If there's one thing San Francisco 49ers fans can't stand, other than enduring yet another losing season, it's hearing about the team's 10 consecutive losses to the Seattle Seahawks. The latest was a 43-16 beatdown at CenturyLink Field just two weeks ago.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan, who joined KNBR on Friday morning, will have another chance to end the losing streak at Levi's Stadium on Sunday when the two teams clash for the second time in three weeks. Shanahan hasn't been part of the losing streak for too long, but he is tired of hearing about the Seahawks' recent dominance over the 49ers and is hoping to give the Niner Faithful some relief from it.
"I've been sick of them for a long time," Shanahan said on the "Murph & Mac" show. "I'm also sick of hearing how long it's been since we've beaten them. I was just telling our team we're going to have to hear that for a whole other year unless we can take care of that Sunday. I plan on just hearing that for two more days, and then hopefully we can end this drought we've been on."
It's unusual for two teams to meet twice over three weeks during the regular season. Being division rivals and running similar defensive systems, the 49ers and Seahawks are undoubtedly familiar with each other.
"It happens every couple of years," Shanahan said of the nearly back-to-back matchups. "It is different because you show so much in one game and then it's hard to change a lot up when not much has changed in just the one game that's been played since.
"In this particular instance, I don't think it's a big deal at all. We're so familiar with Seattle. They're so familiar with us. We run such a similar defensive scheme. Not only being with the Niners, but everywhere I've been, I feel like I play Seattle every single year.
"We've had a lot of history together, so there's not that many secrets. It will pretty much be all about football and who's more physical, who tackles better, who can take care of the football, and that will lead to who has more points."
Shanahan knows the 49ers have to play sound defense against Seattle, who thrives on off-schedule plays. The goal will be to limit those types of unpredictable plays and make Russell Wilson play quarterback rather than improvise.
"It's kind of controlled chaos, and that's what Russell does best," Shanahan explained. "Usually the more you can make guys do that, it's hard for them to be consistent and win games. Russell has proven that, over time, he's not like that. He can consistently make the off-schedule play, and he's won a lot of games doing it."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.