It wasn’t always pretty for the 49ers on Sunday, but they fought through some self-inflicted adversity and a tough stretch on their schedule to pull out a 28-16 win over the Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium.
Here are nine takeaways from San Francisco’s fifth consecutive win:
Gutsy win
The 49ers scored two plays into Sunday’s game. By the end of the first quarter they were down 10-7, and despite a 14-10 halftime lead, they punted thrice and turned it over once in the first 30 minutes. When they went up 21-10 it looked like that might put the game away, but then Seattle responded with a TD of its own to make it 21-16. The 49ers added another TD almost right away and went up 28-16 early in the fourth. From there they held on for a not-so-pretty 12-point victory. They turned it over a couple times and had some bad penalties, but they still came out with the win.
Rivalry domination
The 49ers have flipped the script on a rivalry that was dominated by Seattle for so long. San Francisco has now swept the season series two years in a row and won a playoff game against the Seahawks to make it five consecutive wins over their division rival from the Pacific Northwest. Only one of those games, a 21-13 win by the 49ers in Seattle on a Thursday last year, was decided by single digits.
Everybody eats
Typically one player has a huge day for the 49ers. On Sunday it was all of their playmakers shining. WR Deebo Samuel had 149 receiving yards and a touchdown. WR Brandon Aiyuk added 126 yards on six catches. TE George Kittle hauled in three receptions for 76 yards and a TD, and RB Christian McCaffrey went for a whopping 145 yards on the ground.
Explosives for days
Each of the quartet of 49ers’ offensive weapons listed above had at least one explosive play Sunday. All of them had at least one play of 40-plus yards. McCaffrey alone had four runs of 12 or more yards. Samuel had three catches of 20-plus yards, Aiyuk also had three and Kittle had one. There was variety too with long completions through the air, and big plays with yards after the catch. It was an incredible outing for San Francisco’s offense, which averaged a whopping 9.9 yards per play.
Injury bug bites
CB Charvarius Ward (groin), DL Javon Hargrave (hamstring) LB Oren Burks (knee) and LB Dre Greenlaw (hip) were all banged up during the game. Only Greenlaw returned.
New career-high for Brandon Aiyuk
Aiyuk’s incredible season is underscored by his new career high in receiving yards. His 126 receiving yards Sunday gave him a career high 1,053 for the season. Last year he posted 1,015 yards on 78 catches. This year he surpassed that mark with just 56 catches. He also has four games to go. What a year for the fourth-year former first-round pick.
Have a day, Brock
Speaking of career highs, Brock Purdy set a new single-game career high with 368 passing yards. He went 19-of-27 for 368 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. It was his ninth game of the year with a completion rate of 70 percent or better, and his seventh consecutive contest eclipsing that mark. While yards after catch certainly played a role, Purdy attacked downfield relentlessly Sunday and posted one of the best statistical games of his career.
Metcalf in check
Typically Charvarius Ward follows Seahawks WR Metcalf when the 49ers face Seattle and Ward does a nice job holding the big WR in check. With Ward out on the first series Sunday, it was up to Deommodore Lenoir to do most of the work on Metcalf. San Francisco’s secondary as a whole did a nice job, holding him to two catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. The only big play was when Ambry Thomas got beat for a 31-yard TD on the opening drive. After that Metcalf was blanketed and had one pass knocked away, another intercepted, and another that would’ve been intercepted had Nick Bosa not been offsides.
Interior DL holds up
Arik Armstead was ruled out Friday with the injury report and Javon Hargrave left the game in the second half with a hamstring injury. The 49ers’ interior defensive line did a really nice job in their absences. DL Kevin Givens came up with a couple good run stops, and DL Javon Kinlaw posted 0.5 sacks to expand on his career-high and give him 2.5 for the season. Kinlaw also posted three total tackles.
