The 49ers got beaten thrice in a row now. They hoped for a win after a 10-38 defeat by the Packers. But the Bills dominated them by leading them in every quarter and won 35-10. But the HC Kyle Shanahan still believes that they can qualify for the playoffs. The hope is still there.
After the week 13 defeat, the HC said in the pots game conference, “All must wins. If we want to get out of it (the hole they’ve put themselves in) we’ve got to do something special here.” The Niners Empire is in real danger of elimination. That has been their story this season.
Shanahan: "All must wins. If we want to get out of it (the hole they've put themselves in) we've got to do something special here."
— Nicholas McGee (@nicholasmcgee24) December 2, 2024
They have struggled to win games. They came from the bye week and won the week 10 game against the Buccaneers. But after that, they lost three consecutive games. This has lowered their confidence, but Kyle Shanahan isn’t ready to give up. He is trying to find the areas that are giving them headaches.
The foremost among them is the injury department. Key players like RB Christian McCaffrey, and WR Brandon Aiyuk got injured. McCaffrey came back in week 10 after recovering from his Achilles injury. He got injured again on December 1. The receiver Aiyuk tore his ACL and MCL against the Chiefs in the week 7 loss and was ruled out of the entire season. Even QB Brock Purdy missed the week 12 game because of an injury. However, the team also needs to prepare better.
Coming back to the game against the Bills, the weather forecast already projected that the weather will be challenging. But looks like they didn’t see that either.
Kyle Shanahan’s TE attributes the loss to the bad weather
The snowstorm was there when the game began. The temperature was a low 28 °F with gusty winds. It surely affected the visibility as well. Their TE George Kittle blamed the loss on the weather and said, “One of the weirder environments I’ve played in. They took advantage and we didn’t.” That’s right.
Now that was the responsibility of Kyle Shanahan to make counter plans. Even before the game started, the visuals showed snow everywhere around the stadium. At one point, there was a risk of the game being postponed, but thankfully, it didn’t happen. However, it’s all in the past now.
