{"id":138662,"date":"2026-01-18T07:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138662\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T07:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:37:08","slug":"san-franciscos-best-and-worst-performers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138662\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco’s best and worst performers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 17, 2026, 10:30 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> traveled to Washington for a divisional-round battle with the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> at Lumen Field on Saturday, and Kyle Shanahan’s team suffered a 34-6 loss.<\/p>\n

This result was disheartening because there seemed to be nothing the 49ers<\/a> could do correctly in any of the three phases of the game. The loss also ends their season and sends them home for the offseason.<\/p>\n

As we do after every game, let’s take a look at some of the best and worst performances from the 49ers on Saturday and hand out some credit and criticism.<\/p>\n

BEST: LB Dee Winters<\/p>\n

In a defensive effort that left a lot to be desired, Winters was the lone bright spot in his return to the lineup. He finished with a team-high nine tackles, including three for a loss. He also had a quarterback hit.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a>WORST: The rest of the front seven<\/p>\n

It’s no surprise that the 49ers couldn’t get much pressure on Sam Darnold on Saturday. They’ve struggled to do that against almost every quarterback they’ve played this year. However, the front was horrendous against the run. They allowed Kenneth Walker III to run for 116 yards on 6.1 yards per attempt and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

BEST: K Eddy Pineiro<\/p>\n

Pineiro started the game with a penalty, as he tried to slide tackle Seahawks kick returner Rashid Shaheed during his 95-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff. However, he was also responsible for the team’s only points. With his two field goals, he’s now tied for the ninth-most in 49ers postseason history.<\/p>\n

WORST: Offensive line<\/p>\n

San Francisco’s big men allowed Brock Purdy to be under pressure for most of the game, as the quarterback was consistently trying to evade pressure. He was only sacked two times, but that’s to his credit.<\/p>\n

The running backs also didn’t have much room to work, with the trio of Christian McCaffrey, Brian Robinson and Jordan James combining for 67 on just 3.4 yards per attempt, and a good chunk of that came with James playing against the backups late.<\/p>\n

WORST: WR Ricky Pearsall<\/p>\n

Pearsall returned to the lineup on Saturday, and he didn’t do much. He was targeted just twice and didn’t record a single catch.<\/p>\n

WORST: DB Marques Sigle<\/p>\n

Sigle was asked to start in this one, as he replaced the injured Ji’Ayir Brown, and he reminded everyone why he was benched earlier in the season. He was beaten multiple times in pass coverage, was called for an ugly penalty and didn’t have his best tackling day.<\/p>\n

More 49ers: Kyle Shanahan has glowing update on George Kittle after TE’s surgery<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 17, 2026, 10:30 p.m. PT The San Francisco 49ers traveled to Washington for a divisional-round battle with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[243,101,103,102,104,106,105,10224,10225,378,10229,507,6322,370,54859,366,374,259,70266,11403,34894,367,6330,13084,377,43104,246],"class_list":["post-138662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-accessfree","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sstssportsnflniners","tag-sstsnniners","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbrock-purdy","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-taggeorge-kittle","tag-tagjiayir-brown","tag-tagkenneth-walker-iii","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagrashid-shaheed","tag-tagricky-pearsall","tag-tagsam-darnold","tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","tag-tagseattle-seahawks","tag-tagsmg-listicle","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagwashington","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138662","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=138662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}