Browns head coach Mike Pettine confirmed that his squad will be ready for Seahawks in Seattle this Sunday, largely because of the momentum they picked up after beating the 49ers 24-10 in Week 14.
"It's the attitude," Pettine told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We're not going up there to curl up in a ball.
"We're going up there to compete. And I thought our guys showed that this past Sunday when you talk about just where our season had gotten to and losing seven in a row, two teams in very similar situations and I thought you saw one team that wanted to be out there and wanted to compete and wanted to win a football game, and I don't know if I sensed that same attitude from the other side.
"But as I stressed to the team, that starts today with how we prepare and how we practice," Pettine added.
[MAIOCCO: Tomsula: 'That’s as bad a feeling in sports as you can have']
Several 49ers players, including veteran Pro Bowl tackle and captain Joe Staley, cited a lack of effort.
“You can’t take anybody lightly,” Staley said. “We’re not in the position right now to take anybody lightly. We got to take it one week at a time and not give a crap about records or anything because we’re not a position where we’ve done anything. We got to play our (butts) off every single week, and we didn’t do that.”
Anquan Boldin saw it as a winnable game, and was frustrated the 49ers let it slip through their fingers: "Especially when it's a team you know you can beat, and to have a performance like that, it sucks."
Outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks was in line with the two other veterans.
“Maybe we took them for granted," 49ers outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks said. "Maybe we took them light. Them having the record they had coming into this game, maybe we did take them a little light. Us getting the win last week, maybe we got a little big-headed this week and just felt that things were just going to happen. But we won last week because everybody played hard.”
San Francisco head coach Jim Tomsula, however, disagreed with the team being unprepapred or unengaged, and gave full credit to the Browns.
“I don’t want to take (anything) away from the Cleveland Browns,” Tomsula said. “They obviously played a good football game. They won the football game. The San Francisco 49ers played a poor football game.”
