bills ran for about 7 yards per carry and averaged over 7 yards per play, both absurd averages considering field conditions that made offensive play more difficult.

While the 49ers complained of snow accumulation in their cleats that made acceleration difficult, the Bills blew right past them on several runs and multiple third-down conversions.

“I could have stopped it,” 49ers safety Ji’Ayir Brown said of a 65-yard touchdown run from Buffalo running back James Cook. “He’s a good back. It was the same play they’ve been showing all year. They got out there fast.”

Ever since defensive end Nick Bosa exited a loss against Seattle two weeks ago with his oblique injury, the 49ers have been helpless defensively. The Seahawks torched them down the stretch before Green Bay and Buffalo racked up 125 and 142 first-half rushing yards, respectively, against the 49ers.

The Bills ended the night celebrating their AFC East title. And for the second straight week, the 49ers were on the receiving end of punishment that they had routinely dished out on their way to winning their own division the previous two seasons.

“This just isn’t the standard that we play with,” Purdy said. “Last couple years, our mentality [was] coming out to games and being the enforcers, the dominators. To have two games like this, back to back, late in the season, it sucks.”

The 49ers won’t land back in the Bay Area until the early hours of Monday morning. They host the Chicago Bears, who played on Thanksgiving and will therefore be coming off three days of extra rest — albeit with a new coach, after Matt Eberflus was fired last week — at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.

Since Seattle beat the New York Giants, the 5-7 49ers are now two games out of first place in the NFC West with just five games left to play. Their wobbly season, marred by a mountain of adversity on and off the field, has come to the precipice of complete collapse.

“We’re real disappointed,” Shanahan said. “We have more pride than this. We definitely know that we have some people out, but we can play a lot better than that. … If we want to get out of [this hole], we’ve got to do something special here.”

The 49ers most certainly did not do anything special on Sunday night.

They entered Buffalo a beleaguered team, beaten down by the strain of marathons that had preceded this point. They left it frozen into an even deeper rut. The torturous slog that has been 2024 turned into an icy toil on the night that 49ers hell froze over.