It wasn’t perfect, but the San Francisco 49ers pulled out a close victory the way they’ve normally done over the past few seasons.
The Niners pulled off a tough road win, 23-20, over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to move over .500 for the first time since Week 1. It may not have been against the best team when considering the Buccaneers were missing their top two receivers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. But it was an impressive victory considering they were on the road traveling 2,400 miles against a team that nearly knocked off the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City last week.
Behind a 39-yard drive engineered by Brock Purdy in just 41 seconds, the Niners walked off with a game-winning field goal by kicker Jake Moody — despite three missed kicks on the day from the second-year kicker.
Prior to this win, the Niners were just 1-3 in one-possession games this season. They basically looked like a shell of the team that came within a score of winning Super Bowl LVIII. However, they found their mojo again, despite three missed kicks and a game-tying drive led by Baker Mayfield towards the end of the fourth quarter.
“Being able to deal with all that and still come out with a win, that reminds me of 2019 (when the Niners advanced to the Super Bowl),” says Kittle. “It’s not going to be pretty, but you just have to find ways to win — no matter how ugly they are sometimes.”
That’s not even mentioning the altercation between Deebo Samuel and long snapper Taybor Pepper after Moody missed for the third time. The Niners were able to overcome all of that adversity and still emerge with a win — a victory that may prove to be a turning point in what has been an up-and-down season for the Niners so far.
“Guys are frustrated, something probably happened … brothers scuffle a little bit,” said head coach Kyle Shanahan. “I didn’t see any of it, so I don’t know how bad it was. It’s something I’m not too worried about. We’ll fix it, if it hasn’t been fixed already. We’ll fix it on the plane and go back to loving each other (Monday)
It came at the perfect time considering Christian McCaffrey made his season debut after missing the first eight games due to an Achilles injury.
While McCaffrey may not have fully looked like his normal self — he admitted after the game it’ll take some time to get back to form — he made a noticeable impact on the offense just from his sheer presence and his ability to draw defenders in the passing game. As solid as Jordan Mason was in McCaffrey’s absence — he’s averaged 5.1 yards per carry on the season — he didn’t bring a receiving dimension to the game the way the three-time Pro Bowl running back can.
“Just getting back into the feel of a real game,” said McCaffrey after his season debut. “That’s the third time I’ve had pads on in eight weeks, so just back getting into a groove. That was really good for me to do. I think there’s a couple of things where maybe I didn’t feel like myself 100%, but that’s normal when you haven’t played in a long time and I’ll learn and grow from those and keep trucking along.”
Although McCaffrey struggled to move the ball in the run game, averaging just 3.0 yards per carry on 13 carries for 39 yards, he contributed in the receiving game in a major way with six catches for 68 receiving yards, ranking second on the team in catches.
As a result of McCaffrey’s return, Purdy had his most productive showing of the season, posting 353 passing yards to go along with a turnover-less game.
While the Niners obviously have a ways to go before they recapture the form that made them the NFC champions last season with a 12-5 record, they’re gaining momentum at the right time as they enter the midway point of the season.
At 5-4, they’re currently a game behind the Green Bay Packers — they face them in Week 12 — for the wild card spot in the playoffs and a half-game behind the Arizona Cardinals for the division lead. Although they lost to the Cardinals earlier in the season, they’ll face off against them in the season finale, a game that could decide the NFC West.
As they move forward with their first two-game win streak of the season, they’re finally doing so with all their key pieces in place (with the exception of Brandon Aiyuk) an after a game in which they allowed a season-low 105 passing yards to a Pro Bowl QB in Mayfield.
They enter a key stretch of games as they match up against three consecutive playoff contenders in the Seattle Seahawks, Packers and Buffalo Bills.
It’s no secret that the Niners’ offense had struggled in the absence of McCaffrey. While Purdy had remained statistically productive in the absence of the MVP candidate running back, ranking second in yards per completion and fifth in passing yards per game, he had been turning the ball over at a high rate, with a 2.9% rate — one of the 10 worst percentages in the league — and failing to finish drives in the end zone with just a 4.1% touchdown rate after posting a 7.0% touchdown rate last season.
While the Niners still need to do a better job of finishing drives in the end zone — they went 1-for-3 in the red zone — they did a much better job of moving the football while looking crisper and more efficient on offense, especially in the passing game. Rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall posted the best game of his young career, highlighted by a 46-yard touchdown.
That has everything to do with the presence of the multi-dimensional McCaffrey, the best receiving back in the league and arguably the best at running the football too.
“I think it was awesome,” Purdy says of having McCaffrey back. “What he can do running the ball and coming out of the backfield, our pass game we had multiple plays with him out of the backfield that were some big plays throwing the ball and for defenses, they have to scheme that up.
“They have to acknowledge him, which can open up some other guys and at the end, we had one-on-one opportunities where you saw Ricky Pearsall winning and guys that are one-on-one and can win matchups,” Purdy continued. “It’s huge having him in there.”
The Niners are not the NFC team that everyone has eyes on for once as that distinction belongs to the 8-1 Detroit Lions, who overcame a 16-point deficit against the Houston Texans and a five-interception game from Jared Goff on the road to still emerge victorious in Week 10.
But given this team’s history combined with their level of talent, this Niners team feels like it’s trending in the right direction at the midseason point. Don’t be surprised to see this team once again make another deep run in the playoffs — while sneaking completely under the radar for once.