The 49ers shiver, stagger and sink into the Buffalo snow on a long, cold night

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — They shivered on the sidelines, wrapped in long red coats. They staggered in the snow and lost the ball three more times. They slipped in the standings and finished alone in last place in the NFC West.

The 35-10 loss to Buffalo on Sunday evening was a fitting conclusion to the San Francisco 49ers’ turbulent season.

Linebacker Fred Warner went a step further and provided the defining image. Midway through the third quarter, Warner stood at the 3-yard line and stared in disbelief as Josh Allen and his Bills teammates celebrated an improbable score.

Allen had thrown a short pass to wide receiver Amari Cooper, who was quickly surrounded by three would-be tacklers (including Warner). Cooper passed the ball sideways to Allen, who was closely following the play, and he stormed around the edge and pounced on the pylon. Landing.

As the crowd at Highmark Stadium erupted in cheers and simultaneously hurled snowballs into the air for the fourth time (a touchdown tradition), Warner struck his sad pose for nearly ten seconds. He looked stunned, forlorn and completely annoyed all at the same time.

“It’s just frustrating at this point,” Warner said later. “We just couldn’t stop their offense at all.”

This all took place under whiteout conditions, which are quite common in Western New York – but not so much for visitors from Northern California. The “lake effect” snowstorm began Saturday evening but ended across much of the region Sunday morning.

Little snow fell at Niagara Falls, less than an hour north. There was a lot of snow in Orchard Park.

The temperature at kickoff was 27 degrees, which felt like 17 degrees given the wind (11 miles per hour), according to Bills officials. During pregame warmups, the snow fell lightly, becoming more consistent in the first half and becoming heavier in the second half.

It was a picturesque stage, reminiscent of so many December or January games at Lambeau Field in Green Bay and, yes, right here outside of Buffalo. The scene was probably amusing, almost comical, for the fans who watched it in front of the television in the warmth of their homes.

Tight end George Kittle wasn’t thrilled with the result, of course, but he took perverse joy in the conditions – he estimated that 23 snowballs flew past his head without hitting him.

“Blizzards are fun,” Kittle said. “It’s a very sticky type of snow. I think you saw guys like Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz) clicking their heels the whole game. It was one of the stranger environments I’ve ever played in.”

Running back Christian McCaffrey initially thrived under the difficult conditions. McCaffrey, who missed the first eight games of the season and struggled to find his rhythm in the last three games, looked like himself again on Sunday, rushing for 58 yards on his first six carries.

He then made a pitchout and fell, apparently due to a knee injury he suffered three games earlier.

That was also seen as a symbol of this lost season. Nick Bosa, Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk, three of San Francisco’s best players, did not travel to Buffalo. Warner, already dealing with a broken ankle, battled forearm cramps in the first half of Sunday night’s game.

However, the wave of injuries only partially explains their 5-7 record, as the 49ers have more depth than any other team in the NFL. Their downfall actually stems from a summer contract drama involving Williams and Aiyuk in particular.

Then they blew three flat-out division games, blowing second-half leads and losing to the Rams, Cardinals and Seahawks. The 49ers made too many mistakes, committed too many penalties, and sacrificed their swagger in the process.

In challenging away games in the last two weeks: Packers/Bills 73, 49ers 20.

“I’m really disappointed,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said when asked about the lopsided losses. “We’re prouder than that. We know some people are out, but we can play a lot better.”

If you’re an optimist, the 49ers are still just two games behind division leader Seattle (7-5) with five games left to play this season. If you’re a pessimist, they’re two games under .500 and are now 1-6 against teams that currently have a winning record.

If you’re a realist, they’re just not very good.

Shanahan came surprisingly close to acknowledging this in his postgame press conference. Chronicle beat writer Eric Branch asked Shanahan if this team was as competitive as previous 49ers teams, and Shanahan began his answer by saying, “It’s not as good a team as the previous teams.”

“This is the hole we put ourselves in,” Shanahan said. “If we want to get out of there, we have to do something special here.”

They can’t do anything special until they stop hitting themselves. That includes Brock Purdy losing the ball on a fumble… and Kyle Juszczyk losing a fumble for the first time in six years… and Kittle dropping a simple, short pass.

The conditions were terrible, of course, but the 49ers didn’t handle it well. Not at all. So they quietly trudged out of a gloomy locker room once again and set off on another long flight home.

“Football is hard, man,” Kittle said. “Things happen. Either you let yourself sink into oblivion and just give up, or you keep going out there and swinging and fighting.

“Technically, we’re not out of the playoffs. Even though it feels dark and gloomy and probably depressing, honestly we can still win. I am convinced that we can do this. I really do.”

Sunday night’s catastrophe makes it difficult for any objective observer to feel the same.

Ron Kroichick can be reached at: [email protected]; X: @ronkroichick