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The 49ers Fall to No. 16 in NFL.com's Week 12 Power Rankings

Have the 49ers hit rock bottom?

Grant Cohn

Nov 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; George Kittle stands on the sideline with injury against the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
Nov 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; George Kittle stands on the sideline with injury against the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images / David Gonzales-Imagn Images
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Have the 49ers hit rock bottom?

They're 5-5 and they just lost to the Seattle Seahawks at home. Plus they haven't beaten a team with a winning record yet. And they're set to face five winning teams in their final seven games. Which means the season could get much uglier.

That's why this week the 49ers fell to no. 16 in NFL.com's Week 12 power rankings.

"There's no other way to say it: Sunday's loss to the Seahawks was crushing," NFL.com analyst Eric Edholm writes. "Blowing leads against NFC West opponents has become a chronic issue. Sure, the Niners were playing without George Kittle (and, for most of the second half, Nick Bosa), and a few bad breaks went against them. Those mitigating factors don't make the outcome count less when it comes to the playoff picture. If San Francisco misses the postseason -- and, as of Monday night, the team had just a 29 percent chance of making it -- we'll look back on this one as one of the bigger reasons why, along with earlier losses to the Rams and Cardinals. The 49ers were more in control of those games. Even so, on Sunday, they did have the ball at the Seattle 46-yard line, protecting a 17-13 lead with less than three minutes left. That's usually when Kyle Shanahan teams (especially at this time of year) bleed out the clock or score to put it away. Instead, the Niners had to punt and then watch their defense allow Geno Smith and Co. drive 80 yards in two-plus minutes for the game-winning touchdown. After all the 49ers have been through, the playoffs just might not be in the cards this season."

MY TAKE: If the 49ers miss the playoffs, they won't be able to use injuries or the Super Bowl hangover or the Madden Curse or bad breaks as excuses. No more victim mentality. Instead, they'll have to look in the mirror, hold themselves accountable for falling far short of expectations, and then make a meaningful adjustment.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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