The NFC playoff race is heating up – which is putting it mildly – with the final month of the regular season filled with seeding and division-winner implications, drama and intrigue. The NFL is the best reality show on television.
With that in mind, the San Francisco 49ers (10-4) returned from their bye week with a 37-24 win over the Tennessee Titans (2-12) and a chance to secure a playoff berth next week.
The 49ers offense, and its quarterback, looked sharp and was pretty much firing on all cylinders. Brock Purdy finished the day 23-of-30 for 296 yards and three touchdown passes. He also scrambled for 44 yards, including a career-long 26-yard run.
“He’s the Jesus Christ Lizard running on water, just no ball security, fake pitching at the end …Absolutely just diabolical behavior by QB1, but I love it,” said 49ers tight end George Kittle, in the most George Kittle way.
The scramble didn’t happen on its own, though.
“That was the unsung hero of the play. Christian acted like he was going to get the ball so that he would continue in coverage,” Purdy said of running back Christian McCaffrey. “Basically, he was blocking the guy and allowed me to run down the sidelines. So, props to Christian.”
McCaffrey learned a long time ago that a little acting can go a long way.
“I had a high school coach that said a great fake is worth two blocks, and I try to take a lot of pride in my faking,” McCaffrey said. “It’s always funny when you know you’re not getting the ball, but you’re looking up in the air, and the defense has their backs to the quarterback and they’re trying so hard to wipe. It’s just funny to see that reaction. I don’t know what sparked that. The defender was already between me and the ball carrier. If I tried to block him, he would have known [Purdy] was scrambling.”
Kittle finished his day with eight receptions for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Between the Dougie and that “fake pitch” Kittle referenced, the Brock Purdy swagger is coming alive.
“Brock’s pretty consistent,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who turned 46 on Sunday. “He did the Dougie because he promised the guys that if he scored, he would do the Dougie, and he’s not a liar…[T]he first time Brock scored in our stadium, his first preseason game we were playing, I think, the Packers, he did the discount double check, and we had no idea he had a personality like that. So, I think he does do stuff on the field a lot, just he does it subtly. So, we love Brock.”
After a rocky start to the season, wide receiver Jauan Jennings has embraced the role of WR1 to the tune of two touchdown passes to give him seven on the season, six of them in his last six games.
Jennings and Purdy have long had good chemistry, and the 49ers quarterback trusts Jennings to come up with even the tightest of throws.
“With JJ, when it’s a moving route and then there’s a guy on him, with his frame, he does a great job of just attacking and getting an edge and just a little space with his length,” Purdy said. “I feel like I’ve learned over the years that I can give him a shot. So, he’s done a great job with that in one-on-one situations and he’s always aggressive and comes down with it. So, something that over the years having experience with that has been good.”
Jennings likes what he sees from his quarterback and likes getting the ball.
“It’s the same Brock,” Jennings said. “He’s just being himself. Brock is carrying the team each and every week. We love having Brock out there. That’s QB1, and we’ll go lay it on the line for him.”
WR Ricky Pearsall looked the best he had since returning from injury, with six receptions for 96 yards.
“I definitely thought I was going to have some opportunities today,” Pearsall said. “I have that mindset pretty much each and every week, and I’ve had that mindset for the last two weeks. Sometimes football just happens where you don’t get the ball, and there are a lot of things that need to go right in order to get the ball to the receivers.
“So, the good thing about this game is that it’s the ultimate team sport. Whether it is going my way and I have all the cool stats or not, I’m still creating an impact. We’re still winning games, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
However, after leaving early in the game with an ankle injury from which he returned, the second-year wide receiver left later with a knee injury that Shanahan said they think may have “irritated” the PCL injury that kept him out six games.
“I wouldn’t say I’m super concerned,” he told the media in a postgame scrum. “I don’t really know what’s going on with it, to be honest. I’ve got to get some imaging done to it to see what exactly it is. But it’s probably the same sh*t that I was dealing with before and that sucks.”
The team will know more on Monday.
The 49ers did not punt the entire game, scored on each of its first five offensive drives and were masterful on third down, converting on nine of their 15.
Eddie Piñeiro didn’t miss a beat in his first game back from a hamstring injury, making field goals of 33, 37 and 40 yards, and keeping him at a perfect 25-of-25 since joining San Francisco.
Titans DL Jeffery Simmons caused a little havoc with a sack fumble and then caught a TD pass, which was cool, because not a lot of players register a sack and a touchdown catch in a game. The Titans deserve some fun too.
The win came a day after the 49ers put wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the reserve/left squad list, ending his season and, most likely, his time as a 49er. But, it’s something the team has accepted and moved on from.
“We haven’t seen him in forever, so I mean that’s just the decision they make,” Shanahan said. “It’s been pretty simple for me. I haven’t seen him in a month, and same with our team, so it hasn’t been an issue with our team at all.”
The next three games – at Colts and then home against the Bears and the Seahawks – are not going to be easy.
“We’re fighting for a playoff spot,” Kittle said. So if anybody goes out there and is sleepy or not thinking that we’re going to get a challenge, I don’t need them around me. Every game from this moment on is a huge game for us. Whether it’s trying to make it into the playoffs, whatever it is, I want to play games in January and the only way to do that is to beat every single team. So I think we were pretty hyperfocused, everyone was feeling good after a bye.”