The San Francisco 49ers of Arizona by way of Santa Clara played a home football game 710 miles from home Monday night.
And when they scored a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in the first quarter, a foghorn sounded.
The foghorn gimmick is a reach inside of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. In the Sonoran Desert? It is not a sign of our upside-down and changing climate but another indication of this upside-down football season.
The 49ers’ first outing at their not-all-that-temporary home, State Farm Stadium, where they will train and play for the foreseeable future, did not go well. They lost 34-24 to Buffalo, causing their playoff hopes to dwindle.
“I felt like this game was a playoff game for us,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “When you lose it, then you leave stuff up to” other teams.
The Bills had their way with the 49ers’ defense for most of the evening. Shanahan knew the 49ers needed to keep matching Buffalo’s high-octane offense and they couldn’t. The 49ers’ chances to keep the game close fizzled late when a touchdown was overturned, and Nick Mullens false-started on a sneak at the goal line and then threw an interception.
“It just got away from us,” Shanahan said.
So might have their playoff chances.
The 49ers don’t see the Bills often (the last time was a trip to western New York in 2016, most noteworthy for the brutal treatment of 49ers starter Colin Kaepernick by Buffalo fans). But these Bills have a different look: Quarterback Josh Allen is a revelation, and his offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll, might have gained an edge over 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh in the hot head-coaching-candidate sweepstakes.
Shanahan said the team’s unprecedented relocation had nothing to do with the game’s outcome. Maybe it didn’t. And maybe State Farm will get more comfortable with time. The 49ers apparently will have lots of time to figure it out.
The 49ers have decided, sensibly, to stay in Glendale through their Dec. 26 game against their temporary landlords, the Arizona Cardinals. That makes sense only in terms of planning purposes and — though, according to my email, some readers think football players are robots who shouldn’t really care about spending holidays with their families — the members of the 49ers’ traveling party and their loved ones need some solid answers about how the month will unfold.
Returning to Santa Clara was, in theory, possible after the 49ers’ game in Dallas on Dec. 20. But the team would have to flip around and return to Arizona on Christmas Day. Clearly, the odds are high that Santa Clara’s restrictive orders prohibiting contact sports will be extended.
So, the 49ers and their foghorn will stay put. Though ESPN reported that the plans to reunite with their families for the holidays is “still a work in progress,” it is likely that CEO Jed York will pony up to charter a plane of family members down to Arizona — and pay for whatever testing and protocol such an airlift would require.
The 49ers might not be back in Santa Clara County until 2021, after their Jan. 3 season finale against the Seahawks. The strict measures instituted by Dr. Sara Cody — Santa Clara County’s Health Officer and Director for the Public Health Department — over Thanksgiving weekend seem prudent in light of the surge happening in the county. ICU bed availability was reported at 15% on Monday.
Of course, in Arizona, hospital bed capacity was at 92%. So good luck to all the 49ers’ families who will head there for the holidays.
The Bills looked plenty comfortable at State Farm Stadium, despite having their most painful loss of the season take place there: a 32-30 decision Nov. 15 that came on a “Hail Murray” pass from Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray to DeAndre Hopkins. They are a good team, taking full advantage of the Brady-less void in the AFC East.
The 49ers will “host” Washington on Sunday at State Farm. In another example of upside-down scheduling, Washington played Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon (a 2 p.m. PST kickoff ). Alex Smith’s team knocked off the league’s only undefeated team and will come into State Farm with momentum, having won three in a row. It has the same record as the 49ers and Shanahan called the game a must-win.
The 49ers couldn’t take advantage of a tightening NFC West race that might go down to the wire. Seattle’s loss, combined with the Rams’ win over Arizona on Sunday, means the Seahawks and Los Angeles are tied atop the division at 8-4. The Cardinals are two games behind, at 6-6.
The 49ers are alone in last place at 5-7, tied at the fringes of the playoff hunt with the likes of Detroit, Chicago and Washington, with four games to play.
“We have to win all of these,” Shanahan said before he headed back to the hotel room he calls home for most of December.
That foghorn is a mournful sound. So, it actually was appropriate Monday night. Even in the desert.
Ann Killion is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion
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