What is the story about?
The
San Francisco 49ers fought through adversity to earn a 24-14 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday at Levi's Stadium.
It wasn't pretty, but the 49ers got a good defensive showing early to pick up their struggling offense. Then in the final quarter their offense picked up the slack as their defense struggled. Overall San Francisco put together perhaps their least-dominant showing of the year and still pulled out a 10-point win to move to 4-0.
Here's our notebook from all four quarters of the game:
First quarter
- Nice work by Keion White on second-and-8 on Denver's first drive to knock down the tight end at the line of scrimmage and then pursue QB Bo Nix to help force a throwaway.
- Two Christian McCaffrey runs go for 15 yards to open the game. The 49ers offensive front has done a great job of run blocking in the early going this season.
- End around to Jacob Cowing goes nowhere thanks to some good discipline by the Broncos defense.
- An early carry for Kaelon Black is stopped up for a gain of one. Expecting more from Black on a hot day in Santa Clara.
- Looked like a miscommunication between Brock Purdy and Cowing on third-and-6. Perils of having so many inexperienced players at receiver.
- The 49ers lost contain on something named Tyler Badie on a third down. Dre Greenlaw got home on a blitz and whiffed badly. That led Badie to leak out and get wide open after Nix got outside the pocket.
- San Francisco is doing well to contain the Broncos run game early on, but they've still not been able to get off the field on third down on the second drive.
- Nice hit by rookie LB Jaden Dugger to help force an incompletion on a shot down the middle to WR Jaylen Waddle. That's only the second downfield shot the Broncos have tried. Lot of short throws.
- A holding penalty helped bail the 49ers out. It put Denver in a second-and-20. They eventually settled for a 52-yard field goal on fourth-and-10 to go up 3-0.
- Deebo Samuel might be all the way back. He took a straight handoff 22 yards on first down to open San Francisco's drive after Denver's score.
- End of first quarter score: Broncos 3, 49ers 0
Second quarter
- The 49ers tried a sneak on a fourth-and-2 and didn't get it. That was a strange series of play calls from Kyle Shanahan.
- Nice job by San Francisco's defense to generate a punt after the turnover on downs. Greenlaw got home on a blitz again and forced an incompletion.
- This is a weird offensive plan from Kyle Shanahan. It's clear he doesn't trust his pass catchers. They've run twice on third-and-short in consecutive drives, and twice they've been stopped short. Just not a good showing from an offense that entered the game firing on all cylinders.
- San Francisco's defense is missing a lot of tackles on short throws from Denver.
- Nice pass breakup on a third-and-5 by Malik Mustapha. He just got a fingertip to it with 5:13 to go in the second quarter.
- Mike Evans made a catch, got up slowly, and exited the game.
- McCaffrey finally got loose for 10 yards on a third-and-1. Then a fun play design on an end around to Samuel with Kyle Juszczyk as the lead blocker. Samuel broke a tackle to turn seven or eight yards into 20.
- Purdy got walloped on first-and-10 after the two-minute warning and threw up a duck that probably should've been intercepted, but it landed in no-man's land.
- Now Purdy throws incomplete after scrambling out to his right. He missed Evans for a touchdown. The 49ers QB looks dreadful in the early going. He's 6-of-10 for 48 yards. Eddy Pineiro connected for a 24-yard field goal to tie it with 1:36 left in the first half.
- Bad penalty on Deommodore Lenoir trying to waste time on the Broncos final drive of the half. He dragged WR Courtland Sutton down as Sutton got up. Just dreadful decision-making.
- Wild no-call on Patrick Surtain who tackled George Kittle before the ball arrived. Purdy responded with a strike to Evans for 24 yards. Evans was again slow to get up before making his way toward the sideline.
- Oh no. Non-contact injury for Surtain. He was very slow to get up and walked slowly to the locker room with trainers.
- Ouch. The 49ers lined up for a 54-yard field goal and it was blocked. Tough way to end a rough first half for San Francisco's offense. However, they averaged 5.6 yards per play while allowing just 3.8. That's a good spot to be after 30 minutes.
- Halftime score: 49ers 3, Broncos 3
Third quarter
- Purdy airmailed a second-and-8 throw that probably should've been intercepted. He just doesn't look comfortable.
- The 49ers defensive line is playing really well. Sebastian Valdez just came up with a good run stop to bring up a third-and-8. Upton Stout got cooked on the third down, though.
- WHEW! What a hit by Fred Warner to force an incompletion on Broncos TE Adam Trautman.
- Another bad series from Purdy who badly overthrew Evans on third-and-7. He hasn't completed a pass in the second half. He's 10-of-20 for 89 yards.
- Huge play by Siran Neal with a special teams takeaway. The 49ers get it at Denver's 28 -- nice job by Neal who was on the wrong end of a special teams miscue in Week 3.
- WOW. A bad snap on fourth-and-1 landed in Kaelon Black's hands, and the rookie RB plowed ahead for a couple yards and a first down.
- There's a touchdown. Nice job by Purdy to extend the play and find Samuel wide open for a score. Purdy hasn't been at his best today, but he's a good enough player that it's not a surprise he bounced back to find a score.
- End of third quarter score: 49ers 10, Broncos 3
Fourth quarter
- Broncos settle for a field goal on fourth-and-2 from the 49ers 22. That's an interesting choice.
- Sweet play by Purdy on a scramble to his left to create room and complete a pass to Kyle Juszczyk for 16 yards. Purdy creating plays from scrambles has been a missing element of the 49ers' offense today, but he's finding it now.
- Juszczyk was hurt on the play. Brutal. Brayden Willis may see some extended run in that role.
- What a drive for Purdy. Four-of-four for 50 yards on a nine-play scoring drive that was capped by a Christian McCaffrey touchdown run.
- Not a good tackling day for the 49ers.
- 49ers run defense is falling apart late. Denver is getting whatever they want on the ground.
- Easy touchdown for Denver. San Francisco's defense could've ended this one with a stop. Instead they allowed an easy touchdown and an easy two-point conversion to make it 17-14. It's hard to blame the 49ers defense given how good they've been for most of the afternoon, but they desperately needed a stop and couldn't get one.
- What a response for the 49ers. They needed a long drive or a touchdown. They got the latter with George Kittle taking a screen pass 56 yards for a touchdown. It was a perfect play call and it was perfectly-executed. And Kittle looked like prime Kittle while running away from the Denver defense. That was an MVP fourth quarter from Purdy.
- Good job by the 49ers defense down the stretch and an overall good game from that group. They need to be better across all 60 minutes, but a mostly strong showing.
- Final score: 49ers 24, Broncos 14
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers vs. Broncos: Notes, observations from ugly San Francisco win
