Well, they didn't go out completely sad. The 49ers mustered up the er, internal fortitude to demolish a pathetic Chicago Bears team that somehow got much worse after firing Matt Eberflus.
It was a 38-13 drubbing which was, if nothing else, an act of catharsis amidst a self-indulgent season of false starts. On this day, finally, the 49ers were the 49ers they were supposed to be.
This was a wire-to-wire demolition on both ends of the football for the first time this season. It wasn't, technically, an "all three phases" win thanks to the artistic license Jake Moody took with a couple of kickoffs — he concluded those with stern glares at the kickoff tee. But hey, he didn't miss any kicks.
The reality is that the 49ers should be going scorched earth against the Bears. This is a Bears team that did most of its celebrating after a Brandon Allen arm punt turned Jonathan Owens interception in the fourth quarter... while they were down 25 points with less than two minutes left.
The Bears are unserious. The 49ers want to be considered serious. That is a seemingly low bar that they have failed to clear all season long. Sunday might (probably will) mean nothing. San Francisco has lost control of its destiny thanks to its myriad exploits in malfeasance. They still have a roughly eight percent chance to make the playoffs thanks to wins from the Seahawks and Rams.
But San Francisco didn't fold.
They ran the ball effectively, and gashed the Bears' pathetic defensive gameplan that gave them the cushy, zone coverages that they have a penchant for destroying. Firing your head coach, who coordinates your defense, might, it turns out, have a detrimental effect (even if that firing was overdue).
In the second half, the 49ers didn't collapse. That was a step in opposition to their M.O. for most of this season. And while the Bears are a second half team, and opened with a touchdown drive, the 49ers recovered and put pressure on Caleb Williams, sacking the young quarterback six times.
It was dominant. And it came after an "if not now, then when,"-inspired team meeting Saturday night at the team's hotel. Both Deommodore Lenoir and Brock Purdy — players who are typically understated in the locker room — spoke and urged their teammates to play with, in a word, desperation.
That had to be said, it turns out, because that ethos had been absent.
"I think the message was we need to play with more of a sense of urgency and play desperate, because you just haven't really sensed that," said George Kittle. "And I've been on teams where it felt like, was it two years ago, we were on an eight-, nine-game win steak, whatever that was, and it literally felt like every play people were just scratching, clawing and fighting for everything.
"And I'm not gonna call anybody out, like we're all--not taking a play off, but just not fought our hardest on any given play. And that was kind of the message saying guys just put put it all out there. Because we have the players, we have the playmakers, we have the play calling. We have everything to win games, but we have to do it out of desperation."
That was palpable Sunday, though the dominance overshadowed the need for scratching and clawing.
You saw it at the spots that had been glaring weaknesses. The defensive front stuffed D'Andre Swift to the tune of 14 carries for 38 yards. The offensive line opened the game giving Brock Purdy one of the cleanest pockets of the season, and drove downhill in the run game. They weren't perfect by any stretch, but they were more forceful.
Center Jake Brendel told me the offense line was driving better. That's a catalyst for their entire identity.
"I think we did a really good job this game of just finishing," Brendel said. "I think everyone was pushing their blocks a little bit more downfield, a little bit more to the whistle. I think that really paid off for us."
In all likelihood, the 49ers need to win out in a four-game stretch that features the Rams this Thursday, a cross-country trip to face the Dolphins, a Monday night home game against the Lions, and a season finale against the Cardinals. Even if they do that, it may not be enough.
But playing like they did Sunday reestablishes a precedent.
It reminds rookies and those players who are new to the 49ers' program what the standard is actually supposed to be. That matters, especially when San Francisco will likely draft double-digit rookies in April. Going out sad and gutless would make the climb next season exponentially harder. Playing like this makes it easier, even if it amounts to nothing but worse draft positioning.
Will they keep it up Thursday? Will they keep it up if/when they are mathematically eliminated? Those are better questions, especially given that this team has yet to beat a team with a winning record (at the time of the game). This is an unceasing battle against nihilism, and on Sunday, the 49ers warded it off for at least one more game.