SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The 49ers last week watched the entire Super Bowl loss as a team for the first time, bringing up the raw emotion from one of the most excruciating games of many players’ lives.
It served as a reminder what the team’s goals are for 2020 and how a few plays could be the difference between the achieving the sport’s ultimate goal and having a sunken feeling in your gut that might never go away.
Super Bowl LIV, in which the 49ers’ squandered a 10-point fourth quarter lead to the Kansas City Chiefs, has been a talking point during the team’s return to training camp.
Sunday was a particularly tough practice. Dee Ford and Brandon Aiyuk were added to the team’s list of injured players and the energy was tough to find as the team had its fourth consecutive padded practice ahead of Monday’s off day. As grueling as training camp can be, particularly since the stakes on the practice field are heightened with preseason games being canceled, re-watching the Super Bowl has offered players a reminder.
“You just got to push through those days,” linebacker Fred Warner said, who calls the plays and is the lead communicator for the defense. “You can’t just try to go through the motions. Everybody understands that every rep, every moment counts. And I think that’s been the message throughout camp, is that last year we did make it to the Super Bowl, and it was just those small little moments that had we made one or two plays, we win that game. And so this time around, making sure that we’re making that emphasis throughout practices, I think that’s what’s going to be huge for us.”
Added right tackle Mike McGlinchey: “Football is a game that gives you a lot of scars, but it’s a matter of how do you come back and use those scars to learn, to grow and then, ultimately, never let them happen again.”
Since coach Kyle Shanahan took over, the 49ers have been a fun-loving team. Last year’s rise from 4-12 to championship contender was a dream set in reality for many players. But that newness that comes from a rapid ascension wears off with the burden of expectations.
San Francisco isn’t going to sneak up on anyone this season. The team is among the betting favorites to get back to the Super Bowl. And there’s a balance being struck between having the fun-loving personality that was important throughout 2019 and maintaining the businesslike focus it will take knowing they’ll get every team’s best once the regular season starts.
“I think ignorance is bliss at times and I think when you don’t know better, you don’t know, you know?” cornerback Richard Sherman posited this week. “But when you know better, you do better. And I think that’s the case. When people know the standard and know how high you can take it and know what it takes to get there, then I think you see people looking to that standard more often and measuring themselves to that more often.
“So when you have that standard and you have that accountability every day, then sure there are still a ton of laughs and there are guys having a blast playing football. People are being held accountable for mistakes more often _ and making them less.”
New left tackle Trent Williams is enjoying being with his new team after making the playoffs just twice since 2010 with Washington, losing in the opening Wild Card round both times. He noticed the mood in the meeting room change when Super Bowl film was put on the screen.
“I can feel the cringe any time that film comes on and everybody still is pretty much holding a grudge about the last game and they can’t wait to get out there and kind of start that quest again,” Williams said.
The difficulty is getting back to the Super Bowl after losing it. Only three teams have ever won the Vince Lombardi Trophy the year following a Super Bowl defeat. It has the 49ers focused on the details during training camp.
Said Dee Ford: “We’re trying to get better. We’re trying to reach our full potential, even if it’s 1% a day. We don’t care what it is. We are obsessed with just getting better. That’s hard to do when you’re as good as we were last year. You really don’t try to re-invent the wheel. You just focus on small things, be obsessed with detail, that is the 1% that we’re fighting for.”
