Kyle Shanahan speaks about the 49ers mental toughness

After rolling to a fast 5-0 start, the 49ers have dropped two consecutive games. Each loss is frustrating for different reasons, but the team had a chance with the ball at the end of the game to leave with a win.

The reality of the NFL is there aren’t many “easy” games. Through the first five weeks, the 49ers made it look easy. After two consecutive losses, the team looks to regroup against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Evaluating the two losses has been interesting. Every facet of the game has failed them at one point. There isn’t one phase to blame. It is every phase that needs improvement from the last two weeks. Adjustments range from coaching decisions to minor tweaks schematically.

Fred Warner commented after Monday’s game about how the 49ers need to win “grimy” games and wanted to see the team’s mental toughness go up.

Kyle Shanahan was asked about Warner’s comment.

LB Fred Warner said the other night that he’d like to see the mental toughness of the team go up. Is that something you feel like’s been lacking in the last couple of games?

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t say mental toughness. I just go by what I see in the game and I think we’ve been in the reality of the NFL the last two weeks, where the reality in the NFL is every game’s, most of the games are decided by one score. And we’ve been in two of those in our last two games and we’ve had the ball within one score at the end and haven’t gotten it done. I think when you look before that, I think out of our previous 15 games, I think there’s only three games that weren’t double-digit wins. So I think we’re getting more into the reality of the league and we’ve lost both of those games. And when it comes to one score, you look at the top team in the league and the bottom team in the league and usually those guys are in a lot of one-score games. It’s who comes out with more wins, and we’re 0-2 in those right now.”

The NFL is tough. The 49ers will have to respond accordingly this week against the Bengals and head into the bye resembling the team that we saw through the first five weeks.