The 49ers lost to the Browns on Sunday, 24-10.
It would have been 24-3 if not for a 94-yard scoring drive that culminated in a Blaine Gabbert to Jerome Simpson touchdown with less than two minutes remaining.
Despite the lackluster performance, 49ers radio analyst Tim Ryan believes the result wasn't because of poor effort.
[MAIOCCO: How 49ers surrendered nine sacks against the Browns]
"I did not think they would get pushed around at the line of scrimmage like they did," Ryan explained on KNBR 680-AM on Tuesday morning. "That was one of those games, man, where you know it's not good, it doesn't feel good, you're trying your a-- off, and you have no idea why it is the way it is.
"I know guys were giving maximum effort. It was just one of those days. Period."
When asked a follow-up question about the 49ers' effort, Ryan answered emphatically.
"Hell yeah, they're trying ... that's crap," Ryan declared. "They know what you put on tape is on tape, and you are who you are and there's 31 other teams in pro football. So every guy should understand that every time they take the field it's an evaluation and it's got money attached to it somewhere along the road.
[RELATED: Top 5 takeaways from 49ers' Week 14 loss to Browns]
"These guys all understand that. They're trying their a--es off, man. It's just sometimes you get tight, and you can't really perform at the level you want to perform. But I can promise you that it was maximum effort, even though to the fans it didn't look like it."
Following the loss, Joe Staley said: “You can’t take anybody lightly. We’re not in the position right now to take anybody lightly. We got to take it one week at a time and not give a crap about records or anything because we’re not a position where we’ve done anything. We got to play our (butts) off every single week, and we didn’t do that.”
Ahmad Brooks: "Maybe we took them for granted. Maybe we took them light. Them having the record they had coming into this game, maybe we did take them a little light. Us getting the win last week, maybe we got a little big-headed this week and just felt that things were just going to happen. But we won last week because everybody played hard.”
Eric Reid: "We got our butts handed to us. Couldn’t get it going on offense. Couldn’t get it going on defense. Didn’t make any plays on special teams. You can’t win a game like that."
On Monday, Jim Tomsula disagreed with Staley's assertion that the 49ers took Cleveland lightly, and declared that he "didn't see an effort problem."
The Browns racked up 481 total yards to the 49ers' 221. Cleveland registered 28 first downs to San Francisco's 15.
Blaine Gabbert was sacked nine times, while the 49ers' defense only got to Johnny Manziel twice.
"Give credit to the opponent," Ryan said. "It was a bad performance. That's all I can say."
