Three Things that Could Derail the 49ers Season

The 49ers are the clear-cut favorite to win the Super Bowl. Something really strange would have to happen for them to fall short this season.

Here are three really strange things that could happen to the 49ers:

1. Injuries

The 49ers have the fourth-oldest team in the NFL, they've played a ton of games the past three seasons and they have many more games to go. Can they stay relatively healthy? They have lots of key players injured this week, but as long as they have Brock Purdy, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner all healthy, they should be fine.

2. Steve Wilks

Since the Bye week, Wilks has had tremendous success calling aggressive press-man coverage with his defensive backs. Will he stay aggressive in the playoffs? Or after one big play downfield, will he revert to calling the soft zone coverages that got shredded in October by Kirk Cousins and Joe Burrow? Wilks needs to stay aggressive when the stakes are high.

3. Kyle Shanahan

He seems to trust Brock Purdy now, but he also seemed to trust Jimmy Garoppolo during the regular season of 2019. As soon as Garoppolo threw one interception in the divisional playoff against the Vikings, Shanahan lost all confidence in Garoppolo, took the game out of his hands and relied on the rushing attack.

Will Shanahan do that to Purdy as well if he throws one interception or dropped interception in the playoffs? Will Shanahan continue to let Purdy cook, or will Shanahan go run-heavy? To win the Super Bowl, Shanahan has to trust his quarterback.