The San Francisco 49ers are eager to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday, but their motivation has less to do with the game between the two teams in Las Vegas eight months ago than most might assume. That last meeting, Super Bowl LVIII, ended in heartbreak for the 49ers as the Chiefs emerged victorious in overtime.
Right now, the 49ers are focused on improving their record. While they sit at 3-3 atop the NFC West standings, the start of the season hasn't gone as planned, especially considering their Super Bowl aspirations.
Trent Williams made one thing clear on Thursday: beating the Chiefs this weekend won't erase what happened eight months ago.
"When you think about the reality of it, we can beat them by 100, we're not popping champagne, confetti's not gonna fall," Williams told reporters. "It can never be a payback situation, so why even carry that grudge? Football is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical, so if your mind is clouded with stuff that has nothing to do with Sunday, then you could run the risk of not being everything you want to be."
Williams believes most players in the locker room share that mentality, eliminating the need for any reminders. Still, the offensive lineman was asked if he's more focused on this Week 7 matchup than previous games.
"Well, I'm dialed in because we're 3-3, and I think everybody in here kind of feels like we've underachieved at times," Williams responded. "So we're dialed in because we want to right that wrong. Obviously, we're playing the best team in the league, too, so that is an added point of pressure, but the only way you can win this game is by playing smart football and protecting the ball, not shooting yourself in the foot. That's what we've gotta focus on. I don't think we can focus on the whole payback, revenge type of thing."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan echoed Williams' sentiments on Thursday, emphasizing that last week's win over the Seattle Seahawks was crucial, but the team's focus remains on getting above .500 and winning the NFC West.
"Hopefully, we can string together some wins and get a lot more past that," Shanahan said during a radio interview. "But when it's all said and done, our goal is to get into that tournament, and the best way to do that is to win your division."
Tight end George Kittle was asked if there was anything extra riding on this game. He pointed to the 49ers' one-game-at-a-time mentality.
"I think Coach Shanahan, he had a really good team meeting the other day," Kittle said. "[He said], 'You can't live in the past. You can't look into the future. You have to just live for the moment that you're in now.' This is a different game. They have a lot of similar players, but it's technically a different team. And we're a different team a little bit, too.
"I'll just say, winning at home against anybody, let alone one of the last undefeated teams in football, that'll feel great."
While Kittle is usually good at putting bad experiences behind him, he admitted that the sting of Super Bowl LVIII was harder to shake.
"It's a goal you always want to achieve," Kittle shared. "But if you let stuff linger and you let stuff affect you like that, you can't be the player that you want to be. So, I just try my best to tune out whatever noise is being said on the outside, specifically this week, because people ask. I've been asked to go on a couple of different talk shows, and there's only one reason they want to ask me to be on the talk show—because we're playing the Chiefs this week.
"It's fine, but they're the best team in the league right now, with the Vikings, and we just have to treat them like they're the best team in the league right now and just go out there and play our ball. I don't think it's that hard to just focus on them as a team. We know what they're gonna give us. We've played them a lot of times. We've never beaten them. But the thing is, it's a new year, and we have another opportunity."
When asked about the keys to victory on Sunday, Kittle emphasized the importance of protecting the football against the Chiefs, noting that any turnovers would be costly.
"And then, I would just love to run the ball 30 times," Kittle added. "Those are my two things—stay on the field, dominate the time of possession, and don't turn the ball over."