"SANTA CLARA Welcome to the playoff fringe, a place the 49ers haven't been down the stretch since Deebo Samuel was a wide back, Jimmy Garoppolo was the quarterback and it took an overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams in the final regular-season game to make the tournament in 2021. That's what coach Kyle Shanahan calls it. The tournament. And this year's tournament concludes with Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 7."
"About this time last year, the 49ers had fallen to 5-5 with a 20-17 home loss to Seattle and never recovered, losing seven of their last eight games to finish at 6-11. The 49ers were the top seed in 2023, No. 2 in 2022, without much drama when it came to being tournament-eligible. Now the 49ers are 7-4, better than they have any right to be considering they lost defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner for the season,"
San Francisco is 7-4 and on the playoff fringe despite losing multiple key players for long stretches: Nick Bosa, Fred Warner (season), Brock Purdy (eight games), George Kittle (five), Ricky Pearsall Jr. (six), and possibly Brandon Aiyuk. Rookie Mykell Williams tore his ACL in the ninth game. The team ranks 15th in scoring offense (23.7 ppg) and 15th in scoring defense (22.9 ppg). The 49ers have only three interceptions and 12 sacks, have struggled to run the ball until recent improvement, and have outscored opponents by nine points. Super Bowl LX will be at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 7.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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