The 49ers’ list of playmakers should enable coach Kyle Shanahan to direct one of the NFL's more potent offenses.
However, the 49ers have been less about potency and more about untapped potential through nine games of the season.
The 49ers picked up an important 22-16 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night to improve to 5-4 on the season.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The 49ers hit their average of 22.0 points a game, which ranks 19th in the NFL.
And that simply is not good enough for a team that features running backs Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell, wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, and tight end George Kittle.
“We’re never just stagnate and struggling to move it,” Shanahan said on a conference call Monday with Bay Area reporters.
“But we definitely want to reach our potential, and we’ve had a number of games where we left a number of points on the board.”
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers rank 16th in the NFL with a rate of scoring touchdowns on 54.8 percent of their possessions inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
A year ago, the 49ers were fourth in the NFL with a touchdown on 64.4 percent of their red-zone possessions.
On Sunday, the 49ers got inside the Chargers’ 10-yard line five times and came away with only two touchdowns.
“So if we (scored touchdowns) on those other three, we would’ve been clicking huge,” Shanahan said. “We would’ve had over 30 points and things are going pretty good.”
The 49ers generally moved the ball well against the Chargers with 387 yards of total offense.
Shanahan cited a different reason for each of the three times the 49ers were kept out of the end zone on Sunday, including Aiyuk's dropped pass of a would-be touchdown.
The 49ers scored touchdowns on runs of 1 and 2 yards from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and McCaffrey, respectively.
Mitchell was the team’s leading rusher in his return from a knee injury that sidelined him for seven games. Mitchell had 18 carries for 89 yards.
RELATED: Grading 49ers' offense, defense in important win over Chargers
McCaffrey, in his third game with the team, had 38 yards and a touchdown on 14 rushing attempts to go along with four receptions for 39 yards.
“I’m really excited about having Christian here, but it’s not changing up a ton of stuff,” Shanahan said. “We do what we do, and I thought our guys did it at a pretty high level last night.
“But when you end up scoring only two (touchdowns) when you’re inside the 10 five times, it’s tough to get more than 30 points.”