The 49ers face the Seahawks on Thursday night (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video) in a pivotal division game.
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 at ESPN.
If the 49ers are going to find the finishing flourish they've lacked so far, there are multiple areas that will have to improve -- starting with getting healthy, solving red zone issues, winning the turnover battle and improving internally on defense and special teams. None figure to be quick or easy fixes but without them, the Super Bowl window for this core could close sooner than anyone in 49ers HQ expected.
It was the first time in a decade that the 49ers ranked better than 20th and roughly one-fifth of the high water mark of 161.6 adjusted games lost in the 2020 season, which didn't include games lost to COVID-19 protocols. are on the injured reserve list. Hargrave is out for the season, while San Francisco hopes Greenlaw and McCaffrey can return sometime around midseason.
Indeed, McCaffrey's absence isn't the lone reason for the red zone issues. The 49ers have also struggled with penalties, running the ball effectively and negative plays. In five games, they've run 28 plays that have gained zero or negative yards in the red zone, the most in the NFL and rapidly approaching the 43 they had all of last season.
The night before the 49ers' loss to Arizona, Shanahan played the hits, emphasizing the importance of the turnover battle. "This organization since Kyle's taken over, it's found ways to win," Bosa said."And it's not about how good your players are, how explosive an offense is or good a defense is. It's if you're turning the ball over and you're not making those plays on defense in the crucial moments you're going to lose in the NFL."
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