San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle perhaps summed it up best when he described the emotions following their third successive loss, this time at the hands of the Buffalo Bills in primetime.

"It feels dark and gloomy and absolutely — probably depressing, honestly," said Kittle in a postgame press conference after a 35-10 blowout at Orchard Park on Sunday Night Football.

Yet even after dropping to 5-7 with a second successive loss by at least 25 points, Kittle sees reasons to keep the faith.

"What's crazy is we only have so many opportunities left, but we're technically not out of the playoffs or anything like that," Kittle added. 

"I still have faith in this coaching staff. I still have faith in the players around me. I still have Brock Purdy out there, Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings is playing a hell of a season. I'm just looking forward to getting back out there."

And Kittle's optimism received some statistical support from the playoff odds in the wake of the defeat.

The 49ers are only given a 10 percent chance to make the playoffs by The Athletic, but that is actually up from nine percent prior to Week 13.

It is a curious improvement given the dispiriting nature of a defeat that leaves them two games back of leaders the Seattle Seahawks in the division. At 5-7, San Francisco is three games back of the Washington Commanders in the Wild Card race.

One reason for it is likely to be the 49ers' remaining schedule. The Athletic gives the 49ers a win probability of over 50 percent in each of their final five games. The Seahawks only have one such game, while the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams (both 6-6) each have three. However, they are viewed as underdogs in terms of win probability in their respective remaining matchups with the 49ers. 

Wins over Los Angeles and Arizona would redress the balance following earlier divisional defeats to those teams and remove the head-to-head tiebreaker advantages the Rams and Cardinals each have over San Francisco.

That would put the 49ers in a better position to sneak into the dance. However, the New York Times' playoff machine paints a more bleak picture, giving the 49ers just a four percent shot of getting in. That will increase to six percent if they beat the Chicago Bears.

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