5 biggest reasons behind SF 49ers ugly start to 2020 season

The season hasn’t gotten off to the best start for the SF 49ers, so Niner Noise looks to examine why it’s all falling apart.

Well, SF 49ers fans, please raise your hand if you had this start to the season in mind when the schedule was released. I know I sure didn’t.

But as with most things, there is an explanation for why the Niners haven’t gotten off to the best start and are in fact limping past the quarter pole and into the most difficult stretch of the 2020 season, with a home game against the Los Angeles Rams, trips to New England (maybe) and Seattle, a Thursday night tilt at Levi’s Stadium against the Green Bay Packers, and a trip to New Orleans all on tap before the bye week.

It would be easy to mention concepts like a Super Bowl hangover or the team not being able to live up to the high expectations mounted upon them during the offseason, but those are psychological elements that no one can prove.

Instead, let’s turn to the data and see if there is some clue hidden among the statistics to indicate just why the SF 49ers are off to such a poor start.

And it isn’t just the 2-3 record against a relatively soft schedule that is worrying. It’s the way the team has played, even at times in their two wins, that forces all SF 49ers fans to attempt to figure out the solution to the problem.

Who knows if the season is salvageable at this point, what with the Seattle Seahawks off to their franchise’s first-ever 5-0 start and the Rams only losing one out of five so far, making the division feel out of reach.

The team may technically not be out of this season’s expanded playoff picture just yet, but they also would currently pick in the lower part of the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft if the season ended today.

The SF 49ers find themselves in literal no man’s land so far in the 2020 season. So let’s try to pinpoint a few reasons why that’s the case.