Getty Nick Bosa pre-snap in Week 1.
In the NFL, wins and losses don’t have an asterisk. If the San Francisco 49ers win a game, it doesn’t matter how much of a blowout the final score may have been, and if they lose, it doesn’t matter how close the final score might have been; when the season comes to an end, the playoffs will be determined by each team’s final record, period, with strength of schedule only factoring into the equation in the case of a tie.
Still, when a team travels across the country, plays a 1 p.m. Eastern time game that feels like 10 a.m. their time, and then has to go toe to toe in unfamiliar conditions best described as a torrential downpour, players will occasionally make light of the situation and avoid throwing up a red flag on the state of the season before it even really had a chance to begin. This was the high road Nick Bosa chose to take during his post-game media availability session when he was asked by a reporter how the locker room was handling the loss.
“We’re gonna be all right, we’ve been through worse,” Bosa replied. “We’d obviously like to get a win, but it’s just annoying to give a game away like that. I’m just happy to get back to California.”
When asked about the conditions of the field, Bosa was similarly nonchalant, even if he took a minor shot at Chicago for their real grass field, which is notoriously treacherous. “It was better than last year, honestly,” Bosa replied. “But it’s never too good when it’s raining that hard, you can never really do much pass rush-wise, but it was better grass, though.”
With a Week 2 bout against the division rival Seattle Seahawks forthcoming, Bosa and company clearly are ready to put this loss behind them and look towards the future.
Nick Bosa, Trey Lance and members of the 49ers recap #SFvsCHI. t.co/Qo4CMdIadN
Nick Bosa Blames Penalties for the San Francisco 49ers’ Loss
Elsewhere in his media availability, Bosa was asked what was contributed most to his team’s loss in Week 1, with the former second overall pick out of Ohio State echoing the words of his coach, Kyle Shanahan, who spoke on the matter earlier in the day.
“Penalties,” Bosa declared. “We did what we were supposed to do in the first half, we were stopping the run all day, but yeah, just killed ourselves with penalties, let them continue to drive the ball in a monsoon, it’s going to be penalties and turnovers, so.”
Bosa’s assertion was backed up by the number, as, despite out gaining the Chicago Bears in both rushing and passing yards, the team’s 12 penalties for 99 yards, including a crucial holding call against Javon Kinlaw following Trey Lance’s interception hurt them greatly. If the Niners would have cleaned up those mental errors, the final score may have looked very different.
Bosa Has a Golden Opportunity Versus the Seattle Seahawks
After failing to bring down Justin Fields for a sack in Week 1, Bosa has a golden opportunity to get on the proverbial board in Week 2, as the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line has widely been considered the worst unit in the NFL, Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus detailed back in June:
There’s quite obviously a lot of hope for the future with the talent Seattle has brought into the fold, but this has crash-and-burn potential. Starting two rookie offensive tackles — both from Air Raid offenses — is a scary proposition. And considering Gabe Jackson’s decline in recent years, there’s not a single quality starter this unit can rely on.
Now granted, the Bears were ranked 31st on Renner’s list, which isn’t exactly encouraging, but as long as there isn’t a “Record-Breaking Rainfall” in Santa Clara, Bosa and the rest of the Niners’ rushers should be able to capitalize on Pete Carol’s make-shift offensive line.