It wasn’t hard to see what went wrong for the 49ers in Week 13. They got torched by a talented quarterback playing at an elite level. Bills quarterback Josh Allen did close to everything right in Buffalo’s 34-24 romp and put up an unprecedented performance against San Francisco.
Allen completed 32 of his 40 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns Monday night at State Farm Stadium. According to Pro Football Reference’s database, Allen is only the second quarterback to ever throw for at least 375 yards and four touchdowns against the 49ers.
The only other instance came in Week 14 of the 1982 season when Dan Fouts lit up the defending Super Bowl champions for 444 yards and five touchdowns. Neither Allen nor Fouts threw an interception.
It’s hard to imagine Allen wouldn’t have eclipsed Fouts’ 444 yards and five TDs had the 49ers kept the game closer and forced a more explosive offensive output late in the game from the Bills. Allen did manage a higher completion rate at an eye-popping 80 percent on 40 throws. Fouts completed 68.8 percent on 48 attempts.
That wasn’t the bit of history the 49ers defense envisioned being a part of this season.
