The 49ers season could be derailed by three things; it’s Super Bowl or bust.
The overwhelming favorite to win the Super Bowl is the 49ers. They would need to experience an extremely unusual event in order to lose this season. The 49ers could experience the following three incredibly bizarre outcomes:
1. Injuries
With three seasons under their belt and a ton of games left to play, the 49ers are the fourth-oldest team in the NFL. Can they maintain a comparatively good health? Despite the fact that they have several important players sidelined this week, they should be alright as long as Brock Purdy, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, Nick Bosa, and Fred Warner are all fit.
2. Steve Wilks
Wilks has had great success with his defensive backs calling aggressive press-man coverage since the bye week. In the postseason, will he continue to be aggressive? Or, after one big play downfield, will he go back to calling the soft zone coverages that Joe Burrow and Kirk Cousins destroyed in October? When the chips are up, Wilks has to continue playing aggressively.
3. Kyle Shanahan
He appears to have faith in Brock Purdy right now, but he also appeared to have faith in Jimmy Garoppolo throughout the 2019 regular season. In the divisional playoff game against the Vikings, after Garoppolo threw one interception, Shanahan completely lost faith in him, took control of the game, and started depending more on the rushing attack.
If Purdy drops or throws one interception during the playoffs, will Shanahan also do that to him? Will Shanahan go run-heavy, or will he still let Purdy cook? Shanahan needs to have faith in his QB if he wants to win the Super Bowl.