No excuse for 49ers’ performance vs. Chiefs?

SANTA CLARA — The 49ers have no excuse for Sunday’s beatdown at the Kansas City Chiefs at Levi’s Stadium.

Except there is such a thing as an excuse with some legitimacy attached, although it’s not in the makeup of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan or just about anyone else running an NFL team to recognize it publicly.

Shanahan, who can be direct with reporters and even more blunt with his team, has a whole laundry list of offenses he’ll be reviewing after a 44-23 loss where the 49ers’ defense was shredded for 529 yards and the offense kept winding up short of the goal line in a hopeless race to keep up with the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.

“We always have hard Mondays and we don’t really shy over anything around here,” Shanahan said Sunday evening. “I think the guys are used to it and guys being accountable in our building with each other has never been an issue.”

After the 49ers’ 28-14 loss in Atlanta when they were short-handed in terms of personnel, it didn’t seem during the week that the loss was taken as seriously as it could have been because of the circumstances.

A second straight loss, this time to a team the 49ers know is a legitimate championship contender, should get their attention.

“There’s a lot of football left to be played, so we don’t want to hit the panic button or anything like that right now and just got to keep plugging away,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said. “There’s a lot of football left in this season. We can make some noise here.”

The 49ers are 3-4 in a division that looks winnable with 10 games. In first place is Seattle, a team the 49ers dominated 27-7 in Week 2. They visit the Los Angeles Rams in Week 8, a team they’ve beaten seven straight times in the regular season.

Shanahan got out-coached by Andy Reid. He’s not the first and won’t be the last.

Before writing off the 49ers completely after a one-sided loss to a viable Super Bowl contender, it’s worth considering the following about the Chiefs loss with the season not yet at the midway point:

The East Coast malaise

The 49ers are now 1-4 under Shanahan in home games after coming off road trips where they stay in the eastern time zone for back-to-back games. And they’ve been awful every time.  The only time they won was 24-20 against Pittsburgh in 2020. They turned the ball over five times and the Steelers’ quarterback was Mason Rudolph.

Losses at home after all the supposedly valuable eastern bonding sessions came against Atlanta in 2019, Philadelphia in 2020 and Green Bay last season.

Shanahan deflected a question about it Sunday, saying he saw no issue with the 49ers energy. We’ll know what he really thinks if the 49ers discontinue the practice next season. Sounds like a good idea.

Shaky return of the wounded

It seemed like everything was breaking right for the 49ers on the injury front. On defense, Nick Bosa returned after missing a game with a groin strain. Cornerback Charvarius Ward came off a groin strain to face his former team. Jimmie Ward played with a fitted cast on his broken left hand. Safety Talanoa Hufanga cleared concussion protocol.

On offense, left tackle Trent Williams was back after missing three games with a high ankle sprain and right tackle Mike McGlinchey made it to the starting gate with a calf injury although there were times he looked hobbled in practice during the media window.

None of those players had anything resembling their best game. Bosa had a pair of nice back-to-back plays including a sack when the 49ers were still in it, but otherwise failed to hold his edge and couldn’t break through the double-teams that he gets routinely.

Ward was targeted by the Chiefs often, with the most egregious error on Mahomes’ 57-yard strike to a wide-open Marquez Valdez Scantling on third-and-11 from the Kansas City 19-yard line and the 49ers within 28-23.

The secondary as a whole was victimized all day, and although Hufanga had an early interception to set up a touchdown, Travis Kelce had six catches for 98 yards.

Frank Clark blew past Williams for a safety. McGlinchey was penalty-prone and ineffective.

The 49ers got a lot of people back, but it was a mirage. They should all be better going forward.

The Chiefs are good, but not unbeatable

The 49ers were outclassed in a big way, but let’s not go anointing anybody other than Mahomes as an MVP candidate.

In the two games leading up to the 49ers, the Chiefs beat the Raiders 30-29 in a game they could have lost but prevailed thanks to some dubious Las Vegas strategy. Then Kansas City lost 24-20 to an admittedly very good Buffalo team.