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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff WriterOct 8, 2024, 07:11 PM ET
- Nick Wagoner is an NFL reporter at ESPN. Nick has covered the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL at ESPN since 2016, having previously covered the St. Louis Rams for 12 years, including three years (2013 to 2015) at ESPN. In his 10 years with the company, Nick has led ESPN’s coverage of the Niners’ 2019 Super Bowl run, Colin Kaepernick’s protest, the Rams making Michael Sam the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL, Sam’s subsequent pursuit of a roster spot and the team’s relocation and stadium saga. You can follow Nick via Twitter @nwagoner
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It’s only Week 6 but the San Francisco 49ers are already feeling the heat of their disappointing start.
At 2-3 overall, 0-2 in the NFC West and 0-3 in the NFC, the Niners have no time to lick their wounds from Sunday’s blown lead and eventual loss to the Arizona Cardinals. They’re already deep into preparation for Thursday night’s meeting with the Seahawks in Seattle, a game they know holds significant weight for the rest of the season even if it’s still relatively early.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” defensive end Nick Bosa said Tuesday. “It’s not a must-win because technically your season’s over if it’s a must-win, but it definitely feels like it. We’re treating it that way.”
With good reason. The Niners have already blown double-digit fourth-quarter leads against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3 and the Cardinals on Sunday. Instead of sitting at 4-1 with a leg up on a potential third straight NFC West crown, the Niners would be staring at a steep climb to get back into the division race with a loss to 3-2 Seattle.
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Factoring in tiebreakers, a loss to the Seahawks would ostensibly drop the Niners to three games back in a division they have controlled for the better part of the past few years. What’s more, San Francisco has two tough home games after the trip to Seattle, hosting the Kansas City Chiefs coming off their bye and the Dallas Cowboys coming off theirs.
Of course, there’s a far brighter alternative.
“I’ve been told that if we win this one, we’re leading our division,” tight end George Kittle said. “However that works, it’s great for the Niners. Just trying to get to Thursday, make sure everyone’s feeling good and get up there, play, win and come home. … I don’t really want to be 2-4 and being 3-3 is significantly better than that.”
Indeed, a win against the Seahawks would improve the Niners to 3-3 and tied with Seattle atop the division but with the head-to-head tiebreaker in their favor. As many Thursday night contests often do, this one could be a battle of attrition.
Both the Niners and Seahawks are dealing with plenty of injuries with less time to recover on the short week. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan announced Tuesday that safety Talanoa Hufanga tore ligaments in his wrist against Arizona.
That injury comes only a couple of weeks after Hufanga had returned from the torn ACL in his right knee he suffered in November of last year.
“It will be at least a month,” Shanahan said. “He could be [placed on injured reserve]. We haven’t decided whether to do it or not.”
Rookie Malik Mustapha figures to get the first opportunity to replace Hufanga in the starting lineup. He won’t be the only new face playing a prominent role against the Seahawks.
The Niners signed kicker Matthew Wright on Tuesday to step in for the injured Jake Moody. Moody has a high right ankle sprain, is also expected to miss about a month and could land on injured reserve, too.
And while the 49ers won’t have any actual practices this week because of the quick turnaround, they had nine players they planned to list as nonparticipants or limited in their Tuesday walkthroughs. That includes cornerback Charvarius Ward, who is battling a bruised knee and won’t participate, with Kittle (ribs) and linebacker Fred Warner (ankle) limited, as they were last week.
Although the 49ers are feeling the squeeze, they are finding some solace in the fact that they’ve had their backs against the wall before and managed to bounce back.
In 2021, they started 3-5 before finishing 7-2 and reaching the NFC Championship Game. The following year, they began 3-4 and then rattled off 10 straight wins to again reach the NFC title round.
Much of the roster has changed since but the core of those teams remains, which is why a team captain such as Warner doesn’t feel the need to press the panic button on his teammates this week.
“I’m kind of at the point where it’s like, I mean the circumstances is what it is,” Warner said. “We’re 2-3 going into a Thursday night game against a divisional rival, prime time, with the stakes of being No. 1 in the division. It’s like if I have to give some sort of grandiose speech to get you going for this moment, we probably don’t have the right guys.”
