{"id":653499,"date":"2026-01-04T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653499\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T15:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:00:38","slug":"can-the-49ers-fight-their-way-through-the-hard-road-oh-were-ready-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653499\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the 49ers fight their way through the hard road? \u2018Oh, we\u2019re ready for it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the Section 415 podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The 49ers lost and lost and lost on Saturday night. They felt the losing. Oh man, did they lose.<\/p>\n

So what can they do before they lose their minds over this absurd and absorbing season?<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Stadium, that\u2019s exactly what the 49ers promised to themselves and everybody else who matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team\u2019s been through a lot this year,\u201d Kyle Shanahan said quietly but pointedly. \u201cNow we\u2019ve got to do it the hard way. And we\u2019ll embrace the s— out of the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n

They finished the regular season at 12-5 and will either be the NFC\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s extremely different than the bye week and full home-field advantage through Super Bowl 60 (at Levi\u2019s) that the 49ers would\u2019ve earned if they\u2019d 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\u2019t bobbled away a tipped pass near the goal line that turned into the game-sealing Seahawks\u2019 interception.<\/p>\n

\"AThe 49ers\u2019 run defense struggled to stop the Seahawks on Saturday night. | Source: Amber Pietz\/The Standard<\/p>\n

The Seahawks deserve the No. 1 seed, no doubt. The 49ers were not good enough on Saturday. They probably aren\u2019t good enough to last too long as road underdogs. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

Nobody would\u2019ve predicted that the 49ers could push it this far after the early-season losses of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner \u2014 and with Brock Purdy, George Kittle, and others missing big chunks of time.<\/p>\n

1 day ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

4 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Dec. 19<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

Well, they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time to sulk over things,\u201d McCaffrey said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotta make that play, but I can\u2019t get it back. I\u2019ve gotta come back hungry for these playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got the hard road now. They\u2019ll have to win multiple times in hostile environments. They also might\u2019ve lost Dee Winters (ankle) and Tatum Bethune (groin) for the short term and don\u2019t know if Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall will make it back for wild-card weekend after missing Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

They might have to keep going with Austen Pleasants at left tackle and Eric Kendricks and Garret Wallow at linebacker into the postseason. <\/p>\n

Are the 49ers really up for this?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, we\u2019re ready for it,\u201d Shanahan said. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if his teeth were gritted when he said this, but it sure seemed like it. The entire 49ers\u2019 playoff run might be performed under extremely clenched conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mindset is to go fight wherever we\u2019re at,\u201d Bethune said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we always do. Doesn\u2019t matter where; we can play in this locker room right now and we\u2019re going to give it all we got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe Seahawks collapsed the pocket and converged on Purdy throughout Saturday\u2019s game. | Source: Amber Pietz\/The Standard<\/p>\n

The 49ers\u2019 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\u2019 fast and physical defense. There is no way the 49ers will last long if this happens again in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The biggest bright side: The 49ers\u2019 vulnerable defense bent and bent against Seattle\u2019s offense but held up as well as could be expected in the many times that the Seahawks got into 49ers\u2019 territory and gave up just one touchdown.<\/p>\n

Put those two things together and \u2026 maybe Purdy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It still doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, we earn a chance to play that team again,\u201d Shanahan said.<\/p>\n

The 49ers don\u2019t have the first-, second-, or maybe even third-best available roster going into the NFC playoffs. Which certainly played out on Saturday \u2014 no, the 49ers don\u2019t have anybody like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, DeMarcus Lawrence, or Nick Emmanwori.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve taken advantage of a soft schedule, sure, but so have the Seahawks, actually.<\/p>\n

So the 49ers won\u2019t be favorites. They\u2019ll actually be one of the lower underdogs. And what\u2019s new about that?<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team has been through so much \u2014 adversity, guys going down, next guy up,\u201d Purdy said. \u201cPeople have counted us out, that\u2019s fine. We\u2019ll go on the road and have to find a way to win. We\u2019ve done it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or maybe the 49ers won\u2019t have to go to Philadelphia \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Hmm, think the 49ers have a preference?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever it is, whatever happens,\u201d George Kittle said, \u201cgo Cardinals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 49ers lost a lot of things on Saturday. They can win it all back in the next few weeks \u2014 or lose it all right away. They\u2019re on the razor\u2019s edge, like they\u2019ve been all season. Hey, wouldn\u2019t it be fun if the Rams get dragged there, too?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,2644,7,2812,6,1161,252,2624,2623,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-653499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-brock-purdy","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kyle-shanahan","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115837431095690316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}