Mistake-prone 49ers get wake-up call in 'grimy' loss to Browns

CLEVELAND – A lot had to go wrong for the San Francisco 49ers to lose their first game of the season on Sunday.

They lost two of their most important offensive weapons -- Deebo Samuel (shoulder) and Christian McCaffrey (oblique) -- to injury and a third, left tackle Trent Williams, suffered an ankle injury serious enough to require a walking boot for the trip home. They were on the receiving end of two very questionable officiating calls late in the fourth quarter. And their rookie kicker (Jake Moody) missed a last second 41-yard field goal, giving the Cleveland Browns a 19-17 victory and knocking the 49ers from the undefeated ranks.

But mostly what happened is they encountered Jim Schwartz, the architect of a Browns defense that turned the game into a rock fight, forcing San Francisco into second- and third-and-long yardage, harassing Brock Purdy with pressure until he fell to Earth for the first time in his career, making bad decisions and missing open receivers. The 49ers had not scored fewer than 30 points in a game this season, and they had trailed for a total of one minute and 45 seconds in the first five games. But Schwartz has a long track record of success against Kyle Shanahan, when they have met as head coaches and coordinators (Schwartz is now 8-1 over Shanahan teams) and so little about how this game played out, except perhaps the result, surprised anyone.

The 49ers kept using the word "grimy" to describe it, but it is a luxury of a team this talented, with this strong a track record, that their first regular season loss in 16 tries can elicit a philosophical reaction and a very long view.

"It's easy to stand behind that 5-0 record and just expect to be perfect every time," fullback Kyle Juszczyk said after the