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Kyle Shanahan likes San Francisco 49ers' direction

By The Sports Xchange
San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan leaves the field after a loss to the Carolina Panthers. Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan leaves the field after a loss to the Carolina Panthers. Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The San Francisco 49ers held a division foe to a single touchdown one week, then burned another for 39 points the next.

Gotta say, that's pretty impressive for a club that won just two games last season.

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And who, somehow, is 0-3 this year.

"I was very proud of our guys," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said in the wake of Thursday's 41-39 home loss to the Los Angeles Rams. "By no means did we play perfect, and I don't think we played as good as we can. But I thought the guys gave it everything they could. I thought they competed hard, and I was proud of that.

"I'm very disappointed we didn't come away with the win, especially one that I thought we could have. I felt the same way after the Seattle game (a 12-9 loss last week), too. But, you know, I feel like guys can control their effort and can control how hard they can go. You can't always control the outcome of the game."

Shanahan said he remains confident his team can put a Seahawks-type defensive effort and Rams-type offensive performance on display in the same game sometime soon.

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And it's going to result in a happy ending.

"I believed that going into the season. I believed it versus Carolina, I believed it versus Seattle, and I believed it (against the Rams)," he claimed. "So I'm extremely disappointed when we don't get the job done. There's always reasons why.

"You never know what it's going to take to win a game. Very rarely do all three phases play the best. And when they don't, someone else has got to step it up. I feel like we've done that at times in these three weeks, but obviously we haven't done it good enough to get a 'W' and we're going to keep working to do that until we do."

Of course, you're never going to win if you can't get into the end zone.

Shanahan was not surprised that when it finally happened Thursday night, a full 128 1/2 minutes into the season, it snowballed into four more touchdowns in the next 49 minutes.

"That kind of takes the monkey off of everyone's back, makes you relax a little bit more," he said of the club's first touchdown of the season, scored on a quarterback Brian Hoyer scramble midway through the first quarter. "I think the key in playing at a high level in sports is playing with a clear mind where you're confident and aggressive. That only happens through success. The more success you can have, the easier that comes naturally.

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"It's human nature. You know you can do it, but you have to go out and get it done. And once it does happen, you get more in a flow, you get more confidence and things become easier."

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