Kurtenbach: To answer their 31-year question, the 49ers need to narrow their focus

SEATTLE — The lockers were cleaned out, the garbage bags were full, and the platitudes were flying like in lieu of the confetti that won’t be falling for the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in February.

While the San Francisco 49ers came up short of the Super Bowl this season — a phrase that has been copied and pasted into this column space every winter for the last three decades — the mood inside the losing locker room in Seattle was defiantly optimistic.

The company line? The baptism by...