The San Francisco 49ers find themselves in a tough spot at the moment, sitting in last place in the NFC West at 2-3 after their 43-17 home loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday while staring a rugged upcoming schedule square in the face. But they're not about to roll over and play dead anytime soon, based on how the players reacted to their loss Sunday.
The 49ers were expected to get off to a strong start to the 2020 season given an early schedule that consisted of home games against the Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins, and road games against the lowly New York Giants and New York Jets. The 49ers took care of business on the road against the Giants and Jets but have lost all three of their home games this season, which puts them in a bind as they head into a portion of their schedule that includes home games against the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers, and Buffalo Bills, with road games against the Rams, Seahawks, New England Patriots, and New Orleans Saints.
Needless to say, the next two months aren't going be easy for this team. And after the way it played against the Dolphins, it may be hard for fans to find much confidence about any of those games at this point. But there's still plenty of belief among this team that it can navigate that stretch to reach its goal of returning to the Super Bowl, assuming it is able to make the improvements that need to be made.
"The great thing about this team is we have some great leaders on this team," quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said after the loss to the Dolphins Sunday. "We have guys who set the example, show guys how to work and how to put in the time, and I think it's really just about that. It's not time to press the panic button or anything like that. There's still a lot of season left. But there has to be a sense of urgency with everyone, starting from the top down. I think if we all have that sense of urgency and work the right way and work together, we can get this done."
Where do the 49ers start after a game like they had Sunday? The first step will be to go through the film and dissect what went wrong, and from there the team will need to have its veterans step up while continuing to wait on some of its key players to get healthy.
"Watch the film, see exactly what happened, which you have a pretty good idea about it, but you detail it up," head coach Kyle Shanahan said Sunday. "You show the guys specifically where we can get better. You try to get guys who are missing healthy. Then you challenge all your best players. We need our best players to play at their best."
Injuries have indeed been a big thorn in the 49ers' side this season and continued to be a problem against the Dolphins on Sunday. The team was without four cornerbacks due to injury in Richard Sherman (calf), Emmanuel Moseley (concussion), Dontae Johnson (groin), and K'Waun Williams (knee, hip), which the Dolphins were able to take advantage of to the tune of 350 yards and three touchdowns from starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. But there were also conditioning issues with players who were back in the lineup Sunday after missing time due to injury, which showed up when the 49ers were trying to rally from a 30-7 halftime deficit.
"I think we need to get some guys back who have been starting to come back but haven't really gotten enough practices in to where I could see it today -- just conditioning and stuff," Shanahan said. "We've got to get healthier so we can get out there and practice more because I saw some guys get tired that made it really tough to throw the ball there through the second half. I've just got to keep my thumb on everyone."
Whatever the reasons may be, the 49ers haven't had the type of consistency on both sides of the ball in recent weeks that they were able to establish during their Super Bowl run in 2019. They were able to find it in their Week 2 and Week 3 blowout wins over the Jets and Giants, respectively, but they've taken steps backward since then.
"Right now, we haven't been playing very good complementary football offensively and defensively, whereas last year our defense would step up big and we'd get the ball and go down and score," quarterback C.J. Beathard said. "Right now we're kind of struggling with that."
Garoppolo says the offense in particular is still a work in progress, even though many of the same pieces are in place that helped the team win the NFC in 2019.
"Every offense, every team really, you have to find your identity," Garoppolo said. "It's a process. Every team goes through it every year. It's not one of those things that happens very quickly. It takes time. We need to do it with a little sense of urgency. It really comes down to finding out who we are, what we do best and going out there and doing it on the field. There's a million little things that all come together and we've just got to keep working at it."
The good news, as mentioned, is the 49ers don't seem too fazed by what happened to them on Sunday. They were understandably upset about how they performed against the Dolphins, but they were also ready to turn the page and get back to work.
"You could see it after the game," Garoppolo said. "This one hurt. It hurt all of us after the game. It's a tough situation to be in, but we've got some dogs in this locker room. We've got some guys who will come into work the next day with the right mindset, take 24 hours, watch the film and be hard on ourselves like we always are. But we've got guys in this locker room that know what it takes to win, know how to do it, and it's just about going out there and doing it now."
Or, as tight end George Kittle said, "The fight's there. We've got the guys. We don't have guys who want to jump off the ship."
The weeks ahead will obviously make or break the 49ers' season, but there's not much they can do at this point other than get back to work and continue to hope players get healthy. They'll have to find momentum in a hurry in order to get things going in the right direction, but at least they have the mentality they need to have a chance.
"There's nothing to sit here and feel sorry about yourself," Shanahan said. "You've got to be ready for what you're going to get and it's well-deserved, but we've got to close the doors, go out to the field and go to work. You either get better or you get worse, and if you don't get better, it's going to be a long season."