For the desperately optimistic San Francisco 49ers fans, there will be a path through this brutal remaining maze and into the playoffs.
They’ll point to the exceedingly tight race for the NFC West crown, which could hang in the balance until the last week of the season. They’ll cross their fingers with injuries, hoping that three of their four best players — quarterback Brock Purdy, defensive end Nick Bosa and offensive tackle Trent Williams — will all come out of the tunnel next week and turn everything around against the Buffalo Bills (9-2). And they’ll definitely avoid thinking about how eerily similar this campaign has become to the 2020 season, when San Francisco was beset by health and identity issues following a Super Bowl loss the previous season, leading to a massively disappointing 6-10 record that inspired an eventual roster retooling.