Richard Sherman saw a silver lining in the San Francisco 49ers' loss to the Cleveland Browns. The former NFL cornerback went as far as to suggest that it might be a blessing in disguise.
"Sometimes, you need a wake-up call," Sherman said on his podcast. "You don't want to go undefeated and get the wake-up call in the playoffs because it's over. This team is going to learn from this."
This defeat, the 49ers' first of the season, served as a crucial learning experience, especially for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. Was it an important experience to undergo?
"Yeah, definitely," Shanahan responded during a Monday afternoon conference call. "I mean, I think you've got to play good football in this league or you're going to get beat. And it doesn't matter who you play or win, but we didn't play that good of football, and we almost were still able to pull it out, which I would have been proud of them for doing that.
"I mean, you're not always going to play great football, and you've still got to find ways to win. But rarely do the football gods reward you when you make as many mistakes as we did. Not just missed assignments, penalties, missed tackles, a couple of missed opportunities that are the difference in winning and losing. And when you miss those throughout the game, it really doesn't work out in the end."
Aside from solid opening and closing efforts, the 49ers offense struggled to assemble complete drives throughout the game. The team committed a season-high 12 penalties for a whopping 105 yards. Rookie kicker Jake Moody missed on two field goals, including the potential game-winner. Quarterback Brock Purdy turned in his worst performance since becoming a starter, evident by his 55.3 passer rating.
Yes, there were key injuries, but that's no excuse in the team's eyes. They have to learn to overcome adversity. Sunday's game offered valuable learning opportunities for the 49ers, potentially strengthening their performance down the stretch.
"So either way that happened, I think it was a good learning experience," Shanahan continued. "And really, all that matters is, when they come in tomorrow, and they watch this film with us, just like all that matters when they came in after Dallas and watched the film, is that you watch what you did good, you watch what you did bad, and you make sure that you get better the next week."
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