Programming note: Vic Fangio and Greg Roman are scheduled to address the media at 11 and 11:15 a.m. respectively. Watch the live stream right here.
SANTA CLARA – Veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin last week introduced the rallying cry the 49ers plan to use for the rest of their season . . . however long it may last.
“Anquan Boldin talked about this last week to the team about treating these weeks as one-game seasons,” 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said. “That’s what we have to do. Every game is a big game.”
That mentality is needed this week, in particular. The 49ers defeated a likely playoff team, the New Orleans Saints, on the road. Now, they have to travel cross-country to face the New York Giants, a team that’s on a four-game losing streak but still capable of playing the role of the spoiler.
“All you have to do is turn on the film and see the way the Giants play football and you know that it’s going to be a big task, a huge test for us,” Harbaugh said.
The 49ers (5-4) are three games behind the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals. The 49ers could be fighting for one of two wild-card spots, along with the Seattle Seahawks and the second-place teams from the NFC East (Philadelphia or Dallas) and NFC North (Detroit or Green Bay).
The 49ers still have little margin for error in the final seven weeks of the regular season. And that was the point Boldin was trying to get across when he spoke to his teammates on the practice field last week after a walk-through.
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“Everybody knows where we are,” Boldin said. “It’s not a secret. And we’re the ones who put ourselves there. If it’s going to get done, we’re going to have to do it. We’re not looking for anyone on the outside to come help us. We know we’re good enough to make things happen.
“It would be a great story for us to be 4-4 and win the Super Bowl. That’s how we’re looking at it. We feel like every week is ‘Win or go home.’ And that’s how we’re approaching it. We approach it the same way this week. We’re looking at keeping our head down for the last part of the season, work our butts off, compete our butts off, and when it’s over, we’ll look up and see where we are.”
The 49ers are not in a position to take anything for granted. After all, the team that went on the road and pulled off a rare visiting-team victory in New Orleans is the same team that lost to the St. Louis Rams a week earlier at Levi’s Stadium.
“If we have a down week, we’re able to come back and work that much harder,” Boldin said. “It shows the resiliency of the guys we have. We have a group of guys who want to win it all. We’re on the same page when it comes to that. We’re all about winning and willing to do whatever it takes to do that.”
But it’s also a sign of a team that has not played consistently well. How can the 49ers avoid the ups and downs that defined their season through nine games?
“At this point, we have no choice,” Boldin said. “That’s been our focus, to come out and be consistent and to win at all cost. That’s the mindset we have at this point.”
