Javon Hargrave explains why the 49ers need to keep their blinders on after their recent win

Outside noise may have gotten to the 49ers during their 5-game winning streak

The San Francisco 49ers were riding high after their last 5-game winning streak. Super Bowl bound. Multiple players in the conversation for MVP. All was well and good. Until it wasn’t.

Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave was on KNBR’s Murph & Mac show Tuesday, where he was asked whether the 49ers let their guard down and let the outside noise get to them:

“It’s hard not to. 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.”

Kyle Shanahan noticed his team came in after the bye week “pissed off” at practice.

Hargrave echoed a similar sentiment: “We were a little fed up. 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.”

That showed during the game. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw were flying around and were making plays against the run that they hadn’t all year. If we just stick with the defense, there was a different energy. And I’m not saying it’s because Steve Wilks was on the sideline, or Chase Young was in the building, but everyone took their game to another level.

Hargrave concluded with, “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.”