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Merry Bye Week, 49ers, it’s the happiest time of the football year for all the tired guys in red uniforms.
Yes, it’s a late-November miracle. The 49ers not only fought their way into the NFC playoff race, they’ve gained on everybody in the last few weeks, when it would’ve been pretty logical to slump to the ground in fatigue and frustration.
Instead, the 49ers powered into this bye week — the latest anybody on the team can remember experiencing — with a 26-8 nuts-and-bolts victory in the wind and freezing cold on Sunday in Cleveland.
They’re now 9-4, on a three-game winning streak, with some of their best players just hitting their strides after injury absences, in excellent playoff position, and suddenly within reach of winning the NFC West (just a half a game behind the 9-3 Rams and Seahawks).
Most immediately (and eagerly), the 49ers get their most precious reward right now: a week off to heal the bruises and clear their minds before a final four-game regular-season stretch and, it sure seems likely, a playoff run into January.
Can it be? This isn’t a dream, is it? The bye week, really and truly?
“Yeah, I can’t believe it’s here,” Christian McCaffrey told reporters in Cleveland after the game. “I felt like for a while it wasn’t gonna come.”
Of course, a gloomy 49ers partisan could point out that the momentum might be halted with a week off, that the best thing a hot team can do is keep on playing and playing.
But that premise ignores the extreme mental and physical toll of this season, from the Week 3 loss of Nick Bosa (more than two months ago!) to the Week 6 loss of Fred Warner, to the injury ins and outs of George Kittle, Ricky Pearsall, Mykel Williams, and many others, and to the six consecutive weeks when backup quarterback Mac Jones ably stepped in for Brock Purdy.
5 days ago
Friday, Nov. 21
Tuesday, Nov. 18
It’s been a lot. They all could do with a break. I guarantee you that Kyle Shanahan and his coaching staff, who’ve had to do all the frantic strategy juggling and depth-chart conjuring, could definitely use about four straight days of slumber.
Before the dozing, the 49ers also deserve to feel a healthy amount of satisfaction. After the injuries, they’re not the most fearsome team in the league and won’t be Super Bowl favorites even if they make the tournament.
They certainly weren’t dominant against an extremely vulnerable Browns team on Sunday (they were outgained 253-252); instead, the 49ers patiently played the field-position game and waited for the inevitable Browns screwups.
All three of the 49ers’ touchdowns came when they had short fields — after a long Skyy Moore punt return (leading to a McCaffrey rushing touchdown), a stop on Cleveland fourth-and-1 try in Browns territory (leading to a Purdy TD run), and Cleveland’s muffed punt early in the fourth (leading to Jauan Jennings’ 7-yard TD catch).
Which was the perfect pragmatic focus for the elements involved. And it was the right way to move into the bye week in this season of fixing everything on the fly and just hanging on.
Brock Purdy scampers into the end zone on a read-option keeper against the Browns. | Source: Jason Miller/Getty Images
Purdy protected the ball and made some nice throws after last weekend’s three-interception stumble. McCaffrey fought for the tough yards. Kittle made the biggest offensive play of the game, breaking loose down field for a 33-yard reception late in the second quarter to set up a field goal to give the 49ers a 10-8 halftime lead. And then the 49ers crunched the Browns and rookie quarterback Shadeur Sanders in the second half.
The 49ers played the long game on Sunday, and it worked.
They’ve played the long part of 2025. Now the 49ers have a short season left, full of the fun stuff. Starting with some relaxation.
“It’s finally here,” Shanahan said. “Mentally and physically, it’ll be awesome to rest and be able to come back from that with four games to play for a chance to get into the playoffs is everything we could ask for.”
The 49ers are now 6-2 on the road this season, an important mark knowing that unless they win the division, they’ll be starting the playoffs on the road and might have to keep playing road games in cold cities like Philadelphia and Chicago.
But we’ll deal with all that once and if this team is playing in January. For now, this is another Shanahan team that seems to be peaking at just the right time — just like in 2021 and 2023 — and now can reload and get ready for a relaunch in mid-December.
“When you have a Week 14 bye and it’s like, Week 11 or 12 and you’re sitting around, ‘OK, we’ve got three more games,’” Kittle said. “You don’t want to look ahead but at the same time, it’s like, ‘We can do it, we can just lock in for three games, then everyone’s gonna get that little bit of time off.’
“It’ll be great for everybody. Every single person.”
The 49ers’ defensive line consistently pressured Browns QB Shedeur Sanders during the second half of Sunday’s game. | Source: David Richard/Associated Press
So what’s possible beyond this glimmering mini vacation? The 49ers have an easy one after the bye week — a home game against the currently 1-11 Titans on Dec. 14. (The 49ers are 6-1 in the week after their bye since the start of the 2019 season.)
Then the 49ers will face the toughest stretch by far of this abnormally easy schedule. They’ll travel to Indianapolis to play the 8-4 Colts on Monday Dec. 22, host the 9-3 Bears on Dec. 28, then finish the regular season at home against the Seahawks the weekend of Jan. 3 (the game can be either Saturday or Sunday depending on league and TV directives).
Can the 49ers go 3-1 to the finish line and get to 12-5 and essentially clinch a wild-card spot? Can they go 4-0 and be in play for the NFC’s No. 1 seed at 13-4? It’s possible. I don’t think that last one is likely, but stranger things have happened.
Remember, in each of the 49ers’ four previous trips to the playoffs during the Shanahan era, they’ve made it at least to the NFC Championship Game. If the 49ers get there this time, let’s just say it now, this would be the most unexpected and certainly the gutsiest trip.
And you never rule out a good, tough, opportunistic team on a roll with a short field in front of it.