How Nick Bosa hopes to get over ‘nightmare’ Super Bowl by being better in 2020
Nick Bosa, more than five months later, still can’t bring himself to relive his team’s collapse in the most critical moments of the Super Bowl.
“I don’t like thinking about the game very much,” Bosa said this week as he prepares for training camp. “But I have gone back and I’ve watched up until the fourth quarter.”
The fourth quarter, of course, was a disaster for the 49ers, who surrendered a 20-10 lead to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, losing 31-20.
But Bosa is on a mission to rectifying that in 2020 now that he’s back with his teammates following the offseason of isolation because of the pandemic. Bosa said he spent, “every waking hour” with his brother and workout partner, Joey, the star with the Chargers in their home state of Florida.
“I’m really excited for the year to come because I think we have added some great pieces,” Bosa said. “We’ve obviously lost a couple but the people we added have came in and impressed me.”
New pieces for 49ers offense
One of the new pieces, tackle Trent Williams, whom Bosa will square off against plenty when practices begin Aug. 17, had glowing things to say about his new teammate.
“I think he’s one of the top four or five rushers in the game,” Williams said. “To get that work and be able to have that every day and be able to bounce ideas off each other and talk each other through it, I think it’s going to work out (as the) best case for me and I hope he gains just as much from me as I do from him.”
Bosa was close to disrupting the Mahomes on the biggest play of the game, the infamous third-and-15 conversion to Tyreek Hill, which some would argue he was held by left tackle Eric Fisher.
Bosa was asked about the flag that wasn’t thrown on the game’s most enduring play and said it’s a question he’s been posed many times his first offseason as a solidified NFL star.
“Was I held?” Bosa asked. “It comes down to the opinion of a human being, and that’s what refs are, they’re human beings. … And I’m not going to say that’s the reason we lost the game, because there were plenty of opportunities where I could have done better. I could have done better on third-and-15.”
Being better in those situations has been a focus of Bosa ahead of his second season. The reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year has spent time improving both the mental and physical aspects of his game, saying he wants to have better plans for his opponents after being able to rehash and study his rookie season.
“Last year I didn’t really know what was going to work and what wasn’t,” he said. “You have to come in with a plan and not waste any rushes. So that’s one big thing. Just working my hands more consistently. I win a lot at the top of my rush but a lot of the times I get walked by the quarterback or I don’t close enough space and finish the play.”
Bosa in good shape
Bosa said he’s in better shape this summer despite not having a typical offseason program because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a rookie, Bosa was recovering from a core muscle injury suffered early in his final season at Ohio State. And all the travel required for visiting teams before the NFL Draft took away from his normal training regimen.
His transition to the 49ers didn’t get off to a smooth start, either. Bosa dealt with a hamstring strain during his first OTAs before sustaining a high ankle sprain early in training camp just weeks before he would make his NFL debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But all the questions about Bosa’s durability were answered by the former Buckeye appearing in all 16 regular season games and being a force in all three playoff contests. Bosa played his best in the postseason, registering 22 pressures and four sacks, according to Pro Football Focus, with a season-high 12 pressures and strip sack in the Super Bowl.
So Bosa this offseason went back to his trainer, Todd Rice, hoping to be better prepared for his second NFL campaign than his standout rookie year.
“I definitely didn’t get all the benefits that I wanted to last year,” Bosa said. “But after six months of training, me Joey and him, I’ve gotten all the benefits. … So, I feel like I’m by far in the best shape that I’ve ever been in. I don’t look much different because we don’t train to body build, we train to play football, and I think it’ll show.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 4:00 AM.