Well, that was disappointing to watch. Not just for fans but the San Francisco 49ers. Head coach Kyle Shanahan watched as his team surrendered a 10-point lead and suffered a second-half collapse to the Chicago Bears. The matchup many felt would be a gimme for the Niners in their opener ended in a 19-10 defeat and an 0-1 start to the season.
What was Shanahan's message to his team after the game? The coach didn't see anything wrong with his players' efforts. There were just too many costly mistakes on which Chicago ended up capitalizing.
"First thing, it starts out with is the intent and how hard everybody goes," Shanahan said. "I never felt anything wrong with that throughout the game, but you're not going to win a lot of games when you miss those opportunities when you have a chance to really run away with it.
"And then when you end up looking that you have 12 penalties compared to three, and especially the time we had those, it's what should happen. You've got to get lucky to win when you do some of those types of things."
As expected, there was disappointment in the visitor's locker room after coming off the rain-drenched field. The 49ers will have to get past the disappointment quickly, though.
"We're going to be all right," defensive end Nick Bosa told reporters. "We've been through worse. We'd obviously like to get a win, but it's just annoying to give a game away like that. Just happy to get back to California."
In his first game as a full-time NFL starter, quarterback Trey Lance was seen on the sideline late in the contest, speaking with his offensive teammates. After the game, a reporter asked what his message was to those teammates.
"We're just going to keep our head up, keep grinding," Lance responded. "It's a long season. Sixteen more of these things in the regular season, so I'm excited for next week. Those guys did a great job up front. They did a great job. Receivers made a bunch of plays. Running backs made a bunch of plays. I've just got to be better."
Next up for San Francisco are the talent-depleted Seattle Seahawks. At least, that's what it looks like right now. Many felt the Bears didn't have a chance against the 49ers.
"I know it's the first game," Shanahan said. "We really wanted to win this, and I felt—not to take anything away from [the Bears]—but I'm disappointed by some of the silly mistakes we did to ourself. It's not just young guys. It's veterans out there who have done a lot of good things for us. It's our whole team that needs to clear [that] stuff up to have a chance to do what we want to do."
