You don’t increase a banner for profitable a Week 7 sport within the NFL.
You don’t drop confetti or pop champagne for soccer video games in October, both.
But when the 49ers can win Sunday towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, the emotional response from the gamers, coaches, and followers, will certainly be so celebratory, you’d assume there will probably be a parade down Market Avenue to commemorate the event.
You see, these 49ers have gained the whole lot there’s to win within the NFL, save for the factor, a title.
Twice, they’ve performed for the last word prize. Twice, they’ve misplaced to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs within the Tremendous Bowl, with each video games ending in excruciating vogue.
“That can give a little post-traumatic stress,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned this week. “I think that’s human nature. But you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games, that was last year.”
However that’s all straightforward to say. It’s not really easy to do.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes are the Niners’ boogeymen. Collectively, they’re an all-time power standing in the way in which of historical past, even perhaps future, for the Niners. It’s “human nature” for the Niners to construct this sport into one thing extra.
Sure, one October sport within the 17-game NFL can solely imply a lot.
However it doesn’t matter what they could say as we speak, for the 49ers, this sport towards the Chiefs on Sunday means the whole lot.
Final week, the Niners’ season was on the brink. This marketing campaign was purported to be one other rampage for the Niners, who arguably boast probably the most proficient roster within the league. A playoff berth was assured from the beginning, leaving the Niners maybe one, perhaps two powerful video games earlier than one other shot on the Tremendous Bowl.
In a league the place everybody preaches going week-to-week, the 49ers, with their Professional-Bowl-laden roster, had been considering month-to-month.
However then there was an underwhelming offseason and a chaotic coaching camp. Accidents and errors began to pile up. The Niners had been 2-3 after 5 video games, desperately needing a win in a short-week, Thursday contest in Seattle.
The Niners saved their season there. San Francisco is again at even footing on the marketing campaign, solely a bit worse for put on.
However whereas final week’s sport was very important to the Niners’ place within the standings, this week is all about perception.
It’s the rarely-discussed, impossible-to-quantify issue that decides soccer video games and seasons. It holds groups collectively, even when occasions are adversarial. It might take good groups and make them nice.
And perception is earned.
With final week’s win, the Niners can as soon as once more fairly consider that they’ll be within the combine for an additional journey to the Tremendous Bowl. They’ll purchase into the long-held perception they’re one of many NFL’s finest groups.
However going to the Tremendous Bowl isn’t the group’s objective.
No, the objective is to win it.
And it’s tough to think about a universe the place the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs — winners of back-to-back titles and three of the final 5 championships, who’re 5-0 on this season — aren’t the opponent within the massive sport.
At this juncture — 0-for-4, 0-for-2 with the title on the road — the Niners’ confidence that they’ll defeat the Chiefs is embattled, at finest.
One other loss and it may be misplaced for good.
And that would go away the Niners in a darkish place for the rest of the season.
The Niners understand how necessary this sport is—they had been concerned in a unique pivotal, emotional affair final season.
San Francisco misplaced to the Philadelphia Eagles within the 2022 NFC Championship Sport after then-rookie quarterback Brock Purdy’s elbow was injured midway by way of the primary quarter of that contest. However the Niners had been satisfied they’d have gained that contest had their beginning quarterback been capable of throw a soccer. They’d no downside making such claims on the document.
And after the Eagles misplaced that subsequent Tremendous Bowl to — who else? — Kansas Metropolis, it arrange an enormous sport between Philadelphia and San Francisco final December. All of the yapping and what-ifs would come to a head in that regular-season showdown for convention supremacy.
Each groups held up their ends of the cut price for months. The Eagles entered the sport using excessive — 10-1 on the season. The Niners had been at 8-3, having righted the ship from a mid-season three-game dropping streak.
And after a shaky begin to the sport, the Niners put a beat-down on the house group for 3 of probably the most dominant quarters you’ll ever see—ultimate rating: Niners 42, Eagles 19.
The Niners backed up their braggadocio. They then knew, deep down, that they had been untouchable within the convention. (That overconfidence almost burned them within the NFC Playoffs.)
The Eagles, in the meantime, exploded into one million items. The group completely restructured its teaching employees, went 1-5 for the rest of the common season, and was blown out within the first spherical of the playoffs. ESPN reported that the Eagles’ quarterback and head coach—the 2 most necessary positions within the sport—had a “fractured” relationship.
There’s no proof the Eagles have recovered this season, both.
Sunday’s might have the same impact for the Niners.
Sure, it might swing towards the optimistic. If the Niners win, the whole lot they ever imagined this season might convey — particularly, a Lombardi Trophy — is mentally again on the desk. In case your group can beat the champions, there’s no motive to doubt that your group might be the champions.
And if the Niners lose? Properly, a season that’s been a tinderbox since final February might discover an igniting spark.
You possibly can solely study a lesson so many occasions earlier than you internalize it, in spite of everything. For the 49ers, it might be, “We can’t beat these guys.” And if the Niners don’t consider they’ll beat the Chiefs, what’s the purpose of combating by way of all these accidents, taking over this brutal schedule, and grinding away day after day?
The Niners have constructed up the 2024 marketing campaign to the place the one worthwhile final result is a title. These title desires might come crashing down in mid-October.
So sure, solely a win or a loss will come from Sunday’s contest — this is only one of 17.
However the remainder of the Niners season will trip the momentum this sport created.
The one query now’s whether or not it is going to elevate the 49ers up or take them down.
