Sunday night produced yet another round of tremendous football action as the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals emerged as the champions of their respective conferences. The San Francisco 49ers were on the wrong end of a heartbreaking loss to a powerhouse Rams side and despite a commendable effort from the team, the Niners saw their season officially come to a close at the final whistle.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan faced the media right after the loss and unsurprisingly, the 42-year-old shot-caller was in an undeniably somber mood as he talked about the brutal loss. When asked about the message he gave his team in the locker room right after the defeat, Shanahan was brutally honest in his response:

“I just thanked the guys. I'm so proud of the guys. It's a real cool team with some great people,” Shanahan said, via FOX Sports: NFL on Twitter. “We fought through a lot of stuff this year. I'm just so proud of those guys and how they've done everything throughout this year.”

Shanahan then went on to admit how heartbroken he is with how close they came to booking their place in the Super Bowl only to see their dreams come crashing down after giving up a 10-point lead against the Rams:

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“It hurts pretty bad to not keep this going and for it to end this way,” he continued. “We had our chances. It was the type of game we wanted, but we just came up short at the end. Just got to live with that.”

Shanahan was asked what he believed was the difference that led to the Rams celebrating their championship on the field and his Niners left agonizingly ruing their mistakes on the evening. The 49ers coach had a very specific response as he referenced his team's botched drive towards the end of the game:

“Second and one, third and two, and the dropped pick on the next play,” Shanahan explained. “That's three plays in a row. There are so many plays that happen in a game but it was the game that we wanted. We had a chance at the second and one, third and two. We didn't move the chains. We punted. Thought we were going to get it right back and get a chance at that pick. We didn't and they got that big play down the sidelines and we never got the momentum back.”

It's back to the drawing board for Shanahan and the 49ers, who will need to face a lot of questions in the offseason. They will be given some time to mourn this gutting defeat, but there's also no denying that the clock is ticking for the Niners in what should be a very interesting offseason for them.