Last week's game against the Seattle Seahawks may have felt like a must-win, but San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan refused to label it that way, despite entering the matchup with three losses in the previous four games. Instead, he emphasized the team's need to rediscover its winning ways.
"I never want to say the words 'must-win' until [a situation where] if we don't win, we're eliminated from the playoffs," Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. "That's the only time it's a true must-win. But my words were, last week, 'I'll never say it's a must-win until it's that situation, but it damn sure feels like one.'
"And I think that had to do with just losing two tight games in our division, being 0-2 in our division, going against a divisional opponent."
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If Shanahan didn't consider last week's game a must-win, he's certainly not using that label for this weekend's matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. However, he knows a victory would be invaluable for his team.
"I see this game like I see all games," Shanahan said. "Every game matters huge, but I didn't choose those words this week."
Nonetheless, the weight of recent history looms large. The 49ers have come up short to the Chiefs in two Super Bowls, a reality not lost on Shanahan or his team. But the coach is determined to keep past disappointments from influencing their approach this Sunday.
"I think everyone understands that we've lost two Super Bowls to them, so that can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape, but I think that's human nature," Shanahan admitted. "But you gotta make sure you don't get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games. That was last year. We're playing a really good AFC opponent [this week].
"We're .500 right now, and we want to stay atop of our division and get a win. I mean, you think about that stuff going into it, but in terms of [how] it plays out in a game, it really has no correlation, and you try to make sure that it doesn't."