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They lost more key players. They lost all the key plays. They lost the biggest game of the season. They lost the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The 49ers lost and lost and lost on Saturday night. They felt the losing. Oh man, did they lose.
So what can they do before they lose their minds over this absurd and absorbing season?
The 49ers can keep fighting, starting with the wild-card round of the playoffs next weekend. They have to keep fighting. And in the moments after their deeply disappointing 13-3 loss to the Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium, that’s exactly what the 49ers promised to themselves and everybody else who matters.
“This team’s been through a lot this year,” Kyle Shanahan said quietly but pointedly. “Now we’ve got to do it the hard way. And we’ll embrace the s— out of the hard way.”
They finished the regular season at 12-5 and will either be the NFC’s fifth or sixth seed going into next weekend, with a long flight to play the very dangerous Eagles as the likeliest (and least promising scenario.)
That’s extremely different than the bye week and full home-field advantage through Super Bowl 60 (at Levi’s) that the 49ers would’ve earned if they’d just gotten a little more offense, if Yetur Gross-Matos was able to recover a fumble right in front of him, and if Christian McCaffrey hadn’t bobbled away a tipped pass near the goal line that turned into the game-sealing Seahawks’ interception.
The 49ers’ run defense struggled to stop the Seahawks on Saturday night. | Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
The Seahawks deserve the No. 1 seed, no doubt. The 49ers were not good enough on Saturday. They probably aren’t good enough to last too long as road underdogs.
But that’s all part of their new theme: Nobody thought they were good enough to get this close to the No. 1 seed in the first place, so why go the easy route now?
Nobody would’ve predicted that the 49ers could push it this far after the early-season losses of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner — and with Brock Purdy, George Kittle, and others missing big chunks of time.
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So maybe the golden road was all wrong for them, anyway. How do you keep your edge if you never have to leave home on the way to the Lombardi Trophy?
Well, they’ve got an edge now, thanks to Seahawks and the bitter memories of this game. Thanks to all the losses on Saturday, rolled up into three sour hours.
“We don’t have time to sulk over things,” McCaffrey said. “I’ve gotta make that play, but I can’t get it back. I’ve gotta come back hungry for these playoffs.”
They’ve got the hard road now. They’ll have to win multiple times in hostile environments. They also might’ve lost Dee Winters (ankle) and Tatum Bethune (groin) for the short term and don’t know if Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall will make it back for wild-card weekend after missing Saturday’s game.
They might have to keep going with Austen Pleasants at left tackle and Eric Kendricks and Garret Wallow at linebacker into the postseason.
Are the 49ers really up for this?
“Oh, we’re ready for it,” Shanahan said.
I don’t know if his teeth were gritted when he said this, but it sure seemed like it. The entire 49ers’ playoff run might be performed under extremely clenched conditions.
“Our mindset is to go fight wherever we’re at,” Bethune said. “That’s what we always do. Doesn’t matter where; we can play in this locker room right now and we’re going to give it all we got.”
The Seahawks collapsed the pocket and converged on Purdy throughout Saturday’s game. | Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
The 49ers’ biggest disappointment on Saturday: Their red-hot offense was shut down (gaining a season-low 173 yards after racking up 430 or more in each of their previous three games) by the Seahawks’ fast and physical defense. There is no way the 49ers will last long if this happens again in the playoffs.
The biggest bright side: The 49ers’ vulnerable defense bent and bent against Seattle’s offense but held up as well as could be expected in the many times that the Seahawks got into 49ers’ territory and gave up just one touchdown.
Put those two things together and … maybe Purdy’s offense can rev up again. The 49ers will need this. And maybe the defense can continue to bandage things together for a little while longer, until Warner can make it back in a few weeks.
It still doesn’t look great in a potential matchup in Philadelphia. Or, if the 49ers manage to slip through that one, a divisional-round game in Chicago, or perhaps a trip to Seattle at the end of the NFC tournament.
“Hopefully, we earn a chance to play that team again,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers don’t have the first-, second-, or maybe even third-best available roster going into the NFC playoffs. Which certainly played out on Saturday — no, the 49ers don’t have anybody like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, DeMarcus Lawrence, or Nick Emmanwori.
But that was also true well before Saturday, and the 49ers won six games in a row in November and December to get to this point, anyway. They’ve taken advantage of a soft schedule, sure, but so have the Seahawks, actually.
So the 49ers won’t be favorites. They’ll actually be one of the lower underdogs. And what’s new about that?
“Our team has been through so much — adversity, guys going down, next guy up,” Purdy said. “People have counted us out, that’s fine. We’ll go on the road and have to find a way to win. We’ve done it before.”
Or maybe the 49ers won’t have to go to Philadelphia — if the Rams lose to Arizona on Sunday, the 49ers will get the fifth seed and draw the NFC South winner in the wild-card round.
Hmm, think the 49ers have a preference?
“Whoever it is, whatever happens,” George Kittle said, “go Cardinals.”
The 49ers lost a lot of things on Saturday. They can win it all back in the next few weeks — or lose it all right away. They’re on the razor’s edge, like they’ve been all season. Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if the Rams get dragged there, too?