We’ve always had a few plays after a 2026 San Francisco 49ers game where we asked: “What the hell was that?” In their24-14 victory over the Denver Broncos, a couple errr, “apparent” moments were on fourth down.
The first fourth down was in the first half on fourth-and-1. A very long “1,” mind you. The 49ers lined up to do their trademark QB sneak—the one that works on shorter fourth-and-1s.
So it’s a QB sneak with Christian McCaffrey
in the backfield doing whatever he’s supposed to do. If you said, “What the hell?” you are not alone.
“It was a little long,” Kyle Shanahan said after the game.“We had the look we wanted. And when you get the look you want, sometimes we get like 3 to 4 yards on those.”
How this would go four yards is a mystery. Not every play can be like last week against the Arizona Cardinals, where Christian McCaffrey does his best Thomas the Tank Engine impersonation, taking the whole offense and powering through for nine yards.
Shanahan praised the Broncos for defending it, but one has to wonder if that would have fooled anyone.
The other fourth down was equally surprising, but had a much happier ending. On fourth-and-1 at the Broncos’ 18-yard line, this, well, whatever it is, happened:
What the hell was that?! I can only imagine the arguments at watch parties over whether this was planned. The ball somehow gets diverted from Brock Purdy and goes into the hands of Kaelon Black. Since Black has awesome awareness, he takes a 1-yard dive and picks up the first down. It’s not nearly asgood as Frank Gore’s fumble touchdown against the New England Patriotsover a decade ago, but it’d definitely be up there.
“It was a bad snap,” Shanahan said. “We didn’t call a direct snap.”
Brock Purdy had more detail on what went down.
“The ball just like, hit Jake’s [49ers center Jake Brendel] butt,” Purdy recalled. “It popped back up, and I was like, ‘oh gosh,’ I went to go get it, and he [Black] just snatched it and then kept going on his running back track for the run.”
Purdy later confirmed the play was supposed to be a handoff to Black—not Black taking the snap like what happened.
If it wasn’t supposed to be a handoff, Black sure made you wonder if that was how it was drawn up to begin with. As you can see from the video above, he catches the ball and makes his dive.
The alternative? I don’t want to think about it. The game was 3-3, and another failed fourth down would have left fans irate after what we saw on the first play. Points were at a premium, and keeping the game close like this would have been maddening.
Instead, the 49ers converted, setting up what would be a Deebo Samuel touchdown a few plays later.
While what happened is interesting, it’s another point of how Kaelon Black has been as a rookie. We’ve praised his ability to spell Christian McCaffrey (something others have failed to do), but his awareness on a play like this to make the dive is invaluable.
While the 49ers are 4-0, plays like these, even with Black’s awareness, carry a bit of luck. Just like the fumble earlier, that’s one reason teams make it to a championship.
