It was a great week of football for San Francisco 49ers fans. The 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals 36-30, while the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, and Cardinals all lost. This ends that first-place tiebreaker from last week and puts the 49ers into first place.
You couldn’t ask for a better start to the season in the win/loss column. The 49ers are battling injuries and have some tough stretches coming up in their schedule, so stacking wins, including two divisional wins, is going to help in December.
With the 49ers in first place, the Seahawks fall to second, and the Cardinals lose the tiebreaker to the Rams, falling to last place. Both of the Cardinals’ losses are in-division, versus one of the Rams’ single divisional loss.
Things aren’t going to get any easier for the 49ers, and we aren’t even talking about how the injuries have leveled the playing field (yet again). They have some tough teams coming up. Right now, they are 3-0, and that’s all that matters until next Sunday.
San Francisco 49ers (3-0)/Arizona Cardinals (1-2)
Many may wonder just how the 49ers let the Cardinals hang 30 points on them after the Cardinals got destroyed by the Seahawks last week. Maybe you wonder how Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett managed to go 38 for 52 without a single interception, dominate the time of possession, etc., etc.
Well, it’s simple: the 49ers are. Not. Healthy. So how did the 49ers manage to avoid a disappointing loss? Well, his name is Brock Purdy. The 49ers lost Mike Evans, so Purdy went to George Kittle to catch passes. The 49ers lost Trent Williams, but Purdy was on his feet and still didn’t take a sack—and hasn’t taken one yet this season.
The 49ers would not have won this game without Purdy. When things were getting tight late due to two missed 49ers’ extra points while the Cardinals were showing the world they had playmakers, Purdy marched down the field and put a stop to it in the fourth quarter.
It’s worth pointing out the Cardinals are much better than their record indicates. They hung with Seattle until the third quarter last week, when the floodgates opened, and the Seahawks are much healthier than the 49ers. Still, if the 49ers game we saw Sunday happened against the Kansas City Chiefs, the outcome might not have been as positive.
Regardless, as long as the 49ers have Brock Purdy, they have a chance against anyone. Maybe it won’t be a “good” chance depending on the team, but I’d hate to think what would happen today if, say, Brian Hoyer was under center and had to march down the field in the fourth quarter to put it out of reach.
Seattle Seahawks (2-1)
This shaped up to be the most Seattle game ever: Sam Darnold returned to the starting quarterback role, while the Seahawks got Washington Commanders backup quarterback Marcus Mariota. Then the game started, and Seahawks running back Jadarian Price fumbled the ball, leading to the Commanders getting a touchdown shortly thereafter.
What resulted was a fun half with the Seahawks matching the Commanders, while the Commanders continued to extend their lead. The second half gave us the Commanders getting a nice 14-point lead, and everyone expecting Seattle to come roaring back—which they did.
I doubt anyone expected the two picks Sam Darnold threw. One was a costly pick-6 in the fourth quarter after the Commanders took a three-point lead with under five minutes to go. The Seahawks got their touchdown on the next series, but the Commanders offense, in what might be their final series, stayed on the field, forced the Seahawks to burn their timeouts, and went to victory formation 33-31.
31 points. Even the Seahawks defense can get carved. Yes, six of those points came from the Darnold interception, but Mariota had some nice throws to get the Commanders the lead to start this. With the loss, the 49ers return to first place in the division, and the Seahawks’ 12-game winning streak has been snapped.
Los Angeles Rams (1-2)
As of this writing, the Rams are in third place, only because they’ve played one divisional game while the Cardinals have had two. That’s right, the “dream team” that has yet to play a Sunday afternoon game is slipping in the division.
And if you tuned into that Sunday Night Football game before halftime, you may have gone back to cat videos or watching other shows where the 49ers were the focus. Rams were leading 16-0, and nothing was going the Broncos’ way. The Rams got a touchdown in the first quarter and then proceeded to field-goal the Broncos to death with three straight field goals in the second quarter. They wouldn’t get another touchdown—their last— until there was just over four minutes left in the game.
The Broncos woke up in the second half, and with some Bill Vinovich magic for strange penalties, they managed to take the lead in the fourth quarter. The Broncos also got a few extra tries to score touchdowns, thanks to those strange calls.
Broncos quarterback Bo Nix showed up when needed, but he was far from efficient, completing 17 of 34 passes for 186 yards. Sure, he got two touchdowns, but he also notched a bad interception with them.
Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford wasn’t much better, going 30 for 55 for 390 yards, two touchdowns, but also two interceptions, one of which got taken to the house by former 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga. The other pick was on the final play of the game. Both weren’t very good. At all.
At the end of the day, if you look past who scored what points, you’d think the Rams won with nearly 500 yards of offense and a 34:29 time of possession vs. the Broncos’ 25:31. Turnovers, first downs—the Rams won. Where they didn’t win was penalties (13 for 91 yards) and red zone trips; the Broncos were 3 for 3, while the Rams were 1 for 1. All I’m saying is the Rams had decent stats, but they couldn’t put the Broncos away and had to fight for the few points they had against that stingy Broncos defense.
Regardless of any positives I may take from this, the Rams are 1-2 now and two games back from the 49ers. Their schedule doesn’t get any better next week either since they have the Philadelphia Eagles next.
Onto Week 4
The 49ers will have a new test this week playing the Denver Broncos. This will be an excellent litmus test for Brock Purdy, as the Broncos’ defense is much better than what he’s faced the last two weeks. It should be a fun game.
The Seahawks will have the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers haven’t been having a good season, sitting at 0-3. This is very odd for a team coached by Jim Harbaugh. Sure, some may say he was overrated, even when he was coaching in San Francisco, but 0-3 under Harbaugh seems, well, weird. This might be the Chargers’ last gasp, not unlike the Commanders coming in with their hair on fire Sunday, so hopefully they can give us a similar result.
The Rams will be traveling to Philadelphia to face the Eagles. With the Denver loss, dropping another game in a row puts the Rams at 1-3. In a competitive NFC West, that’s not exactly ideal for the “dream team”.
The Cardinals will travel to face the New York Giants. Since Jameis Winston is quarterbacking (or expected to as of this writing), they may finally have a game where they can come out with a “W”.
1st: San Francisco 49ers Next vs. Denver Broncos
2nd: Seattle Seahawks; Next: vs. Los Angeles Chargers
3rd: Los Angeles Rams; Next: at Philadelphia Eagles
4th: Arizona Cardinals; Next: at New York Giants
