SEATTLE — After already blowing 10-point fourth-quarter leads in embarrassing losses to the Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers found themselves Thursday night with a luxurious 20-point cushion against their other NFC West rival, the Seattle Seahawks.
No drama? No chance.
Even though a George Kittle touchdown catch put them ahead 23-3, it wasn’t until Kittle caught another third-down scoring strike from Brock Purdy to essentially seal the 49ers’ 36-24 victory.
Wait, no, it was not until Kyle Juszczyk scored on a 6-yard run — after a 76-yard sprint by rookie Isaac Guerendo — that the 49ers were sure to avoid a third straight defeat. The Niners (3-3) thus moved into a share of first place with the Seahawks (3-3) to launch Week 6 of what’s already a way chaotic, 18-week regular season.
Despite the fact the Seahawks had the ball with a chance to take a fourth-quarter lead, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan kept past horrors out of mind.
“I mean I’m not going to go to what happened the last two losses. We needed to stay locked in and not get into negative feelings,” Shanahan said. “Our goal was to be locked in the entire game regardless of the score, and our guys played like that.”
Linebacker Fred Warner, however, said he “1,000%” had flashbacks of past leads’ blown and knew the “gravity” of what an 0-3 start in divisional play could do to their three-peat hopes in the NFC West.
“It sucks, but yes. It was something that felt familiar for sure,” Warner said. “I was like, ‘We can go one or two ways: We can stand tall in a hostile environment in a game we know we have to get, or, we can settle for exactly how we’ve been playing the last couple of losses we’ve had.’ That’s what I am most proud of right now, the way we stood up.”
Kittle’s later touchdown provided insurance points that proved vital, because the Seahawks responded with their own touchdown drive, capped with a third-down, 9-yard strike from Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett with 1:44 remaining.
“I’m just glad when the momentum swung there, we stuck with it,” defensive end Nick Bosa said. “That was the message all week.”
The 49ers’ counterpunched. Juszczyk scored on a 6-yard draw with 1:17 to go, finishing a three-play drive that started with a 76-yard run by rookie Isaac Guerendo, who got his most work as a pro upon replacing injured starter Jordan Mason (shoulder). Guerendo had taken Purdy’s handoff and raced down the right sideline before Devon Witherspoon’s ankle tackle stopped him at the Seahawks’ 5-yard line.
The Seahawks pulled within 23-17 entering the fourth quarter, and their comeback came to a sudden stop once rookie cornerback Renardo Green intercepted a Smith pass. Green cut in front of D.K. Metcalf for his first first-career pick, then returned it 20 yards to the Seattle 15-yard line, to which he said: “I tried to get to the sideline and up the sideline. I ran out of real estate though.”
Green’s was the first interception by a 49ers defensive back all season, and it came at the right time and right place. Even though Charvarius Ward (knee) was a pregame scratch, he helped prepare Green and others for the marquee matchup with Metcalf (three catches, 11 targets, 48 yards).
“He gave me pointers and indicators to look at in the game,” Green said. “I was just trusting my keys.”
That set up Kittle’s 9-yard touchdown grab — and an ensuing celebration with his wife, Claire, in a field-level suite. It was Purdy’s third touchdown pass of the game. His first was a 76-yard catch-and-run by Deebo Samuel for a 10-0 lead, en route to a 16-0 lead. Kittle’s first touchdown catch came on a 10-yard, toe-tap beauty at the right pylon for a 23-3 lead five minutes after halftime.
The 49ers did not commit a turnover and racked up nearly 500 yards of offense. Purdy completed 18-of-28 passes for 255 yards. Guerendo finished with 99 yards on 10 carries (he lost a yard on his last run), and Mason recorded 73 yards on nine carries, then exited after a 9-yard run to open the second half.
Shanahan did not reveal the severity of Mason’s injury, only that he was available in case of emergency.
The 49ers took a 16-3 lead into halftime, having raced out to a 16-0 lead behind Samuel’s 76-yard touchdown and Matthew Wright’s three field goals on his first three attempts in place of the injured Jake Moody. Two of those field goals came after goal-to-go situations, and that offered a familiar vibe, seeing how the 49ers converted only one of six red zone drives into a touchdown in Sunday’s 24-23 loss to Arizona.
“I just got his name last night and Matt was unbelievable today,” Shanahan said of Wright, who appeared to injure his shoulder making a tackle on his final kickoff.
The Seahawks avoided a first-half shutout by settling for a 20-yard Jason Myers field goal as time expired. That was a consolation prize for them, too, after they got a goal-to-go situation courtesy of Isaac Yiadom’s pass-interference penalty in the end zone, and after Metcalf failed to stay inbounds on a potential third-down touchdown catch.
Perhaps the biggest ramification of the 49ers’ first half came when Mason exited with a shoulder injury 9:26 before halftime. He got hurt on a 14-yard carry with the 49ers leading 13-0, and as he walked into the locker room for examination, he did so having reclaimed the NFL’s rushing lead (609 on the season; the Ravens’ Derrick Henry has 572 yards).
Samuel’s 76-yard touchdown reception put the 49ers ahead 10-0 only 1 ½ minutes into the second quarter. That scoring strike opened the 49ers’ third possession, and once safety Julian Love missed Samuel, he had 55 yards clear to the goal line, with linebacker Boye Mafe unable to make a touchdown-saving tackle.
A 10-point lead didn’t prove enough in the fourth quarter of divisional losses to the Los Angeles Rams (Week 3) and the Arizona Cardinals (Sunday, Week 5), so building on that was important.
One minute and 43 seconds after Samuel’s score, the 49ers took a 13-0 lead via a 41-yard field goal from Wright. That possession came about once Darrell Luter Jr. forced a fumble that Tatum Bethune recovered on the Seahawks’ kick return.
Wright put the 49ers in a 3-0 lead with a 25-yard field goal. That was a consolation prize for a drive that began at the 3-yard line, courtesy of safety Malik Mustapha’s opening-series interception.
That initial possession saw Purdy convert a pair of third-down situations – with a scramble and a juggling completion to Samuel — but his final two passes of the drive fell incomplete, with a third-down fade to Samuel broken up in the end zone by Artie Burns.
Mustapha put an end to the Seahawks’ opening series when he intercepted Smith’s overthrown pass at the 2-yard line. Mustapha, making his second start in three games, benefitted from a strong pass rush by Nick Bosa, who hit Smith just after he released his throw toward Tyler Lockett. Mustapha sustained an ankle injury in the second quarter and was replaced by George Odum.
Mustapha’s interception came on a third-and-5 play, after Seattle converted an earlier third-down play for a 30-yard connection to Metcalf, with linebacker De’Vondre Campbell lost in coverage.
The 49ers’ defense played without Ward for the first time since 2021. Yiadom started in place of Ward and successfully defended back-to-back passes to Metcalf on the Seahawks’ second possession to force a punt; Ward was a pregame scratch after testing out his injured knee in warmups.
NOTES
The 49ers, having now played each of their three NFC West counterparts once, next host the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 20 in their first meeting since last season’s Super Bowl LVIII, which the Chiefs won in overtime 25-22. The 49ers then host the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, Oct. 27 before a Week 9 bye (for the third straight season). One more Thursday Night Football appearance awaits Dec. 12 when the 49ers host the Rams.
The 49ers entered with a 4-4 record in prime-time games here, since this stadium opened in 2002, and that includes wins in their only other Thursday night affairs in 2022 (21-13) and 2023 (31-13).
The 49ers led just 3-0 after the first quarter, at least assuring there would not be a repeat of their shutout loss in 2004, when their NFL-record 420-game scoring streak was snapped here.
