SEATTLE : About nine minutes after the San Francisco 49ers extended their lead to 20 points against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night, linebacker Fred Warner experienced an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.
Seattle had just gotten the ball back early in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 straight points to cut San Francisco’s lead to six.
For a Niners team that had blown double-digit fourth-quarter leads against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3 and the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, it was hard not to doubt this was an NFC West triple-double.
“[One thousand percent],” Warner said. “It sucks, but it definitely felt familiar.” I thought to myself, “We can go one of two ways here. We can hold our own in a hostile environment and win the games we need to, or we can lose the last few games and be happy with how we played.”
This time, despite yet another string of injuries and repeated Unseen Challenges, the Niners persevered and earned themselves a much-needed 36-24 victory.
During the week, the Niners announced that Thursday’s game was a must-win game in Week 6 of the NFL. A loss would have dropped them to 2-4 overall, 0-3 in the division and 0-4 in the conference. They still needed 11 games to get back in the race, but promotion would have been even tougher. The downside, of course, was that a win would have put the Niners tied with Seattle for the division lead at 3-3 and given them an early lead over the Seahawks in a potential head-to-head matchup.
“We’ve talked about some losses being tougher than others, but it feels worse when you feel like you’ve won, especially in division games,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We talked about how these two losses are a reminder of how the NFL works. I think we’ve been a little spoiled in terms of human nature, that sometimes we get too relaxed and we never feel like we’re relaxed enough.”
The very concept of relaxation has been hard to grasp for the Niners, who have been plagued by a number of injuries this season. The Niners, already without key players like running back Christian McCaffrey (Achilles tendinitis), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (torn Achilles tendon), defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (torn triceps) and safety Talanoa Hufanga (torn wrist ligaments), had more health issues Thursday night.
Cornerback Charvarius Ward left practice hoping to play despite a bruised knee but was unavailable before the game. Rookie safety Malik Mustafa, who started in place of Hufanga, intercepted a pass early and had to leave the field with what Shanahan said was a sprained ankle. Perhaps worst of all, running back Jordan Mason injured his left shoulder in the first half, returning to the running game early in the third quarter but playing the rest of the game only on an emergency basis. He rushed for 73 yards on nine carries and caught another pass for nine yards.
Shanahan said Mason would undergo further evaluations on Friday to determine the severity of the injury.
“He thought he was OK,” Shanahan said. “He went back in the room, but he was in too much pain, so he left. … We’ll have more details tomorrow.”
As if the injury wasn’t enough, he was also on the losing side in the replay. At the time, a camera angle showed Seahawks punt returner Dee Williams touching the ball, which the Niners ultimately lost at the Seattle 18-yard line. It was reshot. Shanahan said 49ers vice president of football administration Brian Hampton warned Williams that he had touched the ball, but when the referees reviewed the play, they didn’t have a clear, evidentiary view. That sparked a stand decision and frustration on the San Francisco sideline. Mark Butterworth, the NFL’s vice president of instant replay, said after the game that he didn’t see any clear replay that the ball had been touched until it was too late to change the play.
“It was Thursday Night Football, so I figured there would be a lot of camera angles,” Shanahan said. “I threw it thinking I could get a better angle, and they said there wasn’t an angle. And then about two minutes later, I heard everybody in the box freak out, say, I saw it from a different angle, it was a fumble.”
In the end, the play didn’t matter, as the 49ers finished the game with the help of a rookie who played in a backup role.
Cornerback Renaldo Green, who played more snaps with Ward out, caught his first career interception midway through the fourth quarter, setting up quarterback Brock Purdy for a game-winning 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end George Kittle. Rookie Isaac Guerend, who replaced Mason, also scored on a 76-yard run with 1:39 left to all but seal the win.
“We’ve played in a lot of big games, won a lot of big games,” Kittle said. “We’ve lost some big games, so we’re just getting experience at this point. … When the new guys are there and they feel the confidence of all the guys that have been there, they feel like they fit right in and they have that confidence.” I mean, our team has been in these situations before and we’ve handled them well, especially here in Seattle.”
While the 49ers get to enjoy Thursday’s win for a few extra days, they won’t take long to turn their attention to the next opponent on the schedule: the Kansas City Chiefs. The 49ers have never beaten Kansas City in a regular or postseason game since Shanahan took over in 2017, including, of course, a pair of Super Bowl losses.
Kansas City is 5-0 and will be even more rested than the Niners coming off their bye.
Suffice to say, nobody in San Francisco will call it a must-win. But there’s no denying that they want it.
“It’s not like we can get payback for losing in the Super Bowl,” Williams said. “That ship has sailed. … Obviously, we know what type of team that is, one of the best teams in the league, all-star quarterback, great coach. So, it’s going to be a tough game regardless. We’re going to take these three days off and regroup and come try to put a complete game together.”
Ravi Kumar has a BCA & Master’s degree in Mass Media and over 8 years of experience writing about government schemes, Yojana, recruitment, and the latest educational trends.