Things look pretty bleak for the San Francisco 49ers right now. Their brutal loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 11 made their playoff odds take a big hit.
However, the 2021 season shows that San Francisco still has a chance to salvage this season.
The 49ers sit at 5-5 on the year, which is exactly where they sat in 2021. The Niners went 5-2 to finish that season at 10-7 and won an epic season finale in overtime against the Los Angeles Rams to sneak into the postseason as a Wild Card with the sixth seed.
The 49ers then went on to defeat the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round and the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round before blowing a 10-point lead against the Rams in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game.
What is it about 10-point leads?
While the Niners ended up making a deep playoff run that season, many people counted them out earlier in the year. It was not until they crushed the Rams in Week 10 on Monday Night Football that they truly started to look like a potential playoff team.
That is the key difference between the 2021 team and the 2024 team. That win against the Rams gave San Francisco momentum for the rest of the year and spurred head coach Kyle Shanahan's squad on to a 6-2 record.
The 2024 Niners have not had that momentum-shifting win yet.
They have an opportunity for such a win in Week 12 against the Green Bay Packers. The 49ers will be in hostile territory going against a good Green Bay team with a 7-3 record on the year. The Niners beat Green Bay by the skin of their teeth in the divisional round of the playoffs last season, and the last time Shanahan and Co. were in Green Bay, they broke the Packers' hearts in the divisional round of that 2021 season with a field goal from kicker Robbie Gould as time expired.
If the 49ers can get a huge win against Green Bay on Sunday, it could be that mometum-shifting win they need to get things turned around and allow them to sneak into the playoffs just like they did in 2021. There is still a window for them to win the NFC West if they play good football coming down the stretch.
It is easy to give up on this year's version of the Niners, but they have proven they can dig their way out of a hole before, so we will have to see if they can do it again.