At a certain point, injuries just don't cut it as an excuse. Ditto for quarterback play. 

We've reached that point with the San Francisco 49ers, who on Sunday dropped to 3-5 with a multi-score loss to the division-rival Arizona Cardinals despite the fact quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo completed 28 of 40 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns, despite the fact a finally-healthy pass-catching corps was quite productive, and despite the fact the Cardinals were altogether more depleted than they were. 

Garoppolo threw an interception and took five sacks. He hasn't made more than a handful of high-impact throws all season and is certainly not a tremendous asset. Heir apparent Trey Lance has hardly been a factor yet.

And injuries at various points to Garoppolo, Lance, George Kittle, Raheem Mostert, Dre Greenlaw, Dee Ford, Javon Kinlaw, Jaquiski Tartt, K'Waun Williams, Jason Verrett and Emmanuel Moseley have factored in, just as they did when Football Outsiders deemed that the 49ers were hit harder by injuries than any team in the NFL last season.  

Still, plenty of teams have been hit harder than San Francisco this year. The Cardinals didn't have stars Kyler Murray or DeAndre Hopkins on Sunday, but they went into the Bay Area and handed the 49ers their 10th loss in their last 11 home games. 

"We didn't play very well today at all," Shanahan said after the 31-17 defeat. "I was real disappointed. I thought we'd played really well. We had a good week of practice that we'd even improved from the week prior, but obviously it didn't go that way."

Obviously. It was a critical divisional game against an extremely vulnerable opponent and they laid an egg. That's on Shanahan more than anyone. 

It's unacceptable, and an indication that tough injury breaks and mediocre quarterback play have only masked the fact this team is broken. 

Last season was supposed to be the anomaly for the Kyle Shanahan-coached 49ers, who went to the Super Bowl in Garoppolo's first full season as the team's quarterback in 2019. But at this point, it's beginning to look as though that NFC title-winning 2019 campaign was the aberration.

Outside of that, Shanahan has a 19-37 record has an NFL head coach.  

He didn't have a quarterback for much of 2018 or 2020, injuries were a factor both seasons and the Niners weren't an especially talented team to begin with in those first two seasons, but 19-37? And now 3-5 and an NFC-worst minus-nine turnover margin with the roster in half-decent shape this year? Come on...

The 49ers entered this week with a team passer rating (91.1) outside of the bottom 10 in football, but Shanahan's offense only ranked in the middle of the pack with 24.0 points per game and they ranked in the bottom 12 in scoring defense. 

There's almost nowhere in which they're special on paper or otherwise, which is astonishing considering the talent they have along the offensive line and upfront on defense. A team with Trent Williams, Mike McGlinchey, Deebo Samuel, Kittle, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Arik Armstead and Jimmie Ward has no business losing this frequently. 

The not-even-close home loss to the Murray/Hopkins-less Cardinals is a tipping point. It's confirmation that the 49ers aren't a high-quality team, just in case the message wasn't clear when they struggled more than they should have against the weak Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles in Weeks 1 and 2 before losing four in a row. 

Even if you include that 2019 season, the 49ers have by far the worst turnover margin in the NFL during the four-plus-year Shanahan era. But they've mortgaged everything on this team, and Lance in particular. To land him atop the 2021 draft, they parted with their next two first-round picks. And they're scheduled to possess practically no salary-cap space next offseason. 

They're all-in, and only Lance has a shot at saving them from an inevitable gut-job and rebuild now. At this stage, though, it's fair to ask whether Shanahan is the right man for the job, and whether they have the right makeup to succeed regardless of Lance's progress in the weeks, months and years to come. 

Now that he's out of excuses, all signs point to Shanahan not being the wunderkind or the legend-in-the-making he's been painted as. If the 49ers don't completely turn around this season in the next nine weeks, they'd be smart to cut bait and give Lance and Co. a new regime to work with entering 2022. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012. Follow him on Twitter: @Brad_Gagnon.