SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — As much as the San Francisco 49ers tried to downplay the curse of the Super Bowl loser leading up to this season, the first half of 2024 has looked just like that.
A summer dominated by contract disputes. A string of injuries that put many of last season’s top performers on the sideline. Up-and-down play from a team that dominated several opponents in 2023.
It all adds up to the 49ers (4-4) headed into their bye week with a .500 record and just fighting for an opportunity to get back to the postseason.
San Francisco held on for a 30-24 win over Dallas with a dominant third quarter providing the blueprint for what the Niners need to do in the second half of the season to shake off the Super Bowl hangover and get back to last year’s consistent level of performance.
“I feel we’re capable of doing everything else we set out for,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I look at where our team is at and where I think our team can be, and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think there are a lot of things we need to improve on. I think we are gradually doing that. But I think we’ve got the guys here capable of doing it. We’ve just got to make sure we become a better team in the second half than we were in the first half.”
Summer contract disputes that kept stars Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk out of training camp and injuries to top players like Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, Javon Hargrave and Talanoa Hufanga have made it hard to get into a rhythm.
The Niners blew 10-point leads in the fourth quarter in division losses to the Rams and Arizona and fell flat in games against Kansas City and Minnesota. There have been few dominant performances from a team that won four of its first five games last season by at least three scores.
It’s not an unfamiliar situation for a team coming off a Super Bowl loss.
Whether it’s from the wear and tear from the extra games, the disappointment of falling just short or normal regression, teams that lost the Super Bowl often have struggled for success the following season.
That’s something the Niners know well after slumping to a 6-10 finish during an injury-plagued 2020 season that followed the team’s first Super Bowl loss to Kansas City. They are one of 14 such teams in the past 35 seasons to miss the playoffs.
In all, only three teams have ever won the Super Bowl the year after losing it, with the 2018 New England Patriots the only team to do it in the last 50 seasons. Dallas and Miami did it in back-to-back seasons in 1971-72.
Those Patriots are the only Super Bowl runner-up to even make it back to the title game the following season since Buffalo lost four straight trips in the 1990-93 seasons.
The Niners hope they can follow that success, and there are signs from the sluggish first half of the season that do provide hope. San Francisco has been a much stronger team in the second half the last two seasons, going 16-2 after its bye to fuel deep playoff runs.
Big contributions from the rookie class led by standout right guard Dominick Puni and inspirational receiver Ricky Pearsall, who provided a big lift when he returned to the field after being shot in the chest the week before the opener, have helped improve the team’s depth.
The anticipated returns of injured players like McCaffrey and linebacker Dre Greenlaw could take some of the load off stars like Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Trent Williams, and get San Francisco back to the level the team was at the last few seasons.
“We have everything ahead of us,” Warner said. “We can be whoever we want. We have everybody that we need. In terms of players obviously we are banged up. We will get healthy after the week, hopefully get some guys back. It’s about just getting better at this point. We can’t keep getting up for a game and then dropping one and then, ‘Oh, let’s try and figure out a way to win another one.’ Let’s just get better.”