The San Francisco 49ers have officially reached the "our pets heads are falling off" stage of the 2020 season. Not only were they the club most impacted by an injury-plagued Week 2 around the league, but the entire weekend was sandwiched in between a couple of traveling mishaps. The first of which came on Friday as the Niners were traveling to the east coast.
"The plane we were supposed to take out on Friday somehow -- I don't know how -- but someone crashed into it on the runway," head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Monday of their initial embark to the New York area from San Jose. "They dented it and we thought they were going to fix it. Then, they thought it was not safe to travel on so I'm glad they made that decision.
"They got us a new plane in San Francisco so we had to go to a different airport and got us about a six-hour delay. Got us in real late. We didn't get in until about 2:30 (a.m.) land and get to the hotel around 4 (a.m.). We were supposed to get there at 9 (p.m.). Luckily, we came on Friday. That would have been a big issue if we came in on Saturday."
After those traveling issues came and went, the game brought its own set of woes. Despite defeating the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium to give them their first win of the season, the 49ers saw a number of key figures to their Super Bowl run of a year ago go down. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, running backs Raheem Mostert (MCL sprain) and Tevin Coleman (knee) along with pass rushers Nick Bosa (knee) and Solomon Thomas (knee) all departed Sunday's contest due to injury. Each of them is facing the potential of missing time, including Bosa, who the team fears has torn his ACL. Garoppolo has a high ankle injury and his status for Week 3 is up in the air.
The reason why there isn't much clarity on some of these players' injuries is thanks to the second and final leg of this dreadful week for the Niners. Shanahan noted that the MRI truck that was scheduled to meet the team at The Greenbrier in West Virginia -- where the team is currently staying -- broke down en-route to them. That has, in turn, delayed the MRI results for both Bosa and Thomas.
Shanahan relayed that a local hospital is helping the team with MRI's, but this latest issue certainly adds insult to injury at this still early stage of the season. And if we had to hand out the award for the least lucky team of 2020, it's unquestionably the 49ers who can't seem to turn the corner.
