Then it was a Kenneth Walker touchdown run with 1:24 to play in the same stanza.

What was Shanahan thinking? Not about the losses to the Rams and Cardinals, he said.

“I’m not going to go into what happened in our last two losses,” he said. “It was just staying locked in, trying not to create any negative feelings and just taking it one game at a time. You try to keep our team that way, but it’s not like I talked to a lot of people at that point. So if you just calling plays and stuff, try not to think like that. Our goal is to be locked in the whole game regardless of the score, and I thought that’s how the guys played.”

Shanahan has clearly taken these bitter defeats and made it clear to his team that this is exactly how this league of theirs works. And it may also be the overconfidence of a talented team that thinks it can go to victory after a blissful start to a match.

“We talked about how these two losses are a reminder of how the NFL works,” Shanahan said. “I think we’ve been a bit spoiled in terms of human nature, where sometimes we felt too relaxed, and you can never feel too relaxed.

“I thought we played very well in the second half, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to win. That’s just how it works. We played well. They played well. They came back and made some plays, which made it more exciting , and I was happy that our guys were able to fight through that, realize that games are really never over, where you can just sit and chill in the fourth quarter, you have to go from start to finish, and we have that experience today. “

A game-changing interception by rookie Renardo Green midway through the fourth set up what was essentially the decisive score. Kittle, returning from a bathroom break in the locker room, hauled in a 9-yard TD grab from Brock Purdy. Kittle found his wife in the front row and celebrated with her and Juszczyk’s better half.

The Seahawks answered back with a score, but then 49ers rookie back Isaac Guerendo broke loose for a 76-yard run. Two plays later, Juszczyk rushed in for six yards en route to a repeat front-row celebration with the women.

That was the nail in the coffin, a comeback from a downtrodden division rival and a final stat line of 3 for 5 in the red zone.

For a San Francisco team that has fallen short in two Super Bowls over the last five seasons, despite leading by double digits in each of those games, the questions and concerns about pulling off wins will linger. After all, the 49ers play the Chiefs in Week 7, the same Kansas City team that gave San Francisco heartbreak in those Super Bowl shortfalls.

While the narrative surrounding the team’s late-game struggles doesn’t go anywhere, the 49ers certainly got a win they feel they should have.

“It was definitely a must-win, but (I) look at must-wins a little differently,” said wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who pushed the 49ers to a 10-0 lead with a 76-yard touchdown in the second quarter. catch. “With a must-win, it’s like this: if you lose, you’re done. So ultimately we looked at it as a must-win to get back on track.”

The Niners are back on track after Thursday night and are atop the division they have won the past two seasons. There’s no guarantee they won’t squander a big lead or battle in the red zone in the future, but Thursday’s result – the celebration and relief of it all – has shown them where they want to go.

“To play four quarters with all these different types of emotions and parts of the game and to be able to come together, and get the defense to get a turnover and then score a touchdown at the end, that’s team football, man, and that’s the sport we play,” Purdy said. “So I feel like we’ve definitely taken a step in the right direction.

“We’re always going to have things that we’re going to be hard on ourselves and that we have to grow and get better at, but I really think as a team we all came together and found a way.”