The 49ers, man. It’s exhausting, right?
Sunday night’s win over the Cowboys, while welcome as hell, was the season of frustration in miniature:
— No TDs in the first half as Brock Purdy misfired on a couple of key passes, including a critical fourth-down to Deebo Samuel.
— Injuries, a constant in 2024, rearing their unattractive head when RB Jordan Mason was knocked out with a bad shoulder.
— A couple of quite unfortunate penalties derailed drives, and in one case, a touchdown.
— The third quarter was the team at its best. Purdy using his legs to gash the defense; George Kittle looking like “the best tight end in franchise history”, as Tim Ryan called him today on our show; rising corner Deommodore Lenoir making a game-changing interception.
—And then the fourth quarter stagnancy; a 17-point lead whittled to six, and the Cowboys with the ball and plenty of time. Oof.
Now, we know there was a happy ending. The 49ers finally met a team unwilling to accept their offer of a gift. The Rams and Cardinals happily snagged the offering, but the Cowboys are so dysfunctional and disjointed, they could not. The Niners won.
And we were all left to exhale, be sorta happy, and sorta flummoxed and, quite appropriately, staring at a 4-4 record going into the bye that requires a much-needed break.
I think the 49ers need a break from us, and we all need a break from the 49ers.
If any one of us says or does something toxic for the relationship during the bye, we can all fall back on the Ross Geller Game Plan and shout to the football gods: “We were on a BREAK!”
By the time the 49ers hit the pitch down in Tampa on Nov. 10, we’ll be ready to resume our time together.
Of course, by Nov. 10, a lot can have changed in the country, and we’re just hoping Nick Bosa hasn’t been called to the cause and is ready to play football and sack his buddy Baker Mayfield.
Can I riff? Someone had to break the tension.)
Back to the football team: At some point during the first half, I told myself, ‘It just ain’t the Niners’ year.’ The penalties, the fumbles that bounced back into Dallas’ hands, the fourth-down pass behind Deebo, the amount of talent sidelined by injury . . . sometimes you just know when it ain’t your year. And there’s no sin in it not being the 49ers’ year. I am a child of the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana/Camelot years, and the Niners didn’t have banner years every year. 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987 — each of those years ended unfulfilled.
You can’t win ‘em all, as it turns out. You can tell someone I wrote that.
Moreover, I did truly believe that the amorphous ‘Super Bowl Hangover’ — and you can apply that meaning any way you’d like, from injury to emotional depletion — was looming over the team all summer and through most of these first-half games. Again, not a sin. Making four consecutive long runs into January and February without a title can be exhausting.
And yet . . . here we are.
The 49ers are actually in the mix.
The NFC West is there for the taking. Kyle Shanahan says Christian McCaffrey could very well play in Tampa, and that’s a heck of a thought. Jauan Jennings could be back, too. There is a chance Dre Greenlaw is back in the coming weeks, though that is a big ask.
The best teams peak late. Shanahan’s 49ers are a staggering 23-5 in November-December-January regular season games the past three seasons. They’re in the hunt. They’re getting healthier.
They’ve done just enough to take our exhausted selves into the break, and just enough to keep us on the edge of belief. The 49ers, man. Onward, into the uncertain future.
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