Kawakami: The Kyle Shanahan Vibes are very good right now for the 49ers

May 2024 · 8 minute read

It’s no secret, to him or anybody else, that Kyle Shanahan’s leadership legacy will be decided by Super Bowls — can he and John Lynch get the 49ers back into the ultimate game, and can he finally win one, or maybe even a few of them?

No 49ers coach gets statues made for near-misses or division championships. You take this job, you are measured by championships … or tainted by the inability to win at that level.

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But something more atmospheric is developing in Shanahan’s seventh season with the 49ers, with Sunday’s commanding 42-19 victory over the Eagles in Philadelphia as a general high point. It’s understanding that his team plays a certain way, that it’s hard to beat a Shanahan team, physically and mentally, that he maximizes the talent on hand, and that these talented players love to play for him. It’s the acknowledgment that Brock Purdy is the best quarterback Shanahan has had during this tenure and that the coach and QB are perfect for each other.

It’s the vibes, man. The Shanahan Vibes are really, really good after this Eagles victory and getting better every week.

Things are as good in this moment as they were for the 49ers during the height of the adrenalized Jim Harbaugh era, and Shanahan has already lasted much longer. Things are better for this franchise now than anything during the solid Steve Mariucci era, and it’s built hardier. It’s the best this franchise has been put together and run since George Seifert was extending the Bill Walsh era and Super Bowl victories were expected.

The practical part: Sunday’s victory lifted the 49ers to 9-3 and got them back in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC and, crucially, dropped the Eagles to 10-2. It also was partial vengeance for the Eagles’ victory last January in the NFC Championship Game, which, of course, was essentially a no-contest once the 49ers lost both Purdy and Josh Johnson to injury in the first half.

The sensory part: This 49ers squad just feels like it’s headed toward a Super Bowl title relatively soon, with the odds currently pointing toward a culmination this February. It has now trashed Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, the Cowboys at Levi’s Stadium, Jacksonville at Jacksonville and now the Eagles in Philadelphia. These things weren’t fluky or just because those teams had bad days.

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The 49ers gave these teams bad days. The 49ers are pretty much a permanent bad day for their opponents. Even if they start the game terribly, as they did on their first two possessions Sunday, they are more than capable of staying patient, remaining confident and scoring touchdowns on their next six drives. Even when they spot Jalen Hurts’ offense a 6-0 lead through the first quarter, the 49ers have plenty of time to rev up the engines for a blowout.

“I’ve never had this much confidence in the offense,” Nick Bosa said after the game. “Just stick with the run even when (the Eagles) have a bear in there, or a couple bears, ginormous dudes that make it really tough. But Christian (McCaffrey) just makes something out of nothing, I think, every time he gets the ball. We know they’re gonna break through at some point. The first quarter was tough. (The Eagles) brought it.

“But once you start wearing them down, I think both offense and defense, it was about wearing them down throughout the game.”

The stay-patient-and-wear-them-down part is the whole deal for this Shanahan team. Which is what made Sunday’s game so classic and so convincing. This is just what they do — even after a shaky start, Shanahan believes in sticking with the running game on offense; on defense, he and Lynch have moved heaven, earth, a massive amount of first-round picks and a whole lot of cash to a put together a defensive line that can close down any opponent’s best offensive hopes.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

This time it’s Brock Purdy who dishes out punishment in 49ers’ statement win

This formula, when the talent is right and Shanahan’s strategy is on point, wins on the road. It wins in less-than-perfect weather. It wins late in the season. It wins in the playoffs. We shall see if it wins a Super Bowl or two, but … it really looks like it should.

“It wasn’t anything big different,” Shanahan said when asked what happened in the second quarter to really get the 49ers going. “It was just our defense keeping us in the game and allowing us to just be patient and continue to do what we planned and play good football. We didn’t do that for two drives, but we like to say if we’re in the game, it’s a matter of time. And we got it going there in the third drive.”

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A very specific Shanahan moment came late in the second quarter, when the 49ers forced an Eagles punt and got the ball back at their own 10-yard-line with 4:37 left in the half and protecting a 7-6 lead. We all know that Shanahan loves to try to “lap” the opponent in these situations by deferring on the coin toss and kicking off to start the game. That means he can aim to get a score late in the first half and then get the ball back to start the second half and score then, too.

What happened Sunday: a methodical 10-play drive that culminated with McCaffrey’s 2-yard TD plunge at the 38-second mark. Then the 49ers got the second-half kickoff and went 75 yards in seven plays, scoring on a Deebo Samuel 12-yard end-round TD. And bingo, the 49ers turned a 1-point lead into a 15-point avalanche.

In that mode 🤫 @19problemz#SFvsPHI on FOX#ProBowlVote 🗳 https://t.co/bosbZYCB7K pic.twitter.com/74Uj2BWRTR

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 3, 2023

Shanahan lives for back-to-back scores like that. His team is built for this. With all this talent on both sides of the floor, it can almost seem like Shanahan is drawing it all up. Or conducting a very physical symphony.

And yes, since that three-game losing streak took them into their Nov. 5 bye weekend, the 49ers are now 4-0 with a plus-85 point differential in these games.

This all has increased Shanahan’s 49ers record to 36-20 in November, December and January regular-season games, highlighted by a 7-2 finish in 2021 and 10-0 finish in 2022. Classic Shanahan, again: The 49ers are 4-0 since the start of November this season and have five games left before the playoffs start.

There were some emotions to it, too, which can be very Shanahan-ian, too. When Dre Greenlaw was ejected after tossing down DeVonta Smith near the Eagles’ sideline and getting into a bit of a scuffle with the Eagles’ lead security guy, Shanahan was visibly apoplectic on his own sideline.

“Yeah, that’s why I tried my hardest not to lose my mind,” Shanahan said when asked if he was upset that a member of the Eagles’ staff touched a 49ers player. “Hopefully I didn’t embarrass myself too bad. … It was a very frustrating play. I’ve gotta watch it (on tape) to have a true opinion of it. But I loved how we rallied after it.”

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The Eagles scored their first TD of the game five plays after Greenlaw’s ejection, but the 49ers responded with another Deebo TD less than three minutes later. Then came a defensive stop and yet another 49ers TD, this time on a Purdy pass to Jauan Jennings, to put the game on ice.

JAWN JENNINGS #SFvsPHI on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/SBjUNPkyNU

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 3, 2023

Yes, the 49ers controlled the line of scrimmage, mainly by bottling up Hurts’ dangerous running threat, holding him to just 20 yards on 7 attempts. And overall, the Eagles only had 46 rushing yards on 18 carries, after going into the game averaging 133.3 yards per game on the ground.

So now the 49ers are one victory away from posting Shanahan’s fourth double-digit-victory season out of the last five campaigns. The 49ers’ cumulative record is 51-27 (.654) over that period, with three trips to the NFC Championship Game and possibly a fourth, and third consecutive, one coming up in January. Possibly against this Eagles team.

Which is another huge reason why it was so very good for the 49ers to play so very well on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

“Obviously, we wanted some payback. We tried not to think too much about last year,” Bosa said, “but we knew we could match up with them and more than that. I think we proved a good point.”

The 49ers proved just about every point possible on Sunday. That doesn’t guarantee them anything if they meet the Eagles again, whether it’s in Philadelphia or back in Levi’s. The 49ers will face tough moments again, possibly very soon. But if the vibes are anything like they are now, the 49ers will feel just fine facing whatever comes next, because they have all this talent and because they have a coach who is having himself a moment, too.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

In a convincing Philadelphia rout, 49ers get their proof of concept

(Photo of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan (right) and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

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