The San Francisco 49ers fell to a 40-34 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football, falling to 6-10 this season due to another embarrassing second-half collapse.

Offensively, San Francisco played one of its better halves of football to start the game, taking a 21-13 lead into halftime with Brock Purdy and the running passing game. However, that ended in the second half as the 49ers blew another lead en route to a double-digit loss.

Defensively, the 49ers had little to answer for the Lions on offense, as Jared Goff eclipsed the 300-yard mark while Jahmyr Gibbs reached 100 yards on the ground in a strong offensive performance from the Lions.

Here are three quick takeaways from the 49ers’ 40-34 loss to the Lions on Monday night.

Brock Purdy’s story consists of two halves

Brock Purdy played one of his best, if not the best half of football early in the game against the Detroit Lions.

He was on fire, finishing the first half 14/16 for 200 yards, three total touchdowns and a perfect passer rating of 158.3, giving San Francisco a quick lead.

Purdy connected with Ricky Pearsall and George Kittle on several plays and set the tone for the 49ers, who had a chance to score on all four drives and scored touchdowns on each of their first three before Jake Moody missed a field goal in the fourth.

In the second half, however, the offense began to weaken overall. After Detroit tied it, Purdy went 4/5 for 79 yards and a touchdown on the 49ers’ first drive of the half, most notably hitting Ricky Pearsall for a big 39-yard gain while George Kittle threw a short pass for Made 22 yards. through defenders on the way to the Detroit five-yard line.

It seemed like things were taking a turn for the better for San Francisco as they got off to a strong start, but that’s where the concerns began.

Purdy threw an ugly interception after Detroit scored a field goal, giving the Lions a short field that they capitalized on with an eight-play, 43-yard touchdown drive to take the lead. From then on, Detroit would never back down.

San Francisco gained some momentum on the ensuing drive, but stalled at the Detroit 40-yard line, setting up a difficult 58-yard field goal for Jake Moody, which he missed wide, keeping all the momentum on Detroit’s side .

Still, the opportunity presented itself for San Francisco after leading the Lions to another field goal, but Purdy followed up with his second interception and stared down the middle of the field with a single-high safety in coverage, leading to the pick by Kerby led Joseph, who took a dig at Ricky Pearsall.

That was the nail in the coffin with eight minutes left, when Detroit had a two-point lead and the 49ers only had one more possession.

Towards the end of the game, San Francisco was very pass happy as they engaged in situational football. With the passing game working, the 49ers completed four straight passes before Moody’s missed on a 58-yard miss, while Brock Purdy hit George Kittle on an 18-yard play before missing on three straight incompletions.

On the ensuing drive, the 49ers came up with a throw, but a sack and penalties forced San Francisco into real passing situations. After overcoming those problems on first downs, the 49ers had a 24-yard completion negated by a penalty, leading to another passing situation. A Detroit penalty on 1st & 15 gave the 49ers a first down, but then Purdy’s next interception came on an ugly play.

With the 49ers trailing by just two points on the next possession, it was again a few passes that took the lead and required a lot of work from Purdy, who was unable to score any points himself before exiting due to injury.

Purdy was fantastic early in the game, but his two interceptions were extremely costly and contributed to San Francisco’s demise on Monday night. There have been a few games now where Purdy and the offense had the opportunity to keep games close in the fourth quarter, and they really struggled to make that happen in 2024. That has to change next season.

Jake Moody fights again

It feels like we talk about it every week. Another week, another failure from Jake Moody.

Moody made two field goals from 50-plus yards on Monday and was 0/2 on the day, missing a 51-yarder and a 58-yard field goal in the loss. More importantly, the second-year kicker also missed one of his five extra points. Those points made the difference in Monday’s game, no matter how difficult it was to get them.

Moody has fallen to 23/32 (71.9 percent) on field goals this season, which is 38th in the NFL. Additionally, his extra point rate of 96.7 percent ranks 22nd in the NFL.

With each missed kick, Moody’s third-round status puts more and more strain on the 49ers, as they made an unprecedented selection in last year’s draft and took such a high kicker.

Last weekend, head coach Kyle Shanahan had a no-confidence vote for Moody after the loss to the Miami Dolphins. He then backed Moody again this week, but admitted that this year they would judge everything after the game.

Moody cannot be the true starter in 2025, regardless of his draft status. His inconsistency comes at a position where one cannot wait for development as missteps can lead directly to losses.

At the moment I feel like both he and his teammates have lost confidence in themselves, which is never a good sign.

Ricky Pearsall’s breakout

If there was one big positive Monday night, it was the breakout of first-round rookie Ricky Pearsall, who had a career day with eight catches for 141 yards and a touchdown.

Pearsall had only amassed 58 yards in the last six weeks, so Monday’s performance was definitely an eye-opener as the rookie scored early and often.

Most importantly, Pearsall was able to assert himself in the middle of the field, showing what can happen in the future, especially since he has another top-class wideout in Brandon Aiyuk.

His 141 yards were the most by a 49ers rookie in nearly 40 years. Pretty neat.

Putting Pearsall in space seemed to do wonders in San Francisco, as he scored multiple 40-yard touchdowns that year. We’ll see if the 49ers can incorporate that even more in Week 18 before turning to 2025.