SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers first loss of the season was definitely a heart breaker but the much of the roster has lived through winning only 10 games in the previous two seasons combined. This fact alone might make their recovery from it a little easier and quicker.
Many players were asked how the team will bounce back from their first loss after being the lone unbeaten team through eight games.
While the mood in the locker room might have been somber, coach Kyle Shanahan believes playing a very physical game for five quarters played a large part.
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“I think they’re disappointed,” Shanahan said. “I think guys are exhausted right now. Guys left a lot out there. We’ve got a lot of guys banged up who came out of the game and a lot of guys were, I think, hurting throughout that game. So, I think the guys left it all out there. I know they are exhausted. I know they are disappointed with the loss, but I think they are excited to rest tomorrow and get right back at it next week.”
The 49ers have a short week to prepare to play Arizona for the second time in three weeks, but outside of injuries, that might be the best cure for losing. Here are quotes from several players who are already looking forward to preparing for the Cardinals on Sunday.
Jimmy Garoppolo
“Well you go back and you watch the tape."
San Francisco 49ers
"You’ve got to be critical on yourself, what could we have done better? What caused this to happen and it’s just got to be hard on yourself. I think we’ve got a good group of guys in there with the mindset."
"We’re going to come into work tomorrow and fight.”
DeForest Buckner
“Yeah, I mean, the guys fought hard, man. It’s the little details that we’ve got to clean up as a unit."
"You know, offense, defense, special teams. We all made mistakes to come up short tonight and we all know that. I’m just proud of each and every one of the guys for fighting as much as we could, just trying to give us a chance to come out with the win. We came up short."
"All the guys know the work that we put in each and every single day. It was a little gut check taking this L tonight, but we’re going to bounce back.”
Fred Warner
“Yeah, it sucks."
"Everybody is, you know, pretty disappointed. But, at the same time, this loss is not going to define us."
"We have an extremely tight-knit group. We’ve got a big game against Arizona coming up, so preparation starts as soon as we get home. We’ve got to make sure we’re covered.”
Richard Sherman
“You don’t treat both the same, success and failure, because neither one of them are fatal. It’s a learning experience, guys battled and we had a chance to win it."
"We’ve got to play better on both sides of the ball. All three phases we’ve got to play better football. On defense, we’ve got to give ourselves a chance. We’ve got to get those stops on those sudden changes. So, at the end of the day, it’s a good learning lesson for us. Guys battled, there was a ton of mistakes that guys made but then we made a ton of huge plays to give us a chance.”
Jaquiski Tartt
“We’ll be good. We know it’s a tough league to win in so you lose one you just got to come back stronger the next one. It’s a bunch of brothers in here and we’re all in here trying to make each other better.”
Deebo Samuel
“We can’t dwell on this. The perfect season would be great, but that is not how this league goes. We just have to capitalize from here on out.”
Mike McGlinchey
“I think we'll be fine. We will be absolutely fine. We have the best in the business up top and coaching us. He [Shanahan] is as pissed off as anybody in this locker room. We won't respond to this in any way but honing our focus on getting better.”