Two weeks, two tight wins for a San Francisco 49ers team coming off plenty of close losses in 2024.
After a nail-biter Week 1 victory in Seattle, San Francisco pulled off another close win in New Orleans, holding off the Saints late to cling to a 26-21 victory.
The big story entering the game is just how well the hobbled 49ers offense could operate without Brock Purdy, and Mac Jones picked up the slack, leading the offense to 26 points against a gritty New Orleans defense.
While we learned what Jones
can offer to the 49ers (more on that in a second), we start with what we learned on the defensive side of the ball:
There will be growing pains with defense
The 49ers used their first five selections in this year’s draft on the defense, so there will be moments and games where players will have to learn on the fly, and Sunday had plenty of examples of that.
The defense didn’t even perform that poorly, holding Spencer Rattler to 207 passing yards, and the only skill player who had a notable day was Alvin Kamara, who rushed for 99 yards on 21 carries. But there were moments – mainly in the second half – where things got sketchy for the defense, specifically from the rookies in the secondary.
Upton Stout had a solid game around the line of scrimmage with his first career sack, but he was on the wrong end of a couple of second-half conversions with the Saints still in the game. The first came with the Saints facing a fourth-and-1 with the 49ers up 16-7 early in the third quarter. Stout perfectly read a Rattler keeper, getting into the backfield in an attempt to blow up the play, but Rattler put a move on the rookie to avoid the tackle, to extend a drive that resulted in a Saints touchdown. Then, in the fourth quarter, with New Orleans facing a third-and-3 inside the red zone, Chris Olave went up and got a pass from Rattler in front of Stout inside the five, resulting in a touchdown on the next play to cut the 49ers’ lead to five.
While Stout had his sack to redeem some of his rough play, the same can’t be said about Marques Sigle. Sigle was targeted three times on Sunday, allowing a reception on all three chances for 60 yards and a touchdown, with Rattler finishing with a perfect 158.3 passer rating when targeting the rookie. His touchdown allowed came in the second quarter with tight coverage against Juwan Johnson, but the tight end outmuscled the rookie for the 18-yard score.
Both Stout and Sigle had their issues with penalties on the same drive, both getting called for drive-extending penalties on third down on the same drive. First, Stout was called for a ticky-tack illegal contact against Olave, to bail the Saints out of a third-and-12. Then, on the following third down, Sigle was called for an obvious defensive holding on a third-and-5, extending what turned out to be a New Orleans touchdown-scoring drive.
There were bright spots from the rookies on defense against New Orleans (looking at you, Mykel Williams), but these blips were bound to happen with the heavy investment in youth on the defense. The bright side of the lapses on Sunday is that they came in a win, and not a loss, making them much easier to stomach.
The 49ers have a good backup quarterback
49ers fans have become all too familiar with what it feels like to watch a backup quarterback play in a football game. Mac Jones made that feeling much easier to handle with his performance on Sunday.
The fourth-year quarterback out of Alabama had a solid performance in the win, completing 26 of his 39 pass attempts for 279 yards with three touchdowns to no interceptions, in what could have been a glimpse into a different timeline had a particular pick gone a different way in 2021.
After an opening drive that saw Jones go 0-for-3 en route to a three-and-out, Jones never looked out of his depth. Outside of his fumble, where he stood in the pocket like a statue, patiently waiting for Chris Rumph to get around the edge to strip him of the ball, he kept the 49ers offense on schedule in rhythm.
There was no better example of that than the team’s final drive of the first half, where Jones led the team 77 yards, compiling seven of his nine pass attempts, finding the end zone to extend the San Francisco lead to nine entering the half. To top it off, Jones unleashed his best throw of the game to finish the drive with the touchdown, floating a ball perfectly towards the sideline, into the waiting hands of Christian McCaffrey in the end zone.
Jones would later use his arm to seal the game, zipping a pass to an open Jauan Jennings, leading the receiver to plenty of open space, en route to a 42-yard touchdown that proved to be the game-winning score.
Ideally, we don’t speak about Jones too much more this season, and Brock Purdy stays healthy the rest of the way. But, given how poor some backups have been in recent years, it’s reassuring to know the 49ers have quality in Jones in case of an emergency.
The 49ers can win one-possession games
The 2024 49ers played in eight one-possession games and only won two of them. It took until the Week 10 win in Tampa Bay for San Francisco to win its second one-possession game.
Well, through two games in 2025, the 49ers are already 2-0 in one-score games.
For the second week in a row, the 49ers have taken their games down to the final defensive drive, and for consecutive weeks, the pass rush has made a play to seal the game. Last week, it was a Nick Bosa strip sack of Sam Darnold, and on Sunday, it was Bryce Huff getting to Rattler to bury the Saints.
While the 49ers shouldn’t try to tempt their fate this much by playing in such close games, it has to be seen as an improvement over last season, as these were two games the 2024 49ers probably find a way to lose.
Week 1’s win in Seattle could easily be compared to the miserable Thursday night game the 49ers lost to the Rams last year in Week 15. A low-scoring divisional game, but unlike the game last year against the Rams, Purdy nailed his final drive against Seattle, leading the 49ers to victory. The Week 2 win against the Saints could be seen as similar to the Week 3 loss to the Rams last season, where the offense did enough but the defense couldn’t hold on, allowing three field goals in the Rams’ final three drives and giving Los Angeles the win. On Sunday in New Orleans, the defense held in the fourth quarter, forcing the game-winning turnover.
The 49ers were 1-1 at this point last year, with a one-possession loss to the Vikings in Week 2. The 2025 49ers have flipped the script and are 2-0 with another divisional matchup on the horizon.
