The 49ers will head to Seattle on Thursday night for their most important game of the season. They can wrap up the division with a win and set their sites on the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
Rookie QB Brock Purdy is listed as questionable with oblique and rib injuries, but whether he plays or not won’t change the importance of the 49ers’ supporting cast stepping up on both sides of the ball. Seattle hasn’t been playing well of late, but Lumen Field has been a house of horrors for the 49ers for the better part of the last decade. A win over the Seahawks on the road will require an A-grade performance from San Francisco.
Here are the 49ers’ six most important players for Thursday:
QB Brock Purdy
This is contingent of course on whether Purdy plays. He’s listed as questionable with oblique and rib injuries. The 49ers don’t necessarily need Purdy to be as good as he was against the Bucs where he accounted for three of the team’s five touchdowns, but they do need him to remain efficient and turnover-free. If he can complete 65 percent of his passes or more with no turnovers and no sacks, it’s hard to imagine the 49ers not moving the ball effectively against a Seattle defense that’s struggled.
LB Dre Greenlaw
Greenlaw has been superb this season and his coverage in the short and intermediate areas of the field will be key against Seahawks QB Geno Smith, who throws nearly 45 percent of his passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage per Pro Football Focus. Taking away built-in layups for the offense and forcing the QB to make an extra decision or a tougher throw is how San Francisco’s defense becomes such a problem at all three levels. A strong outing from Greenlaw (and Fred Warner) will mean another low-scoring effort from a 49ers opponent.
DL Arik Armstead
The 49ers are going to be thin along the interior with Hassan Ridgeway and Kevin Givens both sidelined. Even Kerry Hyder, who replaced Givens on the interior against Tampa Bay, is questionable with an ankle injury. Armstead played 67 percent of the snaps last week due to injury, and could see a similar workload against the Seahawks. Seattle’s rookie RB Kenneth Walker III is having a nice debut season, and they’ll lean on him plenty Thursday night. A big game from Armstead could be the difference in whether the Seahawks get their run game going.
RB Christian McCaffrey
The two games McCaffrey has played where Deebo Samuel has been at least partially unavailable he’s won a weekly award. He was the NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 7 for his three-touchdown outing against the Rams. Then he was the FedEx NFL Ground Player of the Week for his 119 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries against the Bucs. He also had a receiving TD against Tampa Bay. Whoever the 49ers QB is will lean heavily on McCaffrey in the passing game, but he’ll also be a vital cog against a Seahawks run defense that’s allowed 960 rushing yards the last five weeks. They rank No. 31 in the NFL run defense.
CB Deommodore Lenoir
The last time Lenoir played in Seattle was a disaster. As a rookie he allowed three catches on three targets for 39 yards and a touchdown before he was pulled for fellow rookie Ambry Thomas in Week 13 against the Seahawks. Now Lenoir is a fixture in the starting lineup again after Emmanuel Moseley’s ACL tear in Week 5. This stint as a starter has gone much better for Lenoir, who’ll see action against DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett on Thursday. Lenoir in his last five games has allowed 10 receptions for 111 yards and no touchdowns with one interception on 22 targets. In that stretch he’s allowing a QB rating of 42.1. CB Charvarius Ward has to be good as well, but Lenoir putting together a good game would make life much more difficult on Seahawks QB Geno Smith and his offense.
TE George Kittle
Kittle didn’t play in the 49ers’ Week 2 matchup against the Seahawks this year, but his breakout game last year came in Week 13 at Seattle. He’d gone over 100 yards only once prior to that game, but against the Seahawks he racked up 181 yards and two touchdowns on nine receptions in a vintage Kittle performance. The Seahawks do not cover well in the middle of the field where Kittle typically roams. If the Seahawks are also going to sell out to stop the run, their linebackers and safeties might have a hard time slowing down the 49ers’ star tight end. If Kittle has a big game, it means San Francisco’s offense is successfully combatting a plan by the Seahawks to slow them on the ground.
