SEATTLE – This was not the time to spew false bravado, to pretend that the 49ers are ready for another Super Bowl appearance.
Nick Bosa acknowledged after Thursday night’s 36-24 win in Seattle that the 49ers, who once led by 20, still have a maddening habit to “let teams back in it.”
They finished off the Seahawks. They’ve only just begun, though.
“It’s still early. It’s only Week 6,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “We can still right this ship without having to ring off nine straight wins. Today was important.”
Are the 49ers destined for the playoffs again? Winning here certainly helps, because had they not delivered on Prime Video’s Thursday night livestream, they would have been 0-3 halfway through NFC West action. “I was glad that our guys could fight through that, realize that games are really never over where you can just sit and chill in the fourth quarter,” coach Kyle Shanahan said.
There still might be no escaping talk of a Super Bowl hangover, not with the Kansas City Chiefs up next at Levi’s Stadium, but the 49ers won’t be entering that game on a three-game skid.
Here are 10 things that caught my eye in one of the NFL’s most special arenas:
1. GREEN INTERCEPTION
The football was on the ground at Renardo Green’s locker. Less than an hour earlier, it hung in the Seattle air, and he saw it “the whole way” into his hands for his first career interception. This was midway through the fourth quarter, when the Seahawks were down only six points and on the verge of erasing a 20-point deficit.
Nick Bosa put forth his self-described worst pass rush of the night when Geno Smith unleashed a throw toward D.K. Metcalf. Green undercut it and returned it 20 yards up the left sideline to the 15-yard line, with his touchdown dreams denied only because “I ran out of real estate.”
So did Metcalf near the end of the first half. He failed to keep both feet in the end zone on a potential third-and-goal touchdown catch over Green.
“He’s very talented and we got to see that tonight,” Bosa said. Green, a second-round pick, got bumped up to No. 3 cornerback as Isaac Yiadom started Thursday in place of Charvarius Ward (knee). Green credited Ward for helping him with tips on covering Metcalf, who caught 3-of-11 targets for 48 yards. “I saw (Metcalf) break, he was right in my vision, in line with the (quarterback) and I knew he was going to throw it and I broke on the ball,” Green said.
2. GUERENDO BLAZES TRAIL
The Isaac Guerendo story – “I.G.” to his teammates – started slowly for one of the NFL’s fastest running backs. Through eight carries Thursday, and 12 career carries in the preceding four games, none went longer than six yards. Then he took a Brock Purdy handoff, veered right, and sprinted down the right sideline for a 76-yard gain to the Seahawks’ 5-yard line.
“We’ve all been waiting to see IG kind of turn it loose. We know he’s a blazer,” left tackle Trent Williams said.
Cornerback Devon Witherspoon (and his 4.39-second speed in the 40) made an ankle tackle of Guerendo (4.33-second speed at the combine), and the rookie rusher claimed he went down in-bounds merely to help kill time and set up Kyle Juszczyk’s first touchdown of the season. “The O-line did a great job opening up the seam, and I just hit it right there,” Guerendo said. “At the end, unfortunately, I had to give away my first touchdown, but it was a team decision.”
3. MASON’S SHOULDER
Jordan Mason’s left shoulder is now the 49ers’ biggest injury concern. He landed hard on it after a 14-yard run early in the second quarter. He headed to the locker room, presumably for an X-ray that ruled out a collarbone fracture. But a 9-yard run to open the second half ended with a defender shoving his left shoulder on the way out of bounds, and Mason’s nightshift was done.
The 49ers got by thanks to the ground-game helpers of Guerendo, Deebo Samuel, Patrick Taylor Jr. and Brock Purdy. While Mason will be evaluated further Friday to determine the extent of his sprain, the 49ers conceivably will rely on their in-house options to bridge the gap until Christian McCaffrey’s Achilles tendons are cleared to play this season. McCaffrey should need at least two weeks of practice to gauge his health, so a return likely wouldn’t happen until after the Nov. 2 bye.
Mason leads the NFL with 609 yards and 114 carries (5.3-yard average).
4. NICK BOSA’S PRESSURES
For the fourth time in six games, Nick Bosa did not record a sack, nor did he take much solace in recording 14 pressures. Those tied for the most in a game by a pass rusher in the past four seasons, matching the 14 he put on the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4 2022, when he did record two sacks.
“It’s a finishing business, especially when you’re me and you’re expected to finish,” Bosa said. “There were a couple close ones there where it was almost ball out, game over. I’ve just got to keep going. It’s a long year. I have to look at the tape, try and finish those, because that’s what players like me need to do.
“It’s good to hit the quarterback obviously but you want to get there, you want to finish for your team.”
