There’s no easy way to get around this, but the San Francisco 49ers are bad at taking the ball away on defense. And they’re bad at protecting the ball on offense too.
Through 12 weeks of the season, the Niners have generated a mere five defensive takeaways (three fumble recoveries and two interceptions), which ranks dead least among all 32 teams. To compound the problem, San Francisco’s offense ranks third worst in the league with 25 turnovers lost.
In a nutshell, it looks as if head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad doesn’t like having the ball in its hands.