The 49ers fell to 2-3 after blowing a 13-point halftime lead against the Cardinals on Sunday and that’s a disappointing spot for the team to be in, but it’s not a totally unfamiliar one.
The team started 5-0 last year, but they were 3-4 last year and they were 3-5 in 2021 before advancing to the NFC Championship Game each year. That history led to a question for head coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday about whether the team’s past experience will help them get things on the right track this time around.
“No, I don’t think it pertains to anything,” Shanahan said, via a transcript from the team. “I think everybody goes off their life experiences and we have some people who have been here can always resort to that and just know how things work. I’ve been through a number of them in my whole coaching career, not just here. So, you always know going through this that you can never count yourself out until you’re actually eliminated from something. I’ve seen teams start 0-4 and get there before. So, there’s lots of things that go into it. But I think every year’s different and we’ve got to write our own story this year and it has nothing to do with other years.”
Shanahan has proven to be adept at adjusting and adapting to the different circumstances of each season, so there’s reason to be confident that the 49ers can overcome their early stumbles but the coach is right that there’s no guarantee that this year’s team will wind up faring as well as past editions.