5. THE PURDY-KITTLE TRUST
Brock Purdy converted on 4-of-11 third-down passes, but the last two that succeeded were his touchdown passes to George Kittle.
From a 10-yard dart to the right pylon on third-and-3, to a 9-yard scoring strike on third-and-4, Purdy has now thrown more regular-season touchdowns to Kittle (18) than Jimmy Garoppolo did (17). “It just comes down to that component of trust, man,” Purdy said. “Both touchdowns were just a trust factor. So something that we’ve continued to grow at throughout the offseason and throughout the games that we’ve played together and tonight it showed really well, so very proud of him.”
Kittle matched his career high by scoring in a fourth straight game, including a touchdown in Sunday’s 24-23 loss to Arizona. He turned 31 on Wednesday. “Three touchdowns on my birthday week? Thank you, Brock,” Kittle said.
6. THE SUITE LIFE
In a 2002 Week 6 visit to Seattle, the 49ers’ Terrell Owens celebrated a touchdown catch by pulling a Sharpie out of his right sock, signing the football and hand-delivering it to a field-level suite to his business advisor.
Thursday night, to open Week 6, Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk both scored touchdowns in the north end zone. They headed for that same field-level suite as Owens did, where their wives (Claire and Kristin, respectively) awaited them with celebratory hugs. No Sharpies were required. Kittle had one more nod to his wife in the postgame press conference, wearing a cap that read: “Out Kicked My Coverage.”
Such jovial moods followed other big wins in Seattle, in 2019, ’22, and ’23. Prior to that, the 49ers lost eight straight visits, and only Kittle and Juszczyk are still around from both the 2017 and ’18 defeats.
7. INTERCEPTION RETURNS
Linebacker Fred Warner, who had a pick-six in the 49ers’ last win against New England in Week 4, was thinking about another such defensive score once Green got his interception and took it to the Seahawks’ 15-yard line. “In my mind, it was, ‘Let’s go score and try and get a block for him,” Warner said. “Malik (Mustapha) got his interception and he ran right out of bounds (at the 49ers’ 3-yard line). What are we doing? You’ve got to learn. Come on, let’s go.”
Mustapha’s first career interception, in his second start, came on the game’s opening series. “Next time, I’m going to try and stay more in control so I don’t run out of bounds,” said Mustapha, who exited before halftime with what’s initially dubbed a low-ankle sprain.
8. ROOKIE REVIEW
OK, so Mustapha and Green got interceptions. Guerendo had a 100-yard game until he lost a yard on his last carry. They weren’t the only rookies in action. Tatum Bethune recovered a fumbled kick return. Right guard Dominick Puni started his sixth straight game. Jacob Cowing fielded three punts, and while he returned the first 11 yards, he remarkably did not fumble when blasted at the 49ers’ 12-yard line on his last return early in the fourth quarter during the Seahawks’ rally.
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“This ain’t college. It’s the real deal. You’re playing against the best of the best, so for those guys to show up on Thursday night, a prime-time game like that, it means a lot to all of us as a team and them showing that,” Purdy said. “So we all have got their backs and we’re going to continue to grow together.”
The rookie pool could grow next week, when wide receiver Ricky Pearsall is expected to resume practicing for the first time since surviving a gunshot wound to his chest in an Aug. 31 robbery.
9. RUN DEFENSE RESPONDS
Four days after caving to the Cardinals’ James Conner and Kyler Murray, the 49ers defense didn’t let the Seahawks rushing attack get rolling, aside from Kenneth Walker’s 1-yard touchdown run amid their third-quarter uprising.
It wasn’t just Fred Warner (11 tackles) making stops. The 49ers swarmed to Walker (14 carries, 32 yards) as required to keep him from breaking any run longer than eight yards.
10. DEEBO DELIVERS
Three years after scoring on a 76-yard touchdown pass from Trey Lance against Seattle, Samuel did it Thursday night on Brock Purdy’s pass near midfield, where Samuel left two defenders in his wake for the 49ers’ first touchdown.
“Once the ball is in the air,” Samuel said, “we’re always taught to attack it, and then whatever happens, that’s it. It’s off to the races.”
Samuel gritted through a fourth-quarter shot to his funny bone, and he finished with 102 receiving yards, 15 rushing yards, and 52 kick-return yards.
Left tackle Trent Williams had a good view of Smith’s touchdown catch-and-run because he was supposed to be blocking Boye Mafe, who instead was the last defender pursuing Williams. “Deebo got to full stride and it was game was over,” Williams said.
In reality, the game was far from over. It was only 16 minutes, 30 seconds old. And from a season’s perspective, this season is far from over, too.