NFL teams
Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Better late than never: Young 49ers learning how to win


HOUSTON -- In the week leading up to Sunday's game against the Texans, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hadn't given much thought to his return to NRG Stadium, the site of the devastating loss in Super Bowl LI he was at the center of as Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator.

Until he arrived with his new team on Sunday morning.

“Us coaches don’t think about much," Shanahan said. "I remember me and [running backs coach] Bobby Turner were walking in when we got off the bus and walked across the field and that’s when I remembered. I didn’t get to come on the field during the Super Bowl. I was up in the box. But we came over and walked around in the pregame stuff. I got some feelings of that. Had some real good feelings in that game, not towards the end. Feelings today were definitely much better at the end.”

Those good feelings stemmed from the Niners' 26-16 win against the Texans on Sunday. They also came from the fact that the victory was the 49ers' second in as many weeks, the first time they've won two games in a row and two consecutive road games since 2014. It was also the Niners' third win in their past four contests.

For teams at the top of the NFL heap, such modest milestones are commonplace and not exactly cause for celebration. But for a San Francisco team that lost its first nine games under coach Kyle Shanahan after a two-win season in 2016, winning is far from a habit.

Which is why, after the Niners finally got over the hump and knocked off the New York Giants on Nov. 12, there was a wild celebration in the locker room. Postgame video from the team even showed Shanahan and general manager John Lynch in the middle of a raucous huddle in the middle of the room as players dumped water and Gatorade on them.

That outpouring of emotion was the result of so many near misses earlier in the season but also of a team that simply didn't have much experience basking in the glow of a win. Fast forward a month and the Niners have won twice more. It's no coincidence that the celebrations are already much more subdued.

"Winning is hard to do, especially in this league," receiver Marquise Goodwin said. "There’s such great athletes, good coaches, it’s just hard to do so when you get one and then you get another back-to-back, it kind of becomes a habit. And you want to form those good habits, especially leading to the end of the year. We want to finish strong, finish as a team and have high hopes for next year so I think we are getting the ball rolling, things are starting to fall into place."

All year, Shanahan and most of his team have talked about the need to "learn" how to win games. It sounds simple enough in theory but is far harder in execution. In reality, the only way to actually learn how to win is to go out and do it. When the 49ers were setting an NFL record by losing five straight games by three points or less, it was clear they were missing the pieces to make the play or two to push them over the hump.

The addition of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has certainly helped the Niners find those few plays needed to win, but there have also been some serious steps forward for a variety of other young players in getting victories.

See rookie wideout Trent Taylor making six catches for 92 yards, including a 33-yard catch-and-run to set up the game-winning field goal in Chicago. Or rookie free safety Adrian Colbert forcing Houston receiver DeAndre Hopkins to fumble in the fourth quarter of Sunday's win to help seal that victory. That's just two examples of lesser-known, younger players helping make the difference between winning and losing.

“We haven’t won a lot this year, and to win these last two -- I believe that’s three of the last four, I think -- it’s definitely exciting," Shanahan said. "You can feel it in our building. Guys are gaining that confidence. Versus Chicago, by no means did everything go perfect, and by no means did it today. But that’s what you like, guys that aren’t affected by how things go early. They are on to the next play. They play every single play the same. And I do believe, especially these last two weeks, we’ve done a much better job of doing that. It’s led to good things when the clock’s ended.”

With three games to play, the tests will get more difficult for the Niners. Each of their final three opponents -- Tennessee, Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Rams -- are in the thick of the playoff chase. All will represent a step up in competition from the likes of the Giants, Bears and Texans. Those games should offer a better reflection of how far the Niners have to go to be in a similar position in the near future.

In the meantime, the few 49ers who have been a part of winning franchises in the past are seeing the habits of a winning team starting to develop even in the midst of this lost season.

“There’s little things that go into winning like putting in the extra time in the film room, on the field, whatever it may be," Garoppolo said. "I mean I can remember as a rookie if you don’t know something, you just have to see the older guys do it and kind of follow them as they go. So it’s a learning process, but like I said before, I think we’re going in the right direction. We just have to keep working everyday.”

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