Javon Hargrave admits 49ers let guard down after perfect 5-0 start originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Javon Hargrave opened up about the 49ers‘ mindset heading into their 34-3 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at TIAA Bank Field.
The dominant win felt similar to San Francisco’s first five weeks of the season when the team didn’t lose once. Did the 49ers simply let their guard down during the three-game losing streak before the bye?
“Yeah, it’s hard not to,” Hargrave said Tuesday on KNBR’s “Murph & Mac” show. “Everybody’s got to learn from it. Just not reading too much, not looking at too much. They say it’s like a little poison [when] everybody’s telling you how good you are. And then you can’t read and hear when everybody’s telling you how bad you are.
“Just keeping them blinders on, staying focused and just trying to grow every week.”
Jake Moody missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt in the closing seconds of San Francisco’s first loss of the season, a 19-17 defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Browns. Quarterback Brock Purdy threw four picks over the next two games, losses to the Minnesota Vikings on the road and Cincinnati Bengals at home.
But on Sunday, the 49ers played as close to a perfect game as they could.
“We were a little fed up,” Hargrave said. “We felt it. I think the bye was a good time for us, just to get away and get our minds right. When we got back in the building, everybody just felt it with everybody.
“It was just time. I think that’s how it was from the first snap of the game until the last snap. Everybody was just hungry. I feel like that’s going to be the mindset from here on out.”
Even with the three-game losing streak, the 49ers still are in first place in the NFC West and hold the NFC’s No. 3 playoff seed. If they plan on fighting for the conference’s top seed and a first-round playoff bye, the 49ers will have to remain hungry over the next four weeks with upcoming matchups against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, division rival Seattle Seahawks (twice) and the current No. 1-seeded Philadelphia Eagles.
