© Sergio Estrada | 2019 Dec 16
The 49ers, who won a combined 12 games over the previous three seasons, are going to the playoffs. On Sunday night, at least, there was little joy about that result.
That makes sense. They blew a nine-point lead to the now 5-9 Atlanta Falcons at home and made their road to winning the NFC West a game more difficult. Still, for a team that’s lost so constantly over the past few seasons, the news that they had clinched a playoff berth did not strike a chord for many players.
And, it did come as news. Most players, unaware of either the result and/or the implications of the Los Angeles Rams’ 44-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, found out from reporters that they had clinched a playoff spot. I asked Joe Staley if clinching while losing to the Falcons was weird.
“I didn’t even know that,” Staley said. “Yeah, that’s weird. Don’t even feel good. We want to clinch by winning. But I think the main thing is, like I said, we have two games left for the season. And we take care of business and we play how we know we’re capable of playing in this locker room, I think we look back on this as a huge learning experience from this season and we’ll carry that forward in the playoffs.”
That was the mood in the 49ers’ locker room after perhaps the most devastating defeat they’ve had this season: eagerness.
Against the Seahawks, it was a bruising affair, in which either team was constantly one play away from deciding the result. It was the same against the Baltimore Ravens. But the 49ers had no business losing to the Falcons, and they know it, despite players giving Atlanta their rightly-earned plaudits.
The frustration of Sunday’s loss is sure to be utilized as motivation, just as a loss against the New Orleans Saints would surely have been used this week. While they won’t admit it, it’s hard to imagine the 49ers wouldn’t have won Sunday’s matchup coming off a loss in New Orleans.
There is eagerness in the sense that the players in Santa Clara want nothing but to get back into their facility, study tape and correct mistakes, work on their bodies and assess issues on the practice field.
“You watch tape and the thing is that you learn from this stuff, this doesn’t define our season going forward this isn’t something that’s going to linger in this locker room,” Staley said. “It’s a bad loss and credit to them and, obviously, we’d love to be sitting here after with a win. But we’re going to learn from this and own it and then have a hell of a week of practice and that’s what we can control. That’s all we can do.”
As Staley said, just about every player in the locker room was unimpressed by their own performance. Nick Bosa and Mike McGlinchey were especially disgusted.
“I know I let all of them down,” Bosa said. “No [I didn’t play well] because I didn’t win my rushes, I did the wrong thing on a couple plays. I just need to be more of an impact player.”
Nick Bosa pulled no punches after the loss.
"I know I let all of them down… I need to be more of an impact player." pic.twitter.com/puAV4OCLHY
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 16, 2019
McGlinchey lamented a consistent lack of execution, and while he said the playoff berth is “something to be proud of,” his focus was on finishing the season with a pair of division wins.
“It’s tough. We had every opportunity at times, on both sides of the ball to make that one go in our favor and we didn’t,” McGlinchey said. “You know those, those times where we cross the 50 and we’re driving, and my stupid ass penalty on the one drive that maybe that next play we get the first down. Luckily we didn’t get kicked out of field goal range and still got a little bit of points but we have to get touchdowns, and there’s no excuse not to. I think we’re way better than the way we played today on both sides of the ball.”
The eagerness to return to practice was typified by DeForest Buckner.
“I just heard about the playoffs,” Buckner said. “It’s nice consolation, but we didn’t handle business today. Thank God it’s a short week, we can go onto the Rams. But we’ve got to look at this loss hard and fix our corrections because they played hard today.”
The fact that the 49ers weren’t even wondering about the Rams’ result is the most significant indication of where this team has come from. There was no asking from players what had happened in the matchup in Dallas, and as far as anyone could tell, no indication that players knew there was another route to the playoffs.
It may seem counterintuitive to praise a team so clearly below its best on Sunday for its mental acuity. But the reaction to clinching a playoff spot reveals that this team is sincerely engaged in the pursuit of a Super Bowl, and it would be unfathomable for another let-off like Sunday’s to take place against the Rams, Seahawks, or whoever this team faces in the playoffs. If they lose again, they will not be embarrassed.
For a team that lacked so much joy for the past few seasons to have finally reached the playoffs, the fashion in which it was clinched was not a vindication. The anger at what happened on Sunday is proof as much as anything that this team feels no satisfaction in anything other than perfection, and even when they seem to play perfect, it’s not viewed that way internally.
A playoff berth is a monumental achievement and is no doubt appreciated in Santa Clara, but the 49ers have no intention of resting on their laurels.