Are the 49ers experiencing the dreaded “Super Bowl hangover?” NFL teams that advance all the way to the Super Bowl but end up losing tend to take a step back in the following season, and sure enough, the 49ers are off to a 2-3 start, with an alarming 0-3 record at Levi’s Stadium.
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, who himself oversaw a team that missed the 2019 playoffs after earning a spot in the previous year's Super Bowl, doesn’t believe in the concept, and isn’t convinced the 49ers are experiencing any kind of hangover at this point in the season.
“Every year presents new challenges,” McVay told Bay Area reporters on a conference call Wednesday. “I think five games is a real small inventory to write the narrative yet. I know that these guys will be ready to go, I know what great coaches, what great players they have, so I think there’s a lot of football left to be played for both teams, and we’ll see what happens, but we know we’ve got a great challenge ahead of us this week.”
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It’s not like things completely fell off the rails for LA in 2019, as the organization finished 9-7 in the regular season but simply got shut out of a playoff spot by the dominant squads in Seattle and San Francisco.
In particular, McVay praised 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner, who will be quarterbacking the defense on Sunday night against a Rams offense that has the third-highest total yardage of any NFL team through five weeks.
“I think Fred Warner is one of the best players in this league that doesn’t get enough credit,” McVay continued.
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The Rams are 3-3 against the 49ers with McVay at the helm, so one team will get to break the tie on “Sunday Night Football” this week when the teams face off from Santa Clara.