The San Francisco 49ers are struggling to reach the same intensity on the field as they displayed last season. Few expected the team to lose three of their first five games, especially given their recent dominance over division opponents. Having dropped both NFC West matchups so far, the 49ers hope to avoid a third division loss on Thursday night against the Seattle Seahawks.
While the Week 6 matchup isn't a must-win, falling to 2-4 would be disastrous for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
On Wednesday morning, general manager John Lynch hesitated to call Thursday night's game a "must-win," but he acknowledged the urgency within the organization.
"Must-win ultimately means if you lose, you're out of it, so it's not there," Lynch said. "But ... you go 0-3 in your division, that's not good."
Linebacker Fred Warner, the 49ers' top defensive player and a leader in the locker room, was asked if he had a message of urgency for his teammates after they had lost three of their last four games. He emphasized that such a message shouldn't even be necessary in a locker room like the 49ers'.
"I'm kind of at the point where the circumstance is what it is," Warner said. "We're 2-3 going into a Thursday night game against the divisional rival, prime-time, with the stakes of being number one in the division. If I have to give some sort of grandiose speech to get you going for this moment, we probably don't have the right guys."
Tight end George Kittle knows what's at stake and is eager to head to Seattle and earn a victory.
"I don't really want to be 2-4, and being 3-3 is significantly better than that," Kittle told reporters on Tuesday.
With upcoming games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, leaving Seattle with a win is crucial for building momentum heading into those matchups.
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