After being blown out by Green Bay and losing another late lead to Seattle the previous week, the San Francisco 49ers have quickly gone from being Super Bowl contenders to a team now just trying to make the playoffs.
If San Francisco doesn’t get healthy and fix the mistakes that led to their 38-10 loss to the Packers on Sunday, the focus will shift from playoff hopes to what changes are needed in the offseason.
“I think everyone understands completely outside and inside what the situation is,” coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday. “That’s why the Seattle game was so tough of a loss and that’s why last night was even worse. We know what we got ahead of us. We know exactly what the playoff situation is. That is what it is. But really, all that matters is this week when you do need to go on a run and put a lot of wins to even think of that.”
Things won’t get any easier for the 49ers (5-6), as they will play at Buffalo on Sunday night. The team hopes to get injured stars Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa, and Trent Williams back for the game, but their return alone won’t fix everything that went wrong on Sunday.
The defense was repeatedly beaten early, putting the 49ers in a 17-0 hole before their offense even got a first down. The running game struggled, and Christian McCaffrey has not looked like the 2023 Offensive Player of the Year in his three games back from Achilles tendinitis.
And whenever the Niners seemed to make a good play, penalties would set them back.
It added up to the worst loss for San Francisco since the 2018 season, before Shanahan turned the team into regular playoff contenders.
“It’s probably one of the worst ones I’ve been a part of,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “It is embarrassing. You’ve got to take it on the chin, take it like a man and move on.”
Despite the tough losses, the 49ers are just one game behind Seattle and Arizona in the NFC West standings with six games left to play. But San Francisco already has three division losses and faces a tough schedule, including games against the Bills this week and Detroit in Week 17.
“My optimism is not broken by any means,” tight end George Kittle said. “We still have a lot of very talented players. We will get some guys back and I still have full trust in the coaching staff to put our guys in position to make plays. I have no worry about that. But definitely an uphill grind. We’ll see what we’re made of, which I’m looking forward to.”
