2020, as everyone knows, has been an utterly horrible year for much of humanity. And on Sunday, during their Week 1 24-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the San Francisco 49ers had to deal with the unusual circumstances the events of 2020 are presenting to NFL teams and found them to be quite noticeable, even if they weren't to blame for what went wrong in the game.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49ers played their home opener Sunday in front of an empty stadium with piped-in crowd noise and socially distanced cheerleaders wearing masks. Sunday also marked their first time playing any sort of game during the 2020 season due to the fact that COVID-19 caused the NFL to cancel every game on the preseason schedule. To make matters worse, the 49ers had to continue to deal with smoky air conditions due to wildfires that have been running rampant across the West Coast.
It was just the start of what could be a long and challenging season of dealing with the bizarre and unexpected.
"That's the 2020 season for you," running back Jerick McKinnon said following the game. "There's a lot of uncertainty... That's just things that are going to come with the 2020 season."
Sunday's home opener was clearly not what the 49ers had envisioned after falling just short of a Super Bowl win during the 2019 season. Under ideal circumstances, the team would have had a fired-up crowd at its back as it took its first step in trying to avenge its Super Bowl loss. But it had to deal with an empty stadium filled with artificial noise, and it did make somewhat of a difference.
"It does kind of affect you when you're out there and you don't have the crowd, especially when we did such a good job last year," running back Raheem Mostert said. "Our home opener this year, we wanted the fans to go crazy. We know that could have been a good part of the outcome. It might have changed, might not have. But when you're inside those white lines, you don't worry about the fans and hearing the crowd and stuff like that. You're just more in tune to your assignment, your job, and trying to do the best you can so that way you can get that W at the end of the game."
Not having fans in the stands resulted in more than just a lack of energy and excitement. It also caused the players to have to adjust when it came to hearing what each other was saying as well as being able to tell what was going on in the game.
"It was different in terms of communicating with one another and then hearing their communications and being locked into that," cornerback Richard Sherman said. "So it was kind of a cat-and-mouse game when it came down to those plays. But it was definitely different. When you're on the sideline making adjustments, you can't tell when a big play's happened. Usually you can judge it off the crowd. But it's one of those things. Everybody has the same circumstances and we deal."
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and linebacker Fred Warner also felt the absence of fans made a noticeable difference, but not enough of one to blame for losing the game.
"Obviously it was a little different today without the crowd," Garoppolo said. "That gameday feel, it just wasn't there. But it just comes down to execution. Especially in the last couple minutes like that, every play's crucial, every yard's crucial. We just didn't execute when we needed to."
Warner said, "It was a lot different out there without the fans, just a different situation. But I think we had every opportunity to win that football game. You've got to give them credit for pulling them out. Obviously I think there's simple things we need to fix to make sure we're executing at a higher level. I think ultimately that's what's going to allow us to win football games."
As far as not having a preseason, the opinions on that matter seem mixed. Some players may feel like the extra tune-up preseason games may have been an asset.
"Preseason always helps, just being in that game-type situation, being able to play against other guys and get on that same page, but we just didn't execute today," McKinnon said.
Others, such as Sherman, probably feel the preseason is somewhat useless and didn't play a role in the outcome of Sunday's game.
"That didn't change anything," Sherman said. "Preseason's the most unnecessary thing in the league. I don't think that makes a difference. Most of the starters don't play much in the preseason either way."
Regardless of the circumstances, the 49ers need to pick up the pieces from Sunday's loss and face whatever challenges come their way from this point on. 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa offered up some confidence to any fans who might have been dismayed by how things turned out Sunday.
"We're not too shaken up about this," Bosa said. "We know what we're capable of doing and we're going to come back strong."