With Santa Clara County announcing new COVID-19 restrictions that prevent contact sports for the next three weeks, Kyle Shanahan is in the process of trying to figure out how to safely bring his team to Arizona.
They were sizable underdogs, but the 49ers managed to grind out a 23-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, snapping a three-game skid and keeping the organization in the hunt for a playoff spot. Legendary 49ers quarterback and NFL analyst Steve Young believes the victory can be chalked up to the tight-knit bond that has been forged within the San Francisco locker room.
"Told you that locker room was going to show up," Young told the "Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks show" on KNBR Thursday. "That's when you know you're a well-coached team, that's how you know. Games like that, when there's really no, not a lot of momentum. The Rams look at who's coming out of the locker room like 'you know, we got these guys.' But you don't realize how they were put together, and that connective tissue they have in the locker room, that means something.
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"That win was a reflection of what they built last year and the year before, and even the year before when they were really terrible. We talked about that year being, they were a tough out. You could see building, even though they weren't winning many games, they were building the sense of a locker room that I really sensed."
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The first two seasons under the tutelage of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, the 49ers won just 10 games. But even without victories, a clear resolve was established within the organization, and that spirit manifested itself when the 49ers went 13-3 and advanced all the way to Super Bowl LIV.
Even as injuries have mounted and the 49ers' quarterback play hasn't lived up to expectations, the 49ers have continued to fight and maintain their standing this season in the fiercely competitive NFC West.
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That resolve has been tested further as Santa Clara County barred the organization from practicing or hosting games at Levi's Stadium due to rising COVID-19 numbers, forcing the team to relocate to Arizona for the next two weeks.
If the 49ers can maintain that mental fortitude, we could see them defy the odds and jump back into the NFC playoff hunt.
