49ers took their play-off hopes into overtime, kept fighting

It's a few weeks since we checked in with our San Franciscan kissing cousins, and already this weekend it was the vital regular season closer to decide whether they could play on in post-season with hopes of making the Super Bowl, or give up kind of sadly at the end of an indifferent campaign.

After we last looked, upon a frustrating defeat to Seattle Seahawks, the Niners got a topsy-turvy win over the Cincinnati Bengals, giving away a 20-6 lead in the fourth quarter but nicking it back by scoring 6-3 in overtime. Atlanta's Falcons and Houston's Texans (or Texas' Houstons?) were crushed on the Levi's Stadium Field of Jeans, 31-13 and 23-7, making what had become the second worst home record since 1970 a few weeks ago more bearable to the sun-dazzled Niners rooters dragging themselves forty miles away from their old pitch.

In between, though, was a daft 17-20 loss at Tennessee Titans two days before Christmas, meaning our brave Niners went into this weekend's eighteenth and final round needing a win from their trip to the Los Angeles Rams to make the play-offs (it was their seventeenth game, odd numbers and byes happen, I don't make the rules). If they lost, and the New Orleans Saints won their concurrent game at the Atlanta Falcons, it would be Saints not Niners taking the last wildcard play-off place. New Orleans set about doing exactly what they needed to, going 17-3 up at half-time, protecting that to win 30-20, meaning the pressure was on San Francisco in L.A. against the best team in NFC West.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan might have been regretting wearing a Leeds United hoodie the other week. Do not, and I repeat do not, look to LUFC sportswear to bring you luck. The half-time score was 17-3 to L.A. The Niners's George Kittle, had predicted a physical battle in the press — "It’s going to be kind of a body-bag game," he said, meaning exhausted players would be leaving in 'em — and was hearing a lot about that on the field from gleeful Rams. L.A. head coach Sean McVay was prancing about in the scoring zone to celebrate a touchdown with his players, skipping off when a ref grabbed and shoved him away.

Shanahan, meanwhile, was watching every principle he has tried sticking to this season blowing up in his face. Much of his time has been spent fending off fans demanding to see cool young Trey Lance out there at quarterback instead of shambling old Jimmy Garoppolo, and he'd put faith in his chosen guy even after a good show by Lance last week, when Garoppolo was sidelined with a torn ligament in his right thumb. "Fuck, it hurts," was Jimmy's assessment as he tried to throw the ol' pigskin during training for this match. Shanahan put him on painkillers and picked him for the big game anyway. Now the season was ending with a whimper and the post-match media sesh was feeling ominous.