Kyle Juszczyk got his second career rushing touchdown on Sunday afternoon. That was about the end of the highlights for the fullback and his San Francisco 49ers. His team was routed 43-17 by the Miami Dolphins and still seeks its first home win of the season.
The 49ers' next opportunity to do that will come next weekend against the Los Angeles Rams. With San Francisco owning a 2-3 record, some players may feel an increased sense of urgency.
Juszczyk has another way of looking at the rest of the season, as the 49ers enter a difficult stretch over the next five weeks before the bye.
"Obviously, the mood is pretty down right now, pretty low," Juszczyk told reporters. "That was embarrassing, what we just did out there. Everybody takes it personally because we set a standard here, and that wasn't even close to it."
The 49ers are coming off a season during which they won 13 games en route to a Super Bowl appearance. This was supposed to be a Revenge Tour. Most might think the team's goal is unrealistic now. The way the 49ers looked against the Dolphins, they could struggle just to make the playoffs.
The fullback prefers to be more optimistic, though.
"I refuse to be negative here," Juszczyk said. "It's easy to look at the rest of the season as a whole, and just think, Wow, we need to win 11 games in a row to match our record from last year. It's just the wrong mindset to have. You really just have to break it up week by week, and just look at it one single game at a time. If you do that, it just doesn't seem so overwhelming.
"If we really look at it, we just have to go beat the Rams next week. That's my advice that I've given out to the guys for this next week."
Juszczyk, like several of his teammates, said there remains a lot of fight in the team. It will just push forward and focus on next weekend's opponent rather than the daunting odds against it.
