SANTA CLARA — Take a breath, 49ers followers. You want one.
Chaos hasn’t even begun to explain this season up to now. This crew has been downright exhausting for months. And Sunday’s first-half-of-the-season finale in opposition to the Cowboys proved to be no totally different.
Following their worst efficiency of the season final week in opposition to the Chiefs, the Niners carried that type into the primary half Sunday. Penalties wiped large performs — together with a 66-yard landing — off the board, the protection couldn’t appear to get off the sphere on third down, and Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was scattershot along with his throws. San Francisco trailed 10-6 after two quarters. It was a downright ugly half-hour.
But the Niners had been taking part in right down to an unquestionably inferior crew at residence in a must-win recreation. You don’t get to lose back-to-back video games twice within the first half of a marketing campaign and nonetheless contemplate your self a Tremendous Bowl contender, and right here the Niners had been going for that standing.
If ever there was a time for head coach Kyle Shanahan to ship a rah-rah speech — to mild a hearth underneath his crew — Sunday’s intermission was the time.
That didn’t occur.
“That’s more for movies,” Shanahan stated. “Sometimes I have to go to the bathroom.”
The Niners flushed away the primary half and dealt with Dallas within the second half, successful 30-24, even and not using a Shanahan rallying cry.
Sure, in fact, there have been some harrowing moments late on Sunday. It’s the 49ers in spite of everything.
However ultimately, the Niners performed one sturdy quarter of soccer — the third — and moved to 4-4 on the yr.
Cease me for those who’ve heard this earlier than, however every thing the 49ers wish to obtain continues to be in entrance of them. They’re tied for the lead within the NFC West in a convention that is still broad open. They haven’t impressed this season, however they’ve hardly disqualified themselves, both.
And dealing with the last word intestine examine on Sunday, this crew responded.
Perhaps it was a blip. The Cowboys are a good greater mess than the Niners.
Or maybe the Niners, dealing with a very sobering second, lastly shook off that final little bit of a Tremendous Bowl hangover.
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In the event you’re in search of silver linings, aid (although not the sort Shanahan may need acquired at halftime), or optimism amid a season that’s felt, at occasions, cursed, that 21-0 third quarter was for you.
“We felt like the superior team, and we just needed to execute a little better,” Nick Bosa stated of the halftime message — if there was one.
“It wasn’t really frustrating because we knew it was all on us,” Trent Williams stated. “It was nothing they were doing… If we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we’ll get everything we want.”
However to be that crew, the Niners wanted Purdy to appear to be a $60 million man.
He was cash within the second half.
The Niners drove down the sphere in 5 performs to begin the second half, with George Kittle’s 43-yard catch-and-run (keep in mind these?) establishing a 4-yard landing run from Isaac Guerendo.
Deommodore Lenoir adopted that collection by intercepting Dak Prescott with an acrobatic sideline swipe, giving the Niners the ball on the Dallas 32. Seven performs later, the Niners had been ultimately zone once more.
The protection locked down for a three-and-out — considered one of 4 consecutive three-and-outs Dallas had between the top of the second and the beginning of the fourth quarters — after which Purdy, with a little bit of sensible improvisation on a scramble play, drove the Niners 75 yards on 9 performs to leap out to a 27-10 lead.
“We had some missed opportunities in that first half, especially on third downs,” Purdy stated. “A lot of that was on me.”
“For me, I was just being real with myself, and knew I had to be better,” the Niners quarterback continued. “I gotta get back to basics and keep things simple in my mind. Still playing with conviction but still being aggressive. Just trusting in my guys.”
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That’s not simple. Certain, throwing to Kittle is simple, however Purdy labored with rookies, deep-roster gamers, and a restricted Deebo Samuel.
He did what was mandatory. He made it work anyway. That’s what wonderful quarterbacks do.
And sure, the Niners practically gave all of it away within the fourth quarter — what’s new? — however they made sufficient performs late to run down the clock with the lead intact.
Now the Niners — and observers — can step off the hamster wheel momentarily, take inventory of what has already occurred this season, and re-calibrate for a harrowing second-half schedule.
“We can be whoever we want,” Fred Warner stated.
He wasn’t speaking about Halloween, both.
Does this crew have sufficient to attain its singular objective?
If Christian McCaffrey can return from harm — keep in mind when he was imagined to play in Week 1? — they only may.
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