The 49ers have run roughshod over their schedule to date, culminating in a 42-10 beating of a Cowboys team that had deluded itself into thinking it was in San Francisco’s weight class.
The Cowboys aren’t. At this point, no one is.
The challenge for the 49ers becomes checking boxes one week after another, fending off the feisty Seahawks and cementing their grip on the No. 1 seed in the NFC. (The 5-0 Eagles will still have something to say about that.)
On Monday, coach Kyle Shanahan was asked whether he needs to worry about the players getting ahead of themselves, believing the hype that comes from their performances.
“I’m definitely aware of the question and how that could happen,” Shanahan told reporters. “But it’s honestly been real easy with our guys. We’ve got a real good team in that way. Just going into that game versus Dallas, how hyped that game was and just the way they carried themselves in our building throughout the week, they weren’t making much out of it. It was kind of like any other game and just any other week.
“I think we’ve got a good group of veterans who have been through a lot of stuff, even still guys who were here from our ‘19 year when we started 8-0. I think the guys who have been here and who have gone through stuff, they passed it to the other guys. It’s always our message that nothing can be taken for granted and it’s just one week at a time. I think everyone preaches that, but I think through our life experiences together and stuff, our guys truly know it. And the guys who haven’t been a part of that, they constantly hear it from the guys who have.”
Here’s the biggest reason for the 49ers to stay the course. After getting close to a Super Bowl win and two more Super Bowl appearances since 2019, the 49ers are playing like a team that wants to leave no doubt. That wants to have no close games. That wants to give no one, like Patrick Mahomes, a chance to pull a rabbit out of his rear end in the final seven minutes, down 10 points.
Shanahan was asked whether those recent postseason losses are fueling this year’s run.
“Yeah, I think every one of those do for sure,” Shanahan said. “I mean, players don’t always get the chance over their careers to be in those type of situations. We’ve been in three pretty big situations in the last four years here. So a lot of our team has been in one of those three situations and some have been in all of them from the Super Bowl or both of those Championship losses.
“You get that as a coach because you usually are in the league longer, as you get older and stuff. But, you always realize with it, your time in this league on how nothing could be taken for granted. The only time you do learn that stuff is when seasons end and when they end the hard way, like in a Super Bowl or like in two Championships.
“And when that happens, you know how hard it is to get there and you know that’s really all that matters. That’s why when you go through that stuff, you preach it and you actually truly mean it. When your players can go through that and they feel it along with the coaching staff, yeah that takes a toll and that makes offseasons different. That makes how you attack everything different. I feel it from our players a ton. They’ve been through a lot. We’ve added some new guys this year who I think have jumped right in, but I think our guys have been on a mission for a while.”
They are playing like they’re on a mission. They’re on a mission to make as many games as possible boring to watch, because they don’t want to just score more points that the opponent. They want to dominate it.
And they are.