After an 0-5 start to the season which has now included four consecutive losses by three points or less, the 49ers are feeling the heat.
On Sunday, San Francisco dropped its second overtime contest of the year, a 26-23 loss against the Indianapolis Colts that featured a late 49ers’ rally that ultimately came up just short.
Though quarterback Brian Hoyer put up some of his best numbers of the season in Sunday’s loss, completing 29-of-46 passes for 353 yards and two touchdowns, Hoyer is still winless as San Francisco’s starter and still facing questions about his long-term job security.
On Wednesday morning, 49ers’ wide receiver Marquise Goodwin joined Murph & Mac and indicated he still has plenty of confidence in his starting signal-caller. Goodwin said the 49ers’ issues are more of a team-wide problem and less of a Hoyer issue.
“He’s (Hoyer) a professional,” Goodwin said. “He’s a great guy, he comes in with a great attitude each day. I don’t think he lets the outside things affect him too much. I know he’s hard on himself because he wants to do well, not only for himself, but for the team. But like I said, he’s a professional, he handles everything well and he continues to work each day as well. He’s under pressure as well as all of us. You just try to make it less of a Brian Hoyer issue and less of any single guy issue and make it a whole team issue because that’s what we need to win the games is the whole team to perform.”
Over the past four weeks, the 49ers have lost by three points to the Seahawks, by two points to the Rams, by three points to the Cardinals and then by three points to the Colts. Despite failing to help head coach Kyle Shanahan to his first victory, Goodwin said the 49ers are taking the losses in stride and know that they need to continue to prepare in the same fashion they have thus far.
“I really think we don’t treat the situation like it’s a bear in the building,” Goodwin said. “We just continue to work and continue to prepare like we have. Like you said, this is the first time in 20-something years, 23 years that a team has loss with this point differentiation. It’s one of those things that rarely, rarely happens and it happened to us so we’re just grateful to be able to be playing football. Each day we come out here and work together, but obviously we would love to win and get a win for our team.”