The 49ers are struggling at 5-6. They have a tough game in Buffalo on Sunday night. A loss would further complicate their path to the postseason.

What is the current atmosphere in the locker room?

“The atmosphere in our locker room is exactly what you would imagine,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re upset about where we are on our record, but we have a tight-knit group and we play together. I think if you’re living in the world online, whether you’re dealing with our profession or your kids are dealing with social issues at school, you’re not going to be happy dealing with the world online. And I’ve certainly coached long enough that I don’t trade in that world. Online only what I watch is usually movies, rap battles, and funny things animals do. Good or bad.

“If you listen to good things, that will confuse you more than anything. And then if you listen to bad things, it will crush you. That’s not why any of us do this. You have to work on that with younger guys. I think it’s harder because of the world they grew up in. But don’t make someone else’s reality your reality. You have to concentrate on what your job is and never deviate from it.”

The reality is that fans and media who have been spoiled by countless playoff appearances and Super Bowl berths are getting restless. Some have even made the ridiculous suggestion that Shanahan should be in the top spot. Shanahan tries not to judge himself during a bad year.

“It’s up to you guys to grade me,” Shanahan said. “I’m working as hard as I can to win that week and we didn’t win as much as I think we should have. We lost three games that I think we could have won and that we should have won. Those are the ones that are the heaviest. As for judging myself, I’m not going to judge myself. I’m going to work as hard as I can. I am the same man that I am today and that I have always been. We have to overcome some of the things we’re in right now. I believe we can overcome them, but we have put ourselves in a difficult situation and therefore we have to be extremely good and successful here in the future to be able to overcome those kinds of things.

If they can get healthy and stay healthy, they absolutely can. Every team deals with injuries, but the 49ers have been stung more than most. It probably has something to do with the physical stress of playing so many extra postseason games from 2021 through 2023.

There is also a mental toll. It’s hard to put so much into a season and be denied the ultimate goal.

That said, every year there is a team or two that gets hot after Thanksgiving and takes it into the playoffs. The 49ers could be one of those teams this year.

And that effort would be greatly helped if they could find a way to kill the bills Sunday night. After that, most games can be won: bears, rams, dolphins, lions, cardinals. Even if you lose on Sunday, 9-8 is feasible. Whether that will be enough to pick the Commanders for No. 7 remains to be seen.

The rest of the playoff teams in the NFC have to hope that doesn’t happen.