The San Francisco 49ers had to move past Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons quickly. The team currently sits with an 11-3 record and has shifted its focus toward Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Rams.
"You never want to lose a game," tight end George Kittle told reporters before Tuesday's practice, "but fortunately, we played well enough in the first however many games of the year to where that loss didn't really hurt us too bad.
"More just disappointed in ourselves, but it's another week to get better, and we're looking forward to playing the Rams."
George Kittle on Kyle Shanahan's message to #49ers team after losing to Falcons:
"You never want to lose a game but fortunately we played well enough in the first however many games of the year to where that loss didn't really hurt us too bad." pic.twitter.com/p6HD3emvEc
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) December 17, 2019
San Francisco still controls its own destiny and, with two wins to close out the season, could regain the top seed in the NFC playoff race. That begins on Saturday and is followed by a trip to CenturyLink Field to play the Seattle Seahawks.
Garoppolo wasn't ready on Sunday to hear the talk of the 49ers clinching a playoff berth because the emotional wounds from the loss were still fresh. With the Falcons in the rearview mirror, the quarterback and his teammates can better appreciate the position in which they find themselves.
"Today, just getting that realization back in our mind that we do control our own destiny," Garoppolo said on Tuesday. "If we handle business, we'll be in a good spot. We've got to take it one game at a time. It will start with the Rams, and we'll take it from there."
The 49ers aren't looking past any opponent (not that they did so against the Falcons), and know the Rams are playing for their playoff lives. Los Angeles remains mathematically alive, and is therefore very dangerous.
"They're very talented. They're very well-coached," head coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I think over this last month, they've been playing as good of football as anybody in this league.
"I think until the Sunday game (Rams loss to the Dallas Cowboys) got a little out of hand, but they had a top-10 offense and top-10 defense before that. They have a very good special teams. So (they have) talent and (good) coaching."