SANTA CLARA – Kyle Juszczyk, the 49ers’ perennial Pro Bowl fullback, could be out until November with a hyperextended right knee from Sunday’s 24-14 home win over the Denver Broncos.
He won’t be the only starter missing when the 49ers (3-0) visit the Seattle Seahawks (2-1) on Sunday.
The 49ers’ defense will be without defensive end Nick Bosa and safety Marques Sigle, the latter of whom sustained a high-ankle sprain against Denver, coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday on a media conference call.
Bosa has missed the past two games with a calf strain. Also slated to be out a third straight game is rookie defensive tackle James Thompson Jr.
Cornerback Upton Stout’s shoulder sprain has him day-to-day as the only other reported injury from Sunday’s win.
Juszczyk underwent postgame testing that did not reveal any season-ending ligament damage, Shanahan confirmed Monday on a media conference call.
However, he sustained a knee sprain and bone bruise, ESPN first reported. Juszczyk got hurt once upended by Jahdae Barron’s right shoulder to the fullback’s knee on a 16-yard reception that opened a fourth-quarter touchdown drive.
Backup tight end Brayden Willis filled in some for Juszczyk and helped block on Christian McCaffrey’s drive-ending touchdown run.
DEFENSIVE FRONT
The 49ers did not sack Broncos quarterback Bo Nix but a patchwork defensive front earned kudos from Shanahan, including the efforts of Sebastian Valdez and Romello Height.
Mykel Williams will be integrated further into team drills this week as he’s eligible to make his season debut Sunday, if the 49ers activate him off the Physically Unable to Perform List.
RIVALRY TALK
Shanahan did not downplay the 49ers’ “huge” rivalry with the Seahawks and simply noted: “They’re always tough games. It’s been that way for years and before we got here.”
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Monday he hadn’t yet studied film on this season’s 49ers but said of them on his weekly radio show, on Seattle Sports 710: “They’re playing great team football. They’re winning in all three phases. Seems like they’re explosive on offense and finishing drives and doing all the things you’re supposed to do, and defensively it seems like they’re playing great football as well.”
Special-teams ace Siran Neal said after the 49ers’ win Sunday that he’s kept a video on his phone of the Seahawks’ game-opening kick return for a touchdown in last season’s 41-6 divisional-playoff loss. “I’m glad Siran uses it as motivation and I’m sure a number of players do,” Shanahan said. “We’re a much different team now and I don’t like to correlate things to another year.”
OVER AUSTRALIA
The 49ers leave Levi’s Stadium after winning three games there in the wake of their season-opening victory in Melbourne, Australia. Shanahan is glad the 49ers “took care of business” but not a fan of the scheduling.
“That was kind of silly to act like three home games in a row is any benefit. We were acclimated after getting five days to rest, you know, getting back Friday and not practicing until Wednesday. Australia was over by that Wednesday. It’s always nice to get three home games but I just means you’ll be on the road for three in December.”
EVANS UPDATE
Wide receiver Mike Evans’ five-catch, 76-yard effort did not lead to any known setbacks with his injured ribs, Shanahan said. “I’m sure he’s in a lot of pain; they usually are after something like that,” Shanahan said.
Wide receiver Christian Kirk is not expected to start practicing this week while he remains on Injured Reserve with a calf injury from the first day of training camp.
PURDY-TO-KITTLE STAT
Brock Purdy and George Kittle make up the NFL’s best quarterback-receiver battery since 2000 in terms of Purdy’s 139.6 passer rating on throws to Kittle. That is tops among 1,044 tandems with 100-plus attempts, according to The Associated Press’ Josh Dubow in citing SportsRadar.
Kittle’s 56th regular-season touchdown catch fittingly came on a 56-yard gem to clinch Sunday’s win, and it pushed him past Vernon Davis for fourth-most in 49ers’ history.
Kittle has caught touchdown passes from seven quarterbacks in his 10-year career: Purdy (29), Jimmy Garoppolo (17), C.J. Beathard (2), Mac Jones (2), Brandon Allen (1), and Brian Hoyer (1).
Kittle has seven touchdowns in his past four games in Seattle; he did not play in last year’s divisional-round playoff loss because of an Achilles tear the previous game.
PENALTY SITUATION
The 49ers are drawing the fewest penalties per game. Although they’ve been flagged a NFL-low 23 times, only 17 were enforced. They got penalized twice in their opener against the Los Angeles and once in Sunday’s win over the Denver Broncos, and those efforts bookended the seven penalties enforced in each win over Miami and Arizona.
“We’ve done a good job staying disciplined,” Shanahan said. “There were a number times we got too close to it where we thought somebody would get a penalty. We did a good job of avoiding it in the second half, because of things we talked about at halftime to watch out for. We’ve been playing pretty clean football. …. They’ve let us play a lot with the crews we’ve gotten.”
The Seahawks committed 14 penalties in their win Sunday over the Los Angeles Chargers, and that included seven personal fouls that Macdonald deemed unacceptable. Those included unnecessary roughness (three), roughing the passer (two), unsportsmanlike conduct (one) and personal foul (one).