Did the 49ers Waste their Time by Practicing in Colorado?

“It has been an interesting trip,” Nick Bosa said. “It definitely has tested our fortitude and ability to remain positive.”

MEXICO CITY — Finally, the 49ers will fly to Mexico City today after spending the past four days at the Air Force Academy in snowy Colorado, a trip that did not seem popular with the players.

“It has been an interesting trip,” Nick Bosa said. “It definitely has tested our fortitude and ability to remain positive.”

That’s because they had take an extra road trip, sleep in a hotel, practice in the snow one day and on turf the next, all while it’s freezing cold, just to prepare for a Monday night game against the Arizona Cardinals in Mexico City, where there’s grass and it’s warm.

“It’s like when we went to The Greenbrier (in West Virgininia),” Jimmy Garoppolo said. “Your schedule’s not the same. Your routine’s not the same, so you just have to adjust and just roll with the punches a little bit, but we’ve done this before so it’s nothing new for us.”

The 49ers spent a week in West Virginia in between back to back road games this season in order to acclimate to the East Coast time zone rather than fly back to the West Coast. The logic was sound, but the trip was tiring and disrupted the players’ routines, and they went on to lose by 14 to the Atlanta Falcons. Then they lost at home by 21 to the Kansas City Chiefs the following week. So the trip was a bust.

This time, the 49ers spent the week in Colorado to acclimate to Mexico City’s elevation. Once again, sound logic. But once again, the trip disrupted the routines of professional athletes who are creatures of habit. So was the trip worth it? The Cardinals stayed in Arizona specially to maintain their usual practice schedule.

“Any time you get off your routine, it takes a little bit longer to get to practice,” Kyle Shanahan said on Saturday. “But I don't consider that a challenge. I consider that things not being perfect, but it's all about the practice field and that was a challenge, but that's what Monday is going to be.”

Unfortunately for the 49ers, their trip to Colorado might have made their upcoming game in Mexico City a bigger challenge than it needs to be. Because the Cardinals aren’t good. The 49ers didn’t need to disrupt their schedule to beat them. 

Let’s see how much gas left in the tank the 49ers have on Monday night.