On Sunday, head coach Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers suffered a soul crushing loss in Super Bowl 58 to the Kansas City Chiefs, resulting in the team once again following an excruciating bit short of breaking their championship drought, which has existed since the mid 1990s. One area of criticism that was addressed after the game was about the 49ers defense, which started out strong against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense but ultimately fizzled down the stretch en route to the loss.

Now, Shanahan is defending his team, including defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, who some have suspected might be a candidate for one of the head coaching vacancies that exist around the league.

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“I thought they’re one of the reasons that we got this far,” said Shanahan about the defense, per Charean Williams of NBC Sports. “I thought they did a number of good things. They did a lot of good things in that game [Super Bowl LVIII], too. Just like our whole team. Our team did a bunch of good things this year but came up short in the last game.”

Indeed, the 49ers' defensive attack was a large part of the reason that the team was able to cruise through most of their schedule this year en route to the Super Bowl. However, that unit suffered immense setbacks during the playoffs, including a brutal first-half showing in the NFC Championship Game vs the Detroit Lions, and then down the stretch of the Super Bowl vs Mahomes and company.