{"id":486682,"date":"2026-10-06T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486682\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:00:09","slug":"49ers-broncos-report-card-kyle-shanahan-hits-milestone-in-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486682\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers-Broncos report card: Kyle Shanahan hits milestone in win"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 Here is how the 49ers<\/a> (4-0) graded in Sunday\u2019s 24-14 win over the Denver Broncos<\/a> (2-2) at Levi\u2019s Stadium:<\/p>\n

PASS OFFENSE: B<\/p>\n

Brock Purdy<\/a> dazzled down the stretch, completing all but one of his final 10 passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns and still without a sack all season. George Kittle\u2019s 54-yard game-clinching touchdown came after an initial block on Nik Bonitto, then a 19.8-mph dash to the goal line with 2:15 remaining. Mike Evans<\/a>, playing with injured ribs from last Sunday, had a team-high five catches for 76 yards, and all were quite timely. \u201cThat\u2019s the most casual 76-yard game I\u2019ve seen. How good is he? Good for us,\u201d Kittle said. Purdy (19-of-30, 218 yards) also sprinkled multiple completions to Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and Kyle Juszczyk, the last of whom left with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

RUN OFFENSE: A-<\/p>\n

A 35-carry, 140-yard compilation earned Shanahan\u2019s initial kudos, seeing as how he insisted in Saturday night\u2019s team meeting that they succeed on the ground. Such success came in myriad ways. McCaffrey broke tackles for a 12-yard gain on his second carry, but his longest run (14 yards) set up a 1-yard touchdown run, his third straight game with such a score. Samuel churned out 22- and 20-yard runs. Purdy\u2019s pocket sense led to great escapes, and while he got stopped on a fourth-and-1 sneak early in the game, he converted on third-and-1 before Kittle\u2019s touchdown two plays later. And don\u2019t forget about Kaelon Black\u2019s fourth-and-1 conversion on an unintentional direct snap to the Denver 17, when the score was 3-3.<\/p>\n

PASS DEFENSE: B-<\/p>\n

No sacks or interceptions. No problem. Not quite. The 49ers\u2019 blitzes come with do-or-die consequences, and some third-down conversions were big gainers, including completions of 10, 25, and 30 yards. Fred Warner was credited for two pass breakups that were nearly forced fumbles. Renardo Green started well. With Upton Stout sidelined by a shoulder injury, Jack Jones got beat by Jaylen Waddle for a touchdown that cut the 49ers\u2019 lead to 17-14 with four minutes to go. Keion White and Sebastian Valdez had the only two hits on Bo Nix (25-of-42, 214 yards).<\/p>\n

RUN DEFENSE: B<\/p>\n

Dre Greenlaw delivered a game-high 12 tackles with violence and extreme prejudice against a Broncos team that cut him in March. Warner complemented him with seven tackles, while the top five defensive backs also made multiple stops. The 49ers did not make a tackle for loss, but the Broncos did not have a run reach 10 yards, led by J.K. Dobbins\u2019 40 yards (11 carries) and R.J. Harvey\u2019s 25 yards (seven carries).<\/p>\n

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-<\/p>\n

Compliments poured in for Siran Neal\u2019s ability to chase down in punt coverage and recover Marvin Mims\u2019 fumble, which replay officials did not nullify and which the 49ers parlayed into their first touchdown drive. Eddy Pi\u00f1eiro\u2019s 24-yard field goal tied the score at 3, but a 54-yard attempt was easily blocked up the middle by Zach Allen to end the first half. Samuel was fortunate that his fumble on the second-half kickoff landed right in teammate Brayden Willis\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n

COACHING: A<\/p>\n

No one has coached more 49ers games than Kyle Shanahan. His 167th game vaulted him past Bill Walsh, who of course went 3-0 in the Super Bowl as Shanahan continues to chase his first ring. Purdy credited Shanahan with dialing up the perfect blitz beater for Kittle\u2019s touchdown. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris\u2019 unit, despite a patchwork front line missing Nick Bosa, has allowed only 64 points all season, third-fewest in the NFL behind the Vikings (51) and the Jaguars (53).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 Here is how the 49ers (4-0) graded in Sunday\u2019s 24-14 win over the Denver Broncos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[949,402,181,752,296,88,90,89,127],"class_list":["post-486682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-football","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486682","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=486682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}