It wasn’t the prettiest. It wasn’t the easiest. But at the end of the day, they don’t ask how; they ask how many.
And now the answer is three, with the San Francisco 49ers moving to 3-0 after a 36-30 Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
It felt early on the 49ers would run away with things on Sunday, jumping out to a 17-6 lead at the half. But Arizona just wouldn’t go away, keeping the game within one score for most of the second half; still, the 49ers showed they were the better team, playing mistake-free
on offense and posting their highest-scoring output of the early season.
While the defense had plenty of concerns, it was the offense that won the game. And because of that, all three stars from Sunday come from that side of the ball:
3rd star: TE George Kittle
Sunday was George Kittle bobblehead day, so of course the All-Pro tight end had a big game.
It was a slow burn for Kittle, who didn’t really add much to the 49ers offense in the first half. In the first 30 minutes of the game, Kittle was only targeted twice, catching just one of them for 12 yards.
On the other side of the half is when Kittle turned it on. He wasted no time getting involved, hauling in a pair of passes for 29 yards on the 49ers’ opening drive of the second half, leading to a Christian McCaffrey one-yard score to put the 49ers up 23-6. After that, the rest of the 49ers’ scores would come from the hands of Kittle.Kittle caught
41 of his 82 yards in the final frame, capping his day with a 10-yard score to open the fourth quarter and put the 49ers up 29-20. He finished with a 20-yard score (after wiping a Brock Purdy 45-yard touchdown scramble off the board with a holding penalty) to mark his first multi-touchdown game since Week 11 of last season, also against the Cardinals.
After the slow first half, Kittle finished with a team-high six receptions for 82 yards on seven targets for the two touchdowns.
2nd star: QB Brock Purdy
Through three weeks, Brock Purdy has to be the leading MVP candidate.
Purdy finished Sunday completing 15-of-27 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns. It marked the fifth time in his career he threw four or more touchdowns in a game (second time against Arizona) and his second game with at least four touchdowns and no interceptions. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the 49ers are now 5-0 in games where Purdy throws at least four touchdowns.
And his best play of the game didn’t even count.
On an early game dropback, some pressure forced Purdy to roll to his right. It seemed as if Purdy was going to run himself out of bounds with Dante Stills in pursuit. But instead of throwing the ball away or running out of bounds, Purdy pulled a move that would have made prime Derek Jeter jealous: he jumped before going out and uncorked a laser downfield to Luke Farrell. Farrell’s sliding catch attempt wasn’t enough as he was ruled out.
The play apparently didn’t impress Kyle Shanahan enough, since he didn’t challenge what could have been a highlight-reel play.
Those are the types of plays that have drawn 49ers fans to Purdy: off-schedule, non-tempo plays only Purdy can make. Oh, and he also finished with 34 yards on the ground.
It was the kind of game that would normally have earned Purdy the No. 1 star, however, he had to compete with maybe the most unique stat line in NFL history.
1st star: WR Deebo Samuel
Despite Purdy’s all-world game, Deebo Samuel earned the No. 1 star with a stat line never before seen in NFL history.
Zero targets, zero receptions, 80 yards, one receiving touchdown.
So how does that happen? On the 49ers’ third play from scrimmage, San Francisco faced a third-and-12. Purdy connected with Mike Evans on a short curl route well short of the marker, but watching the play develop, you could see Luke Farrell pushing upfield to block and Samuel cutting across underneath Evans. Evans kept his cool as he was being brought down, hitting Samuel in stride on a lateral.
A perfectly executed hook and ladder.
Samuel took the pitch, turned upfield, made a Cardinal miss, and was gone. Evans’s two-yard reception turned into an 80-yard score for Samuel.
According to Pro-Football-Reference, that is the most receiving yards by a player who didn’t record a reception. The list now is:
- Samuel, 80 yards (September 27, 2026)
- Timmy Brown, 65 yards (December 3, 1961)
- Bob Nussbaumer, 63 yards (November 7, 1948)
It might be a stat line we never see again, but we saw it on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, and somehow, someway, it’s the perfect Deebo Samuel stat line.
Throughout the season, we will track the three stars of the season by tallying points for each star award using a complex scoring system: three points for being the first star, two for the second, and one for the third. Through Week 3, the standings are:
- QB Brock Purdy – 7 points
- LB Fred Warner – 3 points
- WR Deebo Samuel – 3 points
