49ers safety Donte Whitner summed up his team’s situation shortly after their devastating loss to the Giants.
“It’s not the end of the world, but right now it feels like it,” Whitner said Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com.
It’s an especially tough loss because the 49ers did so many things well. The rushed for 5.4 yards-per-carry. They sacked Eli Manning six times and hit him 20 times overall, according to FOX.
The Giants dropped back to pass a ridiculous 64 times, and averaged only 4.2 yards-per-play on those dropbacks. They played nasty defense, but special teams gave away ten points and their offense went 1-for-13 on third downs. Alex Smith hit a few big pass plays, but couldn’t get anything going to the outside to their wide receivers.
After the game, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh looked like the air had been sucked out of him.
“It’ll be a tough one,” Harbaugh said. “It’ll take a while to get over it, but we’ll get over it. This team is not defeated. . . . A man can be destroyed but he can’t be defeated as long as his team knows that there’s hope.”
The future is bright for the 49ers, but they face a ton of offseason questions. Alex Smith, Carlos Rogers, Dashon Goldson, and Ahmad Brooks are among their free agents.
The team will look a lot different next year, which is one reason why this loss stings so much.