The San Francisco 49ers are 5-5. They are far from out of postseason contention, but they have also missed plenty of early-season opportunities to solidify themselves atop the NFC standings and allow themselves to cruise into the playoffs. Instead, it will likely come down to Week 18.
After several close losses, it’s worth wondering how the Niners could have avoided this position. NFL analyst Ben Baldwin of The Athletic shared some graphs showing each team’s fourth-down tendencies so far this season and showed San Francisco has been extremely conservative.
The full 4th down landscape.