SANTA CLARA — The scores so far have been 17-13 and 16-10, a loss and a win that will have no bearing on anything given the developmental nature of preseason football and the approach of the 49ers under coach Kyle Shanahan.
But while the games will be much different come Sept. 9 when the New York Jets visit Levi’s Stadium on Monday night, the scores could be similar based not on the preseason results but what has been on display since the opening of training camp on July 24.
The 49ers were at home for the first time since last Jan. 28 and a stirring 34-31 come-from-behind win over the Detroit Lions for the NFC Championship. The same pomp and hype were nowhere to be found Sunday night as the 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints.
Other than the standard yard lines, the emblems were small NFL shields at each 25. The 49ers didn’t bother to paint the end zones with their logo. Starting lineups weren’t introduced to the crowd, which is a good thing since it would have only underscored the makeshift starting offensive and defensive lineups Shanahan was sending to the field in a meaningless game.
Into the exhibition abyss went Brock Purdy, who has never refuted the notion that much of what he’s become is because of a superior supporting cast. That supporting cast was non-existent against New Orleans without his three top runners (Christian McCaffrey, Jordan Mason, Elijah Mitchell), his fullback (Kyle Juszcyk) as well as receivers Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall Jr.
That’s not even counting hold-in wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and hold out left tackle Trent Williams, neither of whom has taken a practice snap. Their absence gets more concerning every day with Aaron Rodgers and Co. coming to town.
That Purdy would end his three series worth of work going 2-for-6 for 11 yards and a 42.4 passer rating was an entirely foreseeable circumstance. Shanahan even had passing game specialist Klay Kubiak call plays for the second straight game as he took more of an oversight role.
But through 17 practices heading in to the game, it’s not as if we haven’t seen some of this before. Purdy has had some practices where the ball has not only hit the ground more than Shanahan is comfortable with, but also had passes winding up in the hands of defenders.
As good as Shanahan is at plotting and scheming an offense, he’s also a big believer that teams get better by practicing and the 49ers’ as an offense have yet to come close to fielding the personnel they hope to have against the Jets in the opener.
It’s unrealistic to think the 49ers can hit the ground running as they did a year ago in a 30-7 road win over Pittsburgh even if Aiyuk and Williams have gotten in some legitimate practice time and are on the field with the other injured starters.
We’re so used to seeing Shanahan’s offenses set the tempo with quick starts, their running game and an efficient passing game it’s hard to fathom winning any other way.
Shanahan resists the notion that the 49ers can only win with the offense setting the pace and everything else falling in line after that.
“I feel like we’ve had to win a number of ways a number of times here,” Shanahan said. “It’s like that each week, even when your offense is firing on all cylinders. I like to think we do it a lot of different ways. What does it take to win? You figure that out by studying, putting together a game plan and you don’t really care how it looks.”
In the early going, it might not look pretty based on what we’ve seen so far from the offense in practice. They got three field goals from Jake Moody Sunday night from distances of 47, 24 and 36 yards (he also missed from 51) and may need plenty more if the offense starts slowly.
It’s been a terrific camp from Moody, who has missed just three field goal attempts during practice, although fans probably won’t fully trust him based on his third-round draft status and a couple of key misses in 2023.
The other good news is that the 49ers’ defense is much healthier than the offense and could be up to the challenge of winning some low-scoring games until Purdy and Co. get on track. Nick Bosa has been at camp since Day 1 and should avoid his slow start after a holdout a year ago. There’s another rush end in Leonard Floyd and a new-look defensive line.
There’s Fred Warner in the middle of everything, two very good corners in Charvarius Ward and Deommodore Lenoir and two impressive rookies who look ready for roles in the secondary right away — cornerback Renardo Green and safety Malik Mustapha.
Defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen is less of an outsider than predecessor Steve Wilks, and defensive assistant Brandon Staley offers another set of eyes and ears in terms of strategy and tactics. The goal is not to be a good defense, but a great one.
If the offense sputters early, they might need to be great or something approaching it right away.
Purdy, of course, isn’t giving up hope of getting healthy bodies at practice and the 49ers picking up where they left off on that night against Detroit last season before the bitter disappointment of Super Bowl LVIIII.
“I can’t just sit up here and tell everybody that we’re going to be perfect and we’re going to look 100 percent in Game 1,” Purdy said. “Everybody’s different in terms of their bodies being healthy. But our medical staff, they get guys ready and I think Week 1 we’ll have a good majority of us ready to roll. The coaches are going to be doing some good scheming and I think we’ll hit the ground running.”
Anything short of that and the 49ers’ formula will be nothing like the one that took off instantly last year en route to a 5-0 start. There will be field goals and playing field position to set up the defense. A clutch play for Purdy could mean throwing the ball away rather than forcing the issue on third-and-long and letting punter Mitch Wishnowsky set up the defense.
As long as the end result is the same, it hardly matters. Scoring one more point than the opposition is the goal, and style points don’t count.
