While there have been times during this season that the 49ers defense has looked like a wrecking ball—they were third in points allowed, fifth in turnovers forced and eighth in yardage allowed—the team defense has not been impressive in the playoffs, not when it allowed 21 points and 330 yards to the Packers and certainly not when it allowed 31 points and 442 yards to the Lions in the NFC championship.

Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks was not pleased with the tape of that game, not with the level of talent the 49ers have on that side of the ball. He called the 49ers’ defensive effort “unacceptable.” Head coach Kyle Shanahan was on board, too. On Tuesday here ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, 49ers players found themselves in agreement.

“Just as any coach would,” linebacker Dre Greenlaw said. “Just kinda said how they felt about it. I think the most important thing is just how we felt about it as a team. I mean, I agree to the fullest extent. I felt like we could play harder, I felt like I could play harder. You gotta look at yourself, too. So, that’s really what it boils down to. From there, you gotta go do that.”

49ers Defense Showed Poor Effort at Times

It was stunning to watch the 49ers fall behind the Lions, 24-7, in the first half of that championship game, taking punch after punch from Detroit. The Lions scored touchdowns on three of their first four possessions, and added a late field goal to close the half.

Greenlaw said one negative trait his team sometimes allows to creep in is the expectation that they’ll be able to clobber all comers.

“My big takeaway was that, as good as we sometimes think we are, teams do a really good job of having really good plays and no matter what the situation may be, we gotta play hard and we gotta play fast,” Greenlaw said.

“I think there’s times where we think we are going to go and we are going to be the team that dominates a team. And it doesn’t happen as fast or as quick as we want it to. We kinda get that reality check a little bit. That’s what I seen so far. But I also seen that we got some guys that will go in there and fight and give it everything they got.”

Can’t Let it Happen Again in the Super Bowl

Maybe the most disappointing aspect was that much of what seemed to go wrong for the 49ers against the Lions was a matter of effort. So, to be called out by Wilks and Shanahan at any point of the season, especially heading into the Super Bowl, sticks out.

“That’s something that never needs to be coached,” safety Tashaun Gipson said. “That’s something that never needs to be addressed. This is the National Football League. Effort plays are something that shouldn’t have to be spoken about or coached. Those plays are unacceptable and everybody on that film can at some point on one of those plays point themselves out and say, ‘Man, I could have played with better effort on that.’ Everybody.

“That film was hard. You had to see that and you had to hear some choice words because that’s not our brand of football. We are a lot better football team than that.”

There’s a simple solution when it comes to containing Kansas City, according to defensive lineman Javon Hargrave: Don’t wane on the effort. If the 49ers do that, the bad moments from the first two playoff games will soon be forgotten.

“Honestly, to me, I think we just got to play our best game this game,” Hargrave said. “Because if we play our best game this game, nobody’s going to remember these other games. We just know it’s about this one game and we just gotta come bring our best game this game.”