winner-take-all Seahawks-49ers matchup Saturday night<\/a> at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\nThe NFC West crown? Up for grabs. The NFC\u2019s No. 1 seed? That\u2019s for the taking, too.<\/p>\n
STUDS \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n
Brock Purdy<\/p>\n
Do you know how good you have to play to throw a pick-six on the first play of the day and still be a no-doubt \u201cstud\u201d?<\/p>\n
As well as Purdy played on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He followed up the worst play of the game with 59 minutes and 45 seconds of elite quarterback play.<\/p>\n
Purdy now has 10 touchdowns in his last two games, finishing Sunday with 303 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and two read-option scores on the ground.<\/p>\n
With him playing at this level, anything is possible for the 49ers, despite every ounce of logic fighting that fact from being true.<\/p>\n
Jake Tonges<\/p>\n
Not having George Kittle is a problem. Obviously.<\/p>\n
But you don\u2019t lose much in the pass game with Jake Tonges stepping in at tight end.<\/p>\n
Tonges had seven catches, 60 yards, and a touchdown Sunday and was a go-to option for Purdy in this contest.<\/p>\n
Many players can be considered season-savers for San Francisco. Don\u2019t forget to add the oft-forgotten tight end on that list.<\/p>\n
Austen Pleasants<\/p>\n
Tossed into the fray after the first play of the game, Pleasants looked like an asset in the run game at left tackle and held up well in pass protection, allowing only one sack in the contest. (And it was on a backside rush.)<\/p>\n
Jake Brendel<\/p>\n
The first half of the 49ers\u2019 season was filled with Brendel slander from Niners fans.<\/p>\n
They seem awfully quiet now.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Brendel has been better than good \u2014 he\u2019s been fantastic for the last month-plus \u2014 and it\u2019s elevated a bemoaned Niners offense line into, dare I say, an elite unit.<\/p>\n
Christian McCaffrey<\/p>\n
The 49ers\u2019 superstar had 121 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, and two catches for 20 yards.<\/p>\n
That was in the first half.<\/p>\n
McCaffrey ended the game with 181 total yards and a touchdown. He\u2019s as good as it gets at any position in the league right now.<\/p>\n
Keion White<\/p>\n
The 49ers did get a pass rusher at the trade deadline, despite popular online sentiment.<\/p>\n
Ok, the Niners traded for White a week before the trade deadline, but they needed a defensive end for that weekend.<\/p>\n
White has been really, really good since arriving in Santa Clara, and Sunday was his best game of the season, as he had several flash plays, particularly when rushing from the interior of the line.<\/p>\n
DUDS \ud83d\udcc9<\/p>\n
Ji\u2019Ayir Brown<\/p>\n
Anyone who had watched the 49ers in recent weeks and had any idea of what the Bears want to do on offense knew it was coming.<\/p>\n
Apparently, Brown didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The Bears relentlessly attacked Brown deep down the field, and the Niners\u2019 safety \u2014 who made several nice plays down as a de facto linebacker \u2014 gave up two first-half touchdowns on deep balls.<\/p>\n
If the Niners want to keep Brown on the field, they need to utilize him as a box-only safety from this point onwards. Otherwise, he will be the reason the Niners\u2019 season ends.<\/p>\n
Harsh? Sure. But you know it\u2019s accurate. Every Bears touchdown Sunday involved him in some way.<\/p>\n
Jason Pinnock<\/p>\n
The Niners need to can this three-safety idea with Pinnock. We\u2019re at weeks between good reps from 25.<\/p>\n
The NFL<\/p>\n
The NFC West title and the conference\u2019s one seed are up for grabs on a\u2026 Saturday night?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s beyond lame, even if the Niners don\u2019t have to travel and Seattle is coming back from Carolina (with a flight to San Jose still to go).<\/p>\n
But hey, old, washed Aaron Rodgers and Baltimore\u2019s backup quarterback will decide who will win a division that will be bounced in the first round next Sunday night. You have to prioritize that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can catch your breath now. Week in and week out, the NFL provides the best entertainment in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[402,12268,181,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,127,1326],"class_list":{"0":"post-112725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-inside-sports","9":"tag-inside-the-san-francisco-49ers","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-sports-columnists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}