After the San Francisco 49ers' 20-17 Week 11 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, they're the No. 10 seed in the playoffs after tiebreakers. While the division is tight with Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco all one game behind the 6-4 Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers still have a 31% chance to make the postseason. Hall of Famer Steve Young appeared on the Dan Patrick Show and shared his frustrations after being asked if the 49ers are still a Super Bowl contender.
“I want to say yes. Obviously getting healthy but how healthy can you get? Defensively, we’re in the middle of the pack, maybe a little bit above average. Offensively in the red zone last year, you know, the stat that blew my mind, and I don’t know if you or I talked about this.
“Behind the line of scrimmage passes, screens, all those kinds of quick passes behind the line of scrimmage. They led the league in yards per attempt by throwing behind the line of scrimmage last year. It was an incredible run, an incredible year of things just working, all the talent, it was amazing. This year, they’re not even close to that. In the red zone, not even close to where they were last year, so they are not acting like a team that’s going to threaten.”
The 49ers have two divisional games left on the schedule. In Week 15, they host the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. In Week 18, they travel to Arizona. They also have three upcoming opponents who were in the playoffs last season: Green Bay, Buffalo and Detroit.
49ers are hanging on by a thread
Not much has gone right for San Francisco this year, but much of it is by their own hand. An incredible stat highlighted by ESPN's Nick Wagoner shows how often the team has choked away wins this season.
“According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 49ers have three divisional losses when leading in the final two minutes of regulation, which is tied for the most such losses by a team in a season since the 1970 merger,” Wagoner wrote.
“San Francisco's three late-game letdowns have come in just four chances, and the Niners are tied with the 2001 Carolina Panthers, 2000 Los Angeles Chargers, 1996 Baltimore Ravens and 1994 Washington Commanders as the only teams to have that many defeats in those situations on the résumé.”
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Brock Purdy is trying to return San Francisco to last year's chip-on-our-shoulder mindset.
“Obviously [in] years past, it's like we put that behind us and play the next play,” Purdy said. “Just because we had success the last couple years doesn't mean just because something bad happens to us, we're just magically going to make up for it. We've got to have the chip on our shoulder to go take it every single play, down and game. We've just got to get back to that mindset.”
