The Game Manager, Week 2: Winning ugly

Cold give: With all due respect to Mr. Sherman — and I’m feeling a lot of respect for him at the moment — wins and loses know not of feelings. They’re remorseless beasts. You can’t say, “There’s no such thing as a moral victory” without acknowledging that a win’s a win no matter what feels it gives you. And if it gets you to .500 just as Reuben Foster is returning, and maybe Marquise Goodwin with him, well then how does that feel?

If you’re going to write off the 49ers win — the improved running game, the lack of turnovers — to being lucky or playing Detroit, then you have to write off at least some of last week’s struggles to being unlucky or playing Minnesota. So why write it off at all?…