This has been hanging over the 49ers for months.
Call it a hangover, a disappointment or karmic retribution, but 12 weeks into the season, they haven’t been able to shake it.
In fact, the situation is only getting worse.
The Niners put up a few hiccups in this losing campaign, but none of their disappointing performances compare to Sunday’s 38-10 loss to the Packers in Green Bay.
Is the Niners season technically over at 5-6? No.
But it is spiritually finished.
It may have been over before it began: the 2020 vibe emanating from this team since the Super Bowl loss in February is unmistakable.
Now they are undeniable. The Niners are just repeating unfavorable history at this point.
When San Francisco came out of the midseason break at 4-4, the team had one rule for the second half: Don’t lose consecutive games.
Do this, and your fate will escape you. And fate would never be on the side of the Niners this season.
Well, the Niners lost that second straight game on Sunday. It took them three weeks post-bye to sound the death knell for a cursed campaign.
And, boy, was Sunday’s loss embarrassing from start (a near-fight prematch) to finish (Deebo Samuel refusing to speak to the media afterward).
Do we need to revisit what happened between these points?
Yes, the 49ers took the field at Lambeau Field without their three most important players — quarterback Brock Purdy (shoulder), defensive end Nick Bosa (oblique, hip) and left tackle Trent Williams — but San Francisco continued to play the same style of imperfect football that ruined this season.
Green Bay didn’t even play particularly well on Sunday. Packers quarterback Jordan Love — looking for deep touchdowns instead of controlling the ball with a lead — messed around and gave the Niners a handful of opportunities to make Sunday’s game a competitive one.
The 49ers flatly refused to take advantage of it. This team insists on making things difficult for themselves.
And in a game where a Niners victory would only come by the narrowest of margins, they put on a self-sabotaging performance for the ages, not only failing to accept the Packers’ well-wrapped gifts early in the holiday season, but He also missed tackles at a record rate, committing nine penalties – including three on special teams – and turning the ball over three times.
Yes, that’s the performance the Niners delivered when only a clean game could be enough (and even that probably wouldn’t have been enough to win).
There was a moment midway through the second quarter on Sunday, when the Niners were already down 10-0 and stuck deep in their own territory, that the San Francisco defense had consecutive 12-man penalties on the land.
Yes, the Niners were so disorganized that they were called for a 12-man penalty, which wiped out an interception in the end zone. Then, after a long stop, they regrouped and came out with too many men.
Let this futility sink in for a moment.
This is a pretty unserious football team, folks.
And the Niners have had to refine that level of failure over the past few months. Playoffs? Super Bowl? Be realistic. Sunday’s performance is what they have been working towards all season. The loss to the Packers was their signature event.
So stop listening to anyone who suggests that a better form of football lies dormant in this team. Ignore the idea that if this team “gets healthy again” it will finally look like a quality operation.
It’s a wasted year – a byproduct of this war of attrition they call professional football. It stinks, sure, but it can’t be totally unexpected either.
And I know what will happen next. But you may have erased it from your memory. I don’t blame you, it happened in 2020, after all.
Aside from the fact that there is no global pandemic, the circumstances for the Niners are strikingly similar to those of 2020. The Niners, battered and bruised, entered their nationally televised Week 13 game against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills with a 5-6 mark and a mistaken belief that if they could get back to .500 this season everything would be fine.
They were smoked — Allen worked them over — and the Niners admitted defeat and limped to the season finish line.
Can you guess who the 5-6 Niners will play next in Week 13?
Let me put it this way: He’s not Brandon Allen.
It has been suggested that history does not repeat itself, but rhymes.
It might as well be a homonym.
So let’s learn from the past:
In a season defined by declining play and lowered expectations, let’s avoid the part where we pretend there’s anything left for these Niners.
The uneasiness of August has turned into the agony of November, and it will only get worse in December.
So if the Niners can land one ounce of luck this season, let it be for their draft position in April.
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