49ers: After loss at Buffalo, team looks for turnaround.
In January, on the day he was introduced as the 49ers’ head coach, Chip Kelly was asked what he wanted the identity of his new team to be.
Kelly said he wanted the 49ers to be fearless. And then he explained.
“I think not afraid of any situation that you’re put in,” Kelly said. “There are going to be times when it’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be adverse. But you have confidence based on your preparation that you’ll see it through.”
Nine months and six regular-season games later, the 49ers (1-5) are in the midst of a difficult and adversity-stuffed season that won’t end for 71 more days. There is already little doubt they won’t reach the playoffs, but this question remains: How will they see the season through when they are certain to finish with a losing record?
They’ll enter Sunday’s meeting against Tampa Bay on the heels of a defeat that raised questions about their fearlessness, as defined by Kelly. In the final 20 minutes of a 45-16 loss to Buffalo, they were outscored 28-3 and allowed 10 yards a play and 249 yards, which would translate to 747 yards over four quarters.
Two days after the listless finish, defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil was asked about the 49ers’ late-game intensity and said Kelly had just finished addressing the team on the topic. O’Neil acknowledged the 49ers might have shown a tendency to “relax” when faced with adversity.
“As a team, we’re in it, we’re in it, we’re in it, we’re in it and something bad happens,” O’Neil said. “Whether it’s a turnover, or the game gets a little bit away from us, and I don’t know if we relax a little bit as a team. But that’s where we’ve just got to be consistent for four quarters.”
For his part, Kelly downplayed his message to the team. His response: Who among us — and that means you, too, beat writers — hasn’t let up a little?
“I think all of us, coaches, players, reporters, could talk about consistency in our effort and our approach,” he said. “I don’t think that’s anything new in terms of how I talk to our guys and what we’re emphasizing with our players on a daily basis.”
Whatever the case, how the 49ers fight to the finish of a dreadful season will reflect on Kelly.
Given the 49ers’ paucity of playmakers, the offensiveminded Kelly, who is overseeing the NFL’s 32nd-ranked attack, will probably be given an incomplete grade this season for his X’s-and-O’s ability.
However, his ability to connect and inspire players will be closely examined.
His relationship with players was a much-discussed topic during his three-season tenure with the Eagles and played a role in his dismissal with Philadelphia sporting a 6-9 record last season.
In 2015, the Eagles lost five of Kelly’s last seven games, which included a 45-17 loss to the Buccaneers (final record: 6-10) and a 45-14 defeat to the Lions (7-9). The Eagles were also whacked by playoff teams in Arizona (40-17) and Washington (38-24).
On Oct. 10, a day after the Eagles lost 24-23 to Detroit, first-year Philadelphia head coach Doug Pederson, unprompted, contrasted his team’s grit with that of the 2015 Eagles.
“I think this game a year ago got out of hand and it got shut down, they got blown out,” Pederson told reporters. “This group didn't do that yesterday. This group was resilient; this group battled.”
Added Pederson: “This is a different football team than a year ago. This is a resilient football team.”
Pederson wasn’t on Kelly’s staff in Philadelphia, so he presumably based his opinion from watching video and speaking with holdovers from last year’s Eagles.
In fairness, Kelly, the communicator, has changed opinions during his first nine months with the 49ers. Despite the horrid start, no player has offered even a subtle shot at the head coach, and Kelly’s strong support of quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s national-anthem stance was appreciated in the locker room.
Now, can he prevent the here-we-go-again mentality adopted by many going-nowhere teams?
Last week, the 49ers were stuffed for no gain on 4thand-1 from Buffalo’s 40-yard line late in the third quarter. In response, the Bills needed just four plays to finish a 60-yard touchdown drive.
In the fourth quarter, the 49ers fumbled a kickoff return for the second straight week. In response, the Bills, after a 22-yard pass-interference penalty, scored a touchdown one play later.
O’Neil suggested the 49ers lacked fight or, as Kelly might say, fearlessness.
“You’ve got to be excited every time you take the field,” O’Neil said. “You’ve got to almost have the mentality, ‘Hey, this is great.’ Even if the ball’s on the 1-yard line, ‘Hey, more TV time for us. Another chance for me to make a play.’ It can’t be like, ‘Oh, damn, we turned the ball over,’ or something like that. To me, it starts with your attitude, it starts with your mentality, and we’ve just got to keep preaching that.”