SANTA CLARA — We’ll find out this week about the rest and reset capabilities of the 49ers under coach Kyle Shanahan.
They’ll reach the midway point of a 17-game season at halftime Sunday of a road game against Jacksonville. Whatever the score, we should have some idea whether the kind of football that got the 49ers off to a 5-0 start is still somewhere beneath the surface, or if the mistakes and one-step-slow play that led to an 0-3 pre-bye slump are still in evidence.
I’ve heard a lot of assessments from head coaches at the bye week before, but Shanahan’s “slow and tired” soliloquy in the aftermath of a 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals was a first. Coaches seek speed, explosion and conditioning over just about everything else, and if there are concerns in those areas, they seldom admit it in public.
But Shanahan is a blunt man and has enough job security to give his own honest opinion without fear of reprisal. He’s not going to get dressed down by general manager John Lynch or CEO Jed York, who will nod in agreement while he goes about the business of restoring the luster to a team that looked built to win a Super Bowl before hitting an unexpected rough patch.
If the 49ers jump off to a quick start and outclass Jacksonville, the social media scapegoating of quarterback Brock Purdy and defensive coordinator Steve Wilks can take a week off.
One thing that’s for certain: If the 49ers look anything like the team that opened with a 30-7 win against Pittsburgh and beat Dallas 40-12, the bandwagon reopens for business.
A couple of things happened over the weekend that make it already look as if things are breaking right for the 49ers. First, the Seattle Seahawks, their primary competition in the NFC West, were embarrassed 37-3 against the Baltimore Ravens. Seattle gave up 298 rushing yards in the worst loss of Pete Carroll’s tenure.
Time to slow the roll of Seattle being capable of winning the division. The two teams meet on Thanksgiving and then again at Levi’s Stadium on Nov. 23.
Second, the Cincinnati Bengals looked vastly superior to a strong Buffalo team Sunday night. The way Cincinnati and quarterback Joe Burrow are playing, the 49ers returning home on a short week against a strong team coming off a bye and losing by 14 doesn’t look nearly as bad.
The back-to-back East Coast roadies that led into the Cincinnati loss, plus injuries to Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel, are all mitigating factors. If the 49ers keep losing, they’ll be called excuses. If the September 49ers reappear, they’ll be called reasons.
To spend a lot of time poring over the matchups over the next few weeks for the 49ers is to miss the overall picture.
Over the bye week, I cited a couple of issues of concern. The first was running the ball and stopping the run, a staple of 49ers teams that regressed during the three-game losing streak. The second was the need for their star players to stand up and be counted.
The good news is that everyone responsible for the 49ers excelling in those areas en route to 5-0 is still around. The same defenders who forced five consecutive three-and-outs to open the Pittsburgh game. The same McCaffrey who rushed for 450 yards in his first five games. The same Purdy who completed 37 of 45 passes for 535 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in back-to-back wins over Arizona and Dallas.
As much as armchair experts are certain that the 49ers’ lack of pressure, Wilks’ defensive play-calling and Purdy’s late interceptions are the reason for the downfall, the three losses suggest something more complete in terms of the roster.
Think of the last three games and it’s not hard to come up with a player or an area that has come up short. Save for the additions of edge rushers Randy Gregory and Chase Young, it’s still the same roster of players that were selected not just because of their ability but dedication to their craft and the team concept.
That means it should be fixable, with the right people in the locker room to fix it.
You want to see an organization with problems? Look to Las Vegas and the Raiders, a team that broke out victory cigars for a “ding-dong, the witch is dead” celebration after beating the New York Giants 30-6 to improve to 4-5 after the firing of despised coach Josh McDaniels.
“Culture” is one of the most overused terms in sports, but it was instructive to hear Gregory and Young talk of the difference of being with the 49ers as opposed to traveling circuses disguised as NFL organizations under the direction of Jerry Jones and (formerly) Daniel Snyder in Dallas and Washington. It was the same thing McCaffrey noticed when he arrived by trade a year ago from Carolina.
A three-game losing streak in the NFL is akin to a 30-game losing streak in baseball, so it’s a big deal. But some teams and organizations are better equipped to deal with that kind of adversity than others.
We’re about to find out if the 49ers, with a week off to rest up and refocus, are as good as they and most everyone else thought they were.
