San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said he has advised his team about the possibility of a letdown against the Seattle Seahawks after last weekend’s rout of the NFC-best Philadelphia Eagles.
Rich Schultz/Associated Press“Who’s got it better than us?” was long ago replaced with “Do right longer” — head coach Kyle Shanahan’s pet phrase that’s posted on a sign in the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room — but a relic of the Jim Harbaugh era visited his old team this season: Freddy P. Soft.
Mr. Soft, as Harbaugh explained more than once during his tenure, is a fictional four-inch character that resides near a player’s ear, tells him how great he is and encourages him to take it easy.
Harbaugh routinely invoked F.P.S. from 2011-14 because his teams went 44-19-1 and often inspired what he deemed motivation-sapping praise and back slaps.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
“If people are saying nice things about you,” Harbaugh once said, “kick them in the shins and get back to work.”
This week, two months after the 49ers fell victim to “honey words of praise” being “flowered” upon them — yes, that’s more Harbaugh-speak — they are facing their next showdown with Freddy P. Soft.
The 49ers are coming off Sunday’s 42-19 beatdown of the Eagles on the road. And their dismantling of a 10-1 team now has the 49ers atop roughly 1.2 million NFL power rankings, with their date in Super Bowl LVIII (where they will surely batter an overmatched AFC opponent) all but assured.
More For You
In October, of course, the 49ers (now 9-3) faced a similar situation. They scored 42 points to obliterate an NFC East heavyweight they faced in the 2022 postseason (49ers 42, Cowboys 10), improving to 5-0 and becoming power-ranking darlings. What followed: A three-game losing streak that they’ve acknowledged was partly attributable to what Harbaugh’s fictional character symbolized.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
“I think people know from that experience how that felt,” Shanahan said Wednesday. “I don’t think that’s why we played bad, but I don’t think it helped us.”
Shanahan said he has addressed the emotional trap this week with his team, which followed its undressing of Dallas in October by losing 19-17 to Cleveland, a heavy underdog that was forced to start journeyman backup quarterback P.J. Walker.
On Sunday, the 49ers will face what appears to be another layup. They will host the Seahawks, who are 10½-point underdogs after losing to the 49ers, 31-13, on Thanksgiving night.
All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner mentioned the similarities — and the potential for another swoon — without being asked.
“We know what happened the last time we beat an NFC East team pretty good,” Warner said. “You either learn from your past mistakes, or you’re going to let history repeat itself.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Harbaugh said praise made the 49ers “feel exposed before our enemies.” And general manager John Lynch said last month that outside noise heralding the 49ers got inside their locker room after they beat their first five opponents by an average of 19.8 points.
“I don’t think we were resting on our laurels, but I do think human nature kicks in,” Lynch said on NBC Sports Bay Area. “And when everyone’s telling you’re unbeatable, we felt unbeatable.”
Lynch said the most troublesome loss during their skid was the 31-17 setback to the Bengals on Oct. 29 in which Cincinnati matched the intensity of the 49ers, who pride themselves on their physicality.
In other words, the 49ers, at least by their standards, played, well, soft.
Shanahan is presumably unfamiliar with Freddy P., but said Wednesday he was introduced long ago to the danger of allowing strong perceptions — positive or negative — to have an impact. Running backs coach Bobby Turner, 74, and Shanahan’s dad, Mike, 71, were his instructors.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
“As Bobby T. and my dad say, ‘That’s why people sell papers,’ ” Shanahan said. “That’s why people try to get clicks. Everything’s going to be extreme. You’re going to be either really, really good or really, really bad.”
At the moment, the 49ers are being hailed as really, really good. And as Harbaugh noted, the day after a come-from-behind win in Philadelphia in 2011 inspired a too-positive line of questioning, that has the potential to be really, really bad.
“We’d rather prefer,” Harbaugh said, “that all that is written is written against us.”
Reach Eric Branch: ebranch@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @Eric_Branch
"soft" - Google News
December 07, 2023 at 06:15AM
https://ift.tt/qkv0e9x
Will the seemingly dominant 49ers be able to fend off Freddy P. Soft? - San Francisco Chronicle
"soft" - Google News
https://ift.tt/8ESKIpQ
https://ift.tt/E09vZqu
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Will the seemingly dominant 49ers be able to fend off Freddy P. Soft? - San Francisco Chronicle"
Post a Comment