SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After coughing up a fourth-quarter lead against a heated division rival in the closing moments on Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco 49ers were left with an all-too-familiar emotion.

This time it was the Seattle Seahawks who stormed down the field to score the winning touchdown with 12 seconds left, turning what seemed like a certain defeat into a 20-17 victory.

Given the feeling in the Niners’ collective stomachs, it might as well have been their Week 3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams or the Week 5 disappointment to the Arizona Cardinals.

“It’s infuriating, honestly,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “It’s not like us. But that’s exactly what we showed this year, so I think until we stop doing that, that’s who we are.”

What the 49ers are now is a 5-5 team on the brink of a losing season. The loss dropped them to 1-3 in NFC West play and saw defensive end Nick Bosa suffer a hip and oblique injury that kept him out for most of Sunday’s second half and could linger for weeks to come .

All of this would make the Niners’ path to a third straight division crown, or any playoff berth, significantly more difficult.

The frustration Warner shares with his teammates is not just the record against division foes, but how San Francisco achieved it. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 49ers have three division losses when leading in the final two minutes of regulation, tied for the most such losses by a team in a season since the 1970 merger.

San Francisco’s three late-game disappointments resulted in just four chances, and they are tied with the 2001 Carolina Panthers, 2000 Los Angeles Chargers, 1996 Baltimore Ravens, and 1994 Washington Commanders for the only teams to have suffered so many defeats in these situations. cv.

Losing a third game when leading in the fourth quarter also tied the Niners for the most such blown leads of any team this season, joining the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals. It all led to coach Kyle Shanahan pointing out a similar message to what he has embraced after multiple losses this season (and even some wins).

“We had every opportunity to run with it and it put it away,” Shanahan said. “(We) missed a few opportunities to do that and … let people hang around, that’s what happens.”

Indeed, the 49ers had multiple chances to build a large, perhaps insurmountable lead against the Seahawks. But a series of self-inflicted mistakes prevented this from happening.

Playing without tight end George Kittle due to a hamstring injury, the Niners were sluggish on offense, finishing with just 277 yards of offense, their lowest performance in a game since Week 6 of the 2023 season. Their longest play of the day lasted just 22 yards, tied for second-shortest for a game since Shanahan took over in 2017 (19 yards was the longest play in a 2020 loss to Washington).

Even more maddening for the Niners, however, was their inability to avoid penalties that wiped out multiple scoring opportunities. San Francisco had nine penalties for 54 yards, seven of which were fouls against the offense. In recent seasons, the Niners have had no trouble overcoming such mistakes, but this team has not been capable of the same kind of resilience in the game.

“Obviously we’ve put that behind us and we’re going to play the next game,” quarterback Brock Purdy said. “Just because we’ve had success over the last few years doesn’t mean that something bad has happened to us, it just means that we’re going to magically make it right. We have to have the chip on our shoulder to take it on every time.” single play, down and game. We just have to get back to that mentality.”

While there are still seven games left in the season where the 49ers must rediscover what has made them successful in recent years, the clock is undoubtedly ticking as they prepare for a tough two-game stretch that includes trips to Green Bay and Buffalo. The fact that they may have to do it without Bosa only makes the task more difficult.

Bosa had been dealing with a right hip issue and an oblique issue all week that he said would “almost” make him even play against the Seahawks. Bosa did start the game and had four tackles and 1.5 sacks before leaving early in the second half.

Bosa injured his other hip and oblique when he took down Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith for a sack with 9:26 left in the third quarter. He stayed on the field one more time before checking out and did not return. After the game, Bosa said he felt like he was “compensating” for the previously injured hip and oblique and regretted missing Seattle’s winning drive.

The Seahawks averaged just 3.3 yards per play when Bosa was on the field versus 6.1 yards when he wasn’t there Sunday. Seattle also scored all 20 points while Bosa was off the field.

“Brutal,” said Bosa. “I couldn’t be there for the most important moment in the game for me. I hate missing time. That’s why I pushed through last week. Hopefully it won’t take too long (to be out).”