49ers feel energized after their bye
Leave it to Kyle Shanahan to be unhappy on bye week.
The 49ers head coach admitted Wednesday he spent much of his week “off” trying to figure out how his club let one get away against the New York Giants in a 27-23 home loss in Week 10.
“Bye weeks and Thursday night games can be great when you win because it’s kind of the only time you can enjoy it more than one day,” he noted this week. “But it also is a lot worse if you lose because you’ve got to think about it for a while.
“Took a couple days just thinking about the Giants game and how it ended. Then you start to move on and enjoy your family a little bit.”
Turns out the worst part of the week was yet to come.
“You get to see football over the weekend, which is sometimes fun to watch,” he said. “But then you end up getting worked up because you’re (upset) you’re not in (the playoff hunt) right now.
“I know we’re not totally eliminated mathematically, but it definitely gets you worked up when you’re watching other teams (in the playoff chase). You want to be a part of that. But you go through that, kind of through the whole day, just watching other people on Sundays.”
Thank goodness for Monday, the first day back at work.
“When I came in on Monday, saw the guys, talked to the coaches, very excited to be back,” he insisted. “We’ve got six games here. It’s just all about football. It’s nothing else.
“There’s a lot on the line. You come back and people might think you don’t have much to play for. You have everything to play for. You have your career, you have your livelihood, you have the guys next to you and you have showing people that you want to be in this building. When you start to think of that, you think of all the challenges ahead. I’m excited to do it.”
The 49ers kick off their season-ending, six-game stretch Sunday at Tampa Bay.
SERIES HISTORY: 23rd regular-season meeting. 49ers lead series, 17-5. The road team has won each of the last two meetings, with the Buccaneers prevailing 34-17 in Week 7 of 2016 in the most recent head-to-head. The 49ers won on their last trip to Florida, 33-14 in Week 15 of the 2013 season. The clubs have met just once in the postseason, with Tampa Bay winning 31-6 at home in a divisional playoff game at the end of the 2002 season.
