The San Francisco 49ers have won nine successive games and still have a chance to be the number one seed in the NFC playoffs but, following a 37-34 overtime win over the Las Vegas Raiders, their potential playoff opponents may have identified some weaknesses they could exploit in the postseason.
San Francisco’s win, combined with the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to the Green Bay Packers, saw them move into the second seed in the NFC, which would give them the chance to potentially play two home games in the playoffs.
Following the Philadelphia Eagles’ surprise loss to the New Orleans Saints, the 49ers head into the final week of the regular season knowing a win over the Arizona Cardinals and another Eagles loss would see San Francisco earn a first-round bye and homefield advantage throughout the postseason.
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However, there is at least some cause for concern following the Week 17 victory.
A meeting with a Las Vegas Raiders team starting Jarrett Stidham at quarterback was not expected to provide much of a test for the 49ers, not least for a defense that has established itself as the NFL’s best in 2022.
But Stidham, starting a game for the first time in his NFL career, produced a performance that belied his inexperience, instigating a shootout between him and a Brock Purdy-led 49er attack that nobody would have seen coming at the start of the campaign.
It was Purdy who eventually won the duel, but not before Stidham’s fearless performance, which saw him lead the Raiders to 500 yards of offense, raised questions about the defense going into the playoffs.
Those questions primarily surround the secondary, which struggled to contain All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams amid a remarkable performance from the former Green Bay Packers star, who pulled off a series of remarkable catches en route to racking up 153 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir endured at best an up-and-down display as he attempted to defend Adams, while safety Talanoa Hufanga again displayed the downside of his boom-bust style of play in leaving tight end Darren Waller wide open for the Raiders’ opening touchdown on the game’s first drive.
Yet Lenoir did, for the most part, produce tight coverage of Adams and Co. and Hufanga recovered from his early error, and the 49ers’ improvements in the second half after having issues stopping the run and the Raiders’ screen game in the first suggest their defensive issues in this game are likely to be an anomaly.
Indeed, the Niners dictated the line of scrimmage in the second half. Arik Armstead shone against the run through his ability to take on double teams, while Kerry Hyder Jr. and T.Y. McGill each excelled defending both the ground game and the passing attack.
Both Hyder and McGill were able to consistently create interior pass rush to affect Stidham, the former helping deliver a turnover in the fourth quarter as he batted a pass that looped into the air and into the arms of edge rusher Drake Jackson.
Almost inevitably it was Nick Bosa who produced the telling play even in a game where he did not add to his league-leading sack tally of 17.5. Bosa’s bull rush of Kolton Miller on the first series of overtime, which saw him shove the left tackle back into Stidham, led the the Raiders quarterback to release a severely underthrown ball that was easily intercepted by Tashaun Gipson, whose returned teed up Robbie Gould for a chip-shot game-winning field goal.
The 49ers’ defense still found a way to get the job done at the end of its least convincing game of the season and, though its Week 17 effort may lead to doubts about its ability to sufficiently slow down offenses in the playoffs, the performance of Purdy should serve to boost confidence he can help the Niners overcome adversity and lead San Francisco to victory when circumstances are against them and the defense is not at its best.
San Francisco trailed 24-14 in the third quarter, putting Purdy in circumstances unique to his storybook 2022 season as it marked the first time he has had to help guide the Niners back from a second-half deficit.
He achieved that feat and succeeded in putting some of his own struggles behind him.
Purdy tossed a third-quarter interception on a deep shot to George Kittle that hinted at the limits of his arm strength and experienced a frustrating subsequent series where the Niners were forced to settle for a field goal and his irritation was evident after incompletions on throws to Jauan Jennings and Kittle.
But Purdy rediscovered his composure and demonstrated his fearlessness on the final drive of regulation, on which he connected with Brandon Aiyuk four times for 52 yards to set Gould up for a game-winning attempt that he pushed wide right.
Though Gould fluffed his lines at the first attempt, the comfort Purdy displayed with the game on the line saw him pass another test ahead of the pressure cooker of the playoffs.
"It was great for him,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Purdy having to deliver in that situation. “We had to come from behind, especially there at the end. He made a ton of plays today, but there was a number that he missed too and that's the coolest part.
"There are some that he'd love to have back but it was never one way too much or the other where he was struggling or doing well.There were some mixed plays and to keep coming back and keep attacking, he never got gun shy, he made some real good decisions too and fought it out throughout the whole game and found a way to win.”
Purdy’s job at quarterback is made easier by the offensive talent he has at his disposal, with Aiyuk underlining his growth as a legitimate number one wide receiver with his dominant final drive and Christian McCaffrey putting together yet another outstanding all-round performance in amassing 193 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.
The 49ers are set to welcome back yet more weaponry for Sunday’s regular-season finale with the Arizona Cardinals. Wide receiver Deebo Samuel is back in practice after knee and ankle injuries kept him out of the last three games and running back Elijah Mitchell has been activated from injured reserve following a knee sprain.
Shanahan will hope he will not need to rely too heavily on McCaffrey, Mitchell or Samuel against the 4-12 Cardinals, who are starting journeyman backup David Blough at quarterback and will be without top wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins through injury.
San Francisco had little issue swatting aside the Cardinals 38-10 in Week 11 in Mexico City. After seeing Purdy come through an unexpected and significant test, the 49ers will look for a similarly routine win in which they re-integrate Mitchell and Samuel sufficiently for the much more substantial challenges to come.
There will of course be no complaints if those challenges are delayed by a week with a shock result in Philadelphia against the New York Giants that would be cheered in San Francisco and Leeds.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas, on his friend Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills safety who suffered a cardiac arrest in Monday’s game with the Cincinnati Bengals.
“He’s energetic. He brings the juice. He’s somebody where if you’re having a bad day, you go get next to him. He’ll find a way to bring you up. It hurts to see something like that happen to him. It hurt. It hurt a lot, honestly.”
MVP OF THE WEEK - Christian McCaffrey
The 49ers’ acquisition of McCaffrey has been a season-changer for the San Francisco offense, with his ability to create yardage for himself on the ground and his big-play upside as a receiver transforming the attack.
His showing against the Raiders was yet another encapsulation of his remarkable influence on the Niners since his arrival in Week 7. In that time, he has totalled 1,131 scrimmage yards, the fourth-most in the NFL. Against the Raiders, he took his career tally for receptions to 439, surpassing 49er great Roger Craig (434) for the most by a running back in the first six seasons of an NFL career.
STAT OF THE WEEK - 5
Purdy is the fifth rookie to win each of his first four career starts. With the win over the Raiders, he joined Ben Roethlisberger (won first 13 starts in 2004), Mike Kruczek (first six in 1968), Virgil Carter (first four in 1968) and Phil Simms (first four in 1979) in that select group.
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