After a bad start, here’s why the San Francisco 49ers are a dangerous playoff team
The San Francisco 49ers struggled to find their identity, faced questions about sticking with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback and even had a head coach deal with more heat than any time in his tenure.
That will happen when you lose to the Arizona Cardinals on your home field, who were starting their backup quarterback, to fall to 3-5 in early November.
“When you’ve played eight games and you lost five of them,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said, “it’s tough not to waiver a little bit.”
But the season has flipped on its head, and it’s time to consider San Francisco a dangerous playoff threat as the 49ers continue to solidify their chances at reaching the postseason.
The 49ers, according to FiveThirtyEight, had an 88% chance at making the playoffs following Sunday’s lopsided win over the Falcons, 31-13, who came to Levi’s Stadium with a shot to jump San Francisco in the postseason standings. Here’s how good things are for the 49ers: Thursday’s close loss to Tennessee doesn’t change their odds of going to the playoffs.
And what a tough out they will be in the playoffs. The Atlanta game was another example of the 49ers’ resolve after they appeared dead in the water and embroiled in quarterback controversy early in the season. The 49ers sit firmly in the No. 6 seed in the NFC standings, ahead of Washington and five other teams with six wins, including three they own head-to-head tiebreakers over (Minnesota, Philadelphia and Atlanta).
“We did think that we had a team that (could get to the playoffs). And we knew it was all out there,” Juszczyk said. “There was just so many little things that killed us earlier in the season, things that we feel we could have done a lot better, taking care of the football, getting the football (via takeaways). We had some close ones that just didn’t bounce our way.
“For everything that had happened, the same could happen in reverse. And it’s been good to get back on the winning side.”
49ers defense leads the way
San Francisco is not the same powerhouse it was in 2019. This version isn’t as talented, but it’s finding its stride, evident by winning six of its last eight games, including Sunday’s thumping of Atlanta that never felt in jeopardy after Deebo Samuel scored his seventh rushing touchdown of the season in the second quarter.
Shanahan’s team has found ways to win the games it needs to win, which wasn’t the case early in the year.
The 49ers had to rebound against the Rams and beat them on “Monday Night Football” by 21 points. They needed the tiebreaker against the Vikings Nov. 28 and showed they were the better team. They proved they could come from behind in Cincinnati after giving up a field goal to start overtime, before Brandon Aiyuk scored the game-winning touchdown on San Francisco’s next possession.
The 49ers on Sunday showed the offense doesn’t need to rely on either the run or the pass game. But the defense has made perhaps the biggest strides.
San Francisco defenders Nick Bosa and Arden Key were regulars in Atlanta’s backfield. Key has become the team’s most consistent pass rusher outside of Bosa. Even Samsom Ebukam, who’s had a quiet season, recorded a sack, quarterback hit and tackle for loss against Atlanta.
“We’ve always been confident in this group and we don’t really need to change much,” Bosa said. “We had some meetings with Kyle throughout the year where we just had to kinda figure out what was going on. And when it came down to it, it was usually us shooting ourselves in the foot. Obviously there’s games where things don’t go our way, but if we play sound football and don’t turn the ball over, it’s usually a good thing for us.”
San Francisco entered Sunday 5-0 when winning the turnover battle. The 49ers fumbled the opening kickoff against the Falcons, but didn’t allow a touchdown, instead forcing a turnover on downs at the 1-yard line. The Falcons had five plays on the day from the 1 and failed to get in the end zone on any. They had 13 plays inside the 10-yard line and failed to score a touchdown.
“We gotta make something happen and we take pride in that,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “That was huge today for our team because those counts as takeaways for the team, and it gets crazy down there. It was something that was really special.”
49ers rise as NFC powers misfire
The 49ers’ ascent comes while there doesn’t appear to be a surefire juggernaut in the NFC.
The Cardinals, who were the No. 1 seed for the majority of the season, lost to lowly Detroit on Sunday, dropping their second straight game to fall to 10-4. The Rams are just behind them at 9-4 ahead of Tuesday’s game against Seattle. Of course, the 49ers play L.A. in the regular season finale hoping to extend their five-game winning streak over coach Sean McVay’s team.
The 49ers believe they can compete with the Packers based on how winnable their last-second loss was Week 3. If they have to travel to play the Cowboys, there would likely be red jerseys all over Jerry World as Dallas has come back to earth following its 6-1 start to the season.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, last year’s champions, lost Sunday night but might be the top team in the conference. But the 49ers are at least proving they can contend with anyone based on the way they’re playing over their eight-game stretch.
“We have a lot of good players that could make a lot of really big plays,” tight end George Kittle said. “I’ve always believed in this offense, this team, that we can go out there and make plays, and earlier the season we were turning the ball over way too much. We’ve just stopped doing that and it’s given us a chance to win.”
They’ve also gotten good play from Garoppolo, who has stopped the discussion about Trey Lance replacing him, at least until the upcoming offseason.
Warner, who is a team captain alongside Garoppolo, made a profound point about Garoppolo’s leadership that’s largely been absent from the discussion about the team’s quarterback situation.
“Inside, he’s been the guy all along,” Warner said. “And Trey, he’s got a bright future ahead, right? We see it every day in practice on our side because he’s out here that passing us up (on scout team). But Jimmy is our leader, he’s our quarterback and we’re all behind him the entire way. So to see him playing at a high level like he right now, we’re going to need him.”
Warner is right. If Garoppolo continues to play this cleanly and efficiently, the 49ers can hang with any of their counterparts in the NFC, which should make the playoffs interesting after it looked like they weren’t capable of getting there.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 6:55 AM.
