The 49ers marched easily through the NFC playoffs last season, but their playoff run ultimately ended in Super Bowl heartbreak.
It wasn’t easy to overcome, especially after the Kansas City Chiefs erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to swipe the Lombardi Trophy from the 49ers’ embrace.
The outcome left some 49ers in tears, all of them reeling over an opportunity lost. Time lessened the immediate blow, and that 31-20 loss at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens eventually became a teaching tape.
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That was the case for middle linebacker and defensive signal caller Fred Warner, who has examined it for ways to reverse an unwelcome outcome.
“It was hard to watch at first because of the raw emotions, but I have watched it a lot since playing in the game,” Warner said on Friday in a video conference with local reporters. “There’s a lot we could’ve done differently to the outcome. It was obviously a great effort by the Chiefs to win that game, but I put a lot of the onus on the defense. Being able to get a stop in the fourth quarter when they were coming back, that’s how we win the game.”
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That proved a struggle. The 49ers allowed 21 unanswered points in the Super Bowl’s fourth quarter while Kyle Shanahan's offense sputtered down the stretch.
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Warner intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the third quarter and the 49ers offense turned that into a touchdown. Tarvarious Moore picked the Chiefs quarterback again on the next Kansas City drive, but it was all KC after that.
While Warner had a decent Super Bowl, he has dissected his performance in that game and several others to create offseason goals heading into the 2020 season.
"For myself, there were a couple of plays I could’ve made in that game to help us a little more,” Warner said. “A big thing I’m working on this season is taking better angles to the football. I left a lot of plays out on the field, in terms of tackling, last season. I’m working on that and capitalizing on plays that I missed last season.”
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The linebacker corps was operating well near season’s end and made strides despite Kwon Alexander missing significant time with a pectoral injury. Warner expects the position group to make a major jump next season thanks to the continuity that wasn’t available the group was fortified last offseason with Alexander and fifth-round NFL draft pick Dre Greenlaw.
“We will be able to communicate a lot more effectively,” Warner said. “This time last year, it was a completely new group. Kwon was coming in from the Bucs and Dre was a rookie. Us having a year working together is going to be huge for us. Everything is going to move along a lot smoother, we’ll be a lot faster and we’ll make more plays at the end of the day.”