Following the San Francisco 49ers' win over the Minnesota Vikings, Nick Bosa discussed the mentality that assistant coach Kris Kocurek instills in his defensive line.
"Put the foot on the throat and twist it," Bosa said. "When you have somebody down, you definitely don't want to let up."
That mentality was evident during Sunday's win against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game. The 49ers had built up a conformable 27-0 lead by halftime. In the second half, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers started to try to claw their way back.
Before the game, head coach Kyle Shanahan delivered a vivid and dark story about finishing your opponent. It resonated with his players, and the message was clear. If an opponent, like Green Bay on Sunday, starts to find a glimmer of hope, steal it away. Crush your opponent.
"I don't want to go into what he said, but it was tremendous," general manager John Lynch told Albert Breer of The MMQB. "It was a metaphor for what we were going to get out of the Packers. And it played true."
So, the 49ers answered the Packers' punches with blows of their own. Once in the form of another trip into the end zone, and then later a field goal just to completely crush Green Bay's hopes.
"I remember walking out of that meeting last night being like, 'Holy s---, I got the coolest coach of all-time. We're gonna win, there's no doubt about it,'" tackle Mike McGlinchey told Breer. "That's what's cool about it. It was a mindset thing just to never relinquish what's going on in the football game, it was about how things are going to happen.
"We're going to be on our stuff at times, we're going to be off our stuff at times. But don't relinquish anything that you're doing, and that's basically what it was. But it was really, really cool."
Now, the 49ers are headed to Miami for Super Bowl LIV to face the Kansas City Chiefs.
Click here to read all of Breer's article at The MMQB and to find out what Shanahan told his players on Saturday night.
