Brock Purdy and the 49ers couldn’t overcome all the injuries one more time. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs ran into the defending Super Bowl champions and their stingy defense.
Only the Minnesota Vikings remain unbeaten — for now — and they battled to beat the Colts.
Sunday kicked off with Aaron Rodgers leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 16-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s first regular-season game in France. It ended with the Seahawks
shutting down Mahomes, Kenneth Walker III and the Chiefs in Seattle in a 20-3 victory.
Despite a slew of injuries, San Francisco opened the season 6-0. But the 49ers wasted a 14-3 lead in a 29-20 loss at Atlanta. The Niners didn’t have their top five receivers, including Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel Sr. They lost Christian McCaffrey for part of the game. Still, they had the ball and an opportunity to drive for the go-ahead score until Purdy threw his second interception near midfield down by six with under three minutes left. The Falcons scored 13 points on San Francisco’s four turnovers.
“We had the momentum, we were moving the ball well, I feel like we were running the ball really well offensively and then all of the sudden it’s like a couple plays make you feel like dang, we’re not doing our job,” Purdy said. “Obviously, the most important thing is protecting the football. That’s really the number one thing in our organization as an offense. … and so when you do have those kind of costly mistakes, it does make you feel like all right we’re not doing anything, we’re not putting up points like we need to. It starts with me at quarterback and I think it bleeds into everybody else, too.”
The Niners get a week off to rest and recover before hosting Las Vegas (3-4) on Nov. 8.
The Chiefs (5-1) already had their bye week so they have to fix their problems quickly with a matchup for first place in the AFC West coming up next Sunday at Denver (5-2).
Seattle’s “Dark Side" defense held Walker to 36 yards rushing on 14 carries in his first game against his former team. The Super Bowl MVP entered Week 7 leading the NFL in rushing and had four 100-yard games in the first five.
Mahomes only completed 57.6% of his passes and didn’t guide Kansas City’s offense into the red zone for the first time in his career.
“You don’t want to perform like this in prime time in a big moment like this,” Mahomes said.
So the Vikings (6-0) are the last undefeated team in the league. But they need to improve a shaky offense to stay perfect.
Minnesota rallied for a 16-10 victory over Indianapolis thanks to another stellar effort from the defense, which held the Colts to just 218 yards.
Kyler Murray threw for 150 yards and the Vikings had just 275 total yards.
“You can’t get down on it right now, just because it’s still relatively early enough that we’re catching our stride,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “But at the same time, we know, with the type of teams that are going to be on our schedule the rest of the way and where we want to go with this team, we’ll keep progressing.”
The Vikings have a difficult stretch coming up. They visit the Lions (4-2) next week, host the Bills (5-1) and then face the Packers (4-3) and 49ers in back-to-back games on the road. They need more production on offense to stay on top in a tough NFC North that includes four teams with a winning record.
One of those teams almost gave a game away because of reckless play-calling. Lions coach Dan Campbell pulled a Barry Switzer and went for a fourth-and-1 at his 24 with the score tied and just under five minutes to go.
Jahmyr Gibbs was stopped for a 2-yard loss and the Packers took over at Detroit’s 22 but couldn’t go anywhere. Trey Smack’s 35-yard field goal was blocked, and the Lions drove for a winning field goal to save Campbell from another week of criticism for his questionable decisions.
Campbell cost the Lions a shot to play in the Super Bowl after two critical failed attempts on fourth down in field-goal range in the second half of a 34-31 loss in the NFC championship game in 2024.
His decision was reminiscent of Switzer twice going for a fourth-and-1 at the Cowboys 29 with just under two minutes left in a tie game at Philadelphia in 1995. Emmitt Smith was stopped on the first try but officials said the clock had run down to the two-minute warning. After the stoppage, Dallas ran the same play, Smith was stopped again and the Eagles drove for the winning field goal.
“Well, I thought we would get it, No. 1. I really believed we would get that,” Campbell said. “No. 2, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn’t work out. And those were the key thoughts.”
Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than wise.
___
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
