MONDAY NIGHT PREVIEW

Can you recall an NFL team earning less praise for entering October undefeated than this year’s San Francisco 49ers?

They’re 3-0 entering Monday night’s home game against the 2-2 Cleveland Browns.

Sure, the Niners already have had their bye (last week). And sure, they didn’t exactly defeat the likes of New England, New Orleans or Kansas City (rather, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati and Benless Pittsburgh).

But they’ve been more than solid on both sides of the ball in this, the third year under GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan.

Should the 49ers defeat the Browns, they would start 4-0 for the first time since 1990, late in their glory years under Bill Walsh and George Seifert — and before Shanahan’s dad, Mike, served as Seifert’s offensive coordinator from 1992-94.

Kyle was a school boy at that time. “I think we went to the NFC championship the three years that I was here — sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade and ninth grade,” Shanahan said. “Won the Super Bowl one of those years. I think the worst season was 13-3. The other two were 14-2.”

The Niners finished 6-10 in 2017, and 4-12 last year after starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (right) never made it out of September before tearing an ACL.

Garoppolo hasn’t lost yet in four starts at Levi’s Stadium, since the Niners acquired him via trade with New England in October 2018. With a win he would become only the sixth NFL quarterback over the past three decades to win 12 of his first 14 career starts.