Could the San Francisco 49ers (11-4) be a team of destiny? Well, as Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said the other night, “that’s the thing about destiny. You don’t know until the end.”
What is known, however, is that the 49ers control their destiny. They clinched a playoff berth with the Detroit Lions’ Sunday Night Loss, but there’s more to play for. If they win their final two games, San Francisco will capture the NFC’s No. 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which, this year, would include the Super Bowl, should they make it that far.
Up until Sunday night, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan steered clear of being overly focused on the playoffs, because until they got in, there wasn’t really much to talk about. But that changed with Sunday night’s team meeting.
“At the team meeting, the game ended right before we got in there, and I just told the guys how proud of them I was,” Shanahan said. “I remember starting this offseason, bringing the guys over to my house, back in OTAs, and all the vets, guys that have been here three or four years. It was all guys who every time we’ve gone to OTAs, it’s been all about trying to get to a Super Bowl, trying to win a Super Bowl.
“And I wanted to make sure that we didn’t really talk that way this year. We need to focus on just trying to be the best team we could be, and we’ll see what happens. And it’s kind of been our motto all year, and I was just so proud that, actually now, last night, I could congratulate them and actually talk about the playoffs, because they are in, and they got in there. And now it’s time to position ourselves to try to do something special.”
Philip Rivers – in his second game in a Colts uniform, after coming out of a five-year retirement – and the Colts scored quickly and scored early. Yet, somehow, there never seemed to be any doubt as to who would come out in the win column.
“Whenever you have a calm, defensive coordinator like (Robert Saleh, it gives you all the confidence in the world, like everything’s going to be alright,” said linebacker Dee Winters, who intercepted Rivers for the first pick-6 of his career.
That calm extended to QB Brock Purdy, who delivered another elite-level performance, as the quarterback looks to be as locked in, poised and generally firing on all cylinders as much as he has ever been.
“He did awesome, man. Played really well,” Shanahan said. “Got on him for a couple he missed (said with a smile), but it was pretty close to a perfect game. He did a hell of a job.”
That hell of a job amounted to a stat line of 25-of-34 for 295 yards and five touchdowns, which is a career number of touchdowns in a single game for Purdy. Those five touchdowns went to four different receivers – TE George Kittle, WR Demarcus Robinson, WR Jauan Jennings and RB Christian McCaffrey, who had two TD receptions, of course.
Speaking of McCaffrey, it was another masterclass in how to be an elite running back and pass catch all-in-one (except that’s a hard thing to teach. He just has it). His 117 rushing yards gave him his second 1,000-yard season, as he’s getting closer and closer to a 1,000-1,000 season. The 49ers had 28 first downs to the Colts’ 19 and were 7-of-11 on third down.
But for the accolades, McCaffrey’s focus is on winning games, not personal achievements.
“I mean, that stuff’s awesome, man,” McCaffrey said. “You don’t play the game for that stuff. You play the game because you love football…But anytime you hear stuff like that, it is cool. I don’t take it for granted.”
That appreciation without distraction mirrors the 49ers as a team. As long as they’re winning and “being the best team they can be,” everybody’s happy.
Jennings finished the night with 71 receiving yards and was invaluable as a blocker. He was his typical third-and-Jauan self when it mattered most, and his touchdown catch was his eighth of the season.
Shanahan didn’t hesitate to frame Jennings’ night in the context of everything that led to it.
“Jauan has been huge,” Shanahan said. “The way he stepped up last year when BA went down with his ACL and Jauan played as our No. 1 receiver all last year. He’s had a lot of injuries this year. He’s battled through them all, and he’s been able to come back, and he’s finishing the way that he’s — to me, has always been.”
Purdy talked last week about the trust he has in Jennings, and it is evident on the field.
The real story of the night, though, wasn’t about one performance or one opponent. It was about how a focus shift instilled during OTAs has helped San Francisco overcome A LOT to get to January football.
“I just think when you have a veteran team who has gone through all that stuff,” Shanahan said, “And I mean, since ’19, when you come up short in the Super Bowl, that’s all you want to do when you come back…is talk about that.”
Since 2019, the 49ers have felt the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. They’ve come so close, so many times. NFC Championship appearances blurred together. Super Bowl runs became both motivation and burden.
“They think that’s all the NFL is about,” Shanahan said. “Get into the playoffs and try to compete for a Super Bowl, and then the next year doesn’t go right, and it kind of crushes your team a bit.”
That realization drove Shanahan’s offseason reset. Instead of reinforcing the chase, he reframed the work.
“I wanted guys to just know, you can’t always look at it that way,” he said. “If you do, and a couple bad things happen, a couple of injuries happen, you can get very deflated.”
Trent Williams with a very honest assessment on how the injuries to Nick Bosa and Fred Warner affected the team, and then how they got through them. pic.twitter.com/K0MIWYQGi4
— Tracy Sandler (@TracyFGSN) December 23, 2025
The 49ers have suffered a myriad of injuries this year, including losing DE Nick Bosa for the season in Week 3 and LB Fred Warner for the season in Week 6. Those injuries were deflating, but the 49ers have managed to worth through it, clinch a playoff berth with a lot more in front of them.
“I think it brought us closer together,” LT Trent Williams. “I’d be lying to tell you that it didn’t affect us. It affected us. It affected everybody. Seeing your leader, the best linebacker in the game on the ground, hearing that one of your other leaders, Nick Bosa, one of the best defensive ends in the league, tore his ACL, it’s really hard to take that and just say, ‘alright, next man up.’ I’d be sitting here lying if I told you that was the case, but I think it brought us closer together. It gave other guys a chance to step up.”
Shanahan’s offseason shift on expectations made getting through those injuries, as well as the many others they’ve dealt with, possible.
“I wanted guys to just focus on being the best they could,” Shanahan said. “Doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but we need to focus on just being the best team we can be and earning the right to talk that way.”
Purdy embraced the shift.
“I think that was awesome that he did that,” Purdy said. “Because the last couple years the culture and the teams that we’ve had, that was a realistic goal — go attack the first seed, go make it deep into the playoffs, go make it to the Super Bowl, win it. I think it was just really cool for him to understand our team, where we’re at and the turnover and all that kind of thing.
“And being real with the older guys that have been here, and the challenge of, ‘Hey man, we’ve got to win some gritty games early in the year, middle of the season, late in the year, and see where we’re at when it’s all said and done. So, I think it’s just been really cool because that’s been our mindset. We just take it one week at a time. We haven’t been getting wrapped up in the playoff picture or anything like that.”
Next up for the 49ers are the Chicago Bears at Levi’s on Sunday night.
“Those guys did that,” Shanahan said. “They earned to get in the playoffs, and we’ll see what we can do in it.”