The San Francisco 49ers have now lost two games this season after holding double-digit leads late in the matchups. The latest setback came on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, where the 49ers watched a 13-point lead slip away in the second half, ultimately falling 24-23.
This follows an earlier loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3 when San Francisco led by 10 points in the fourth quarter but couldn't close it out.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters via a conference call on Monday, emphasizing the need for the 49ers to finish games when they have control.
"In these two division games that we believe we should have won with the lead we had in the second half, I thought this one was worse than the Rams one in terms of we got sloppier, in terms of our turnovers and things like that, not scoring in the second half," Shanahan said. "When you have a lead on people, you need to finish them. The way you finish people is you continue to score. And if you aren't doing that, you can't turn it over, and you've got to stop people at the end.
"We had a couple chances there at the end, especially on that fourth down, but [QB] Kyler [Murray] made a hell of a play. But those are the plays you've got to stop to win these, especially when it's tight like that."
Now sitting at 2-3, the 49ers have a short week to prepare before Thursday night's game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field.
Despite the recent losses, the team remains optimistic. There's still a lot of football left, and the locker room believes they can turn the season around.
"I haven't lost any confidence in the team," defensive end Nick Bosa said after the game. "It's early, it's a long year. We've been through worse, and I think we'll respond well."
Shanahan echoed Bosa's confidence on Monday, adding, "You always know, going through this, that you can never count yourself out until you're actually eliminated from something. I've seen teams start 0-4 and get there before, so there's lots of things that go into it. But I think every year is different, and we've got to write our own story this year, and it has nothing to do with other years."
The 49ers entered the season with Super Bowl aspirations, making a win in Thursday night's matchup in Seattle crucial to keeping their once-promising season from spiraling out of control.
