It's safe to say no NFL team has ever experienced anything quite like what the San Francisco 49ers have had to go through in 2020. But the team isn't about to use it as an excuse for its losses over the last three weeks.
The 49ers had already been having a challenging season heading into the final few games on the schedule due to a large number of injuries and various players dealing with obstacles pertaining to COVID-19. But things were really thrown for a loop on November 28 when Santa Clara County announced COVID-related restrictions that wound up preventing the team from playing its remaining home games at Levi's Stadium.
The 49ers had to relocate to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona as a result of the restrictions, leaving the team on the road for the month of December and without a home game until 2021. Three straight losses have piled up since Santa Clara County's announcement, including the first two 49ers games in Arizona (a 34-24 loss to the Buffalo Bills on December 7 and a 23-15 loss to the Washington Football Team on December 13) and a 41-33 road loss to the Dallas Cowboys on December 20. One would think the move to Arizona didn't help the team's chances in any of those games, but none of the players were willing to do anything but blame themselves after the loss in Dallas.
"Has it been a challenge? Yeah," quarterback Nick Mullens said. "But if you go back to the reason why we're losing, it's because of turnovers. It's not because we're in Arizona or we're not working as hard."
The latest loss put the 49ers at 5-9 for the season, all but ending the team's chances at making the playoffs despite making a run to the Super Bowl the year before. The frustration over what's happened this season is evident. But, as Mullens said, the team is more upset with the fact it has had seven turnovers over the past two weeks than it is with having to spend Christmas in the desert.
"We've dealt with a lot of crap this year," head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the loss to Dallas. "But when you say it's too much to overcome, I think we would have overcome it without turnovers today, and I don't think the turnovers necessarily have to do with all of that. When you play good football, you have a chance to win every week. Regardless of our circumstances, that doesn't mean you have to turn the ball over."
Linebacker Fred Warner told reporters after the Cowboys game that he's been able to remain focused after the move because he can see the end in sight, and he expects other players to do the same.
"I can speak for myself and say I don't care about what the situation is because I know it's going to end at some point. I know we're not going to have to stay in Arizona our entire life," Warner said. "Back when we came to Arizona, we had a designated time period of us being in Arizona, and then the season's going to end and we go back home. That's the deal. So we needed to take care of business while we're in Arizona. The team has done a great job of giving us everything that we need. Guys just have to do their job at the end of the day. I don't care what the situation is. Yeah, we can talk about COVID, we can talk about injuries, and all that stuff is a factor and it means something, but we've just got to play complementary football."
It's not a desirable situation to be in, and chances are no team will be more relieved than the 49ers to see 2020 finally come to an end. But in the meantime, they'll still expect to play well and win over the final two weeks of the season, because no other team in the league would expect anything different under the same circumstances.
"It's extremely frustrating, but there's no complaints," ;eft tackle Trent Williams said. "The whole league's got to deal with it. Nobody had to up and move home like that, but at the end of the day, nobody's going to feel sorry for us so we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We've just got to do better."