{"id":493301,"date":"2026-10-12T05:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493301\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:12:13","slug":"just-imagine-gracen-haltons-flying-strip-and-score-showed-the-49ers-whats-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493301\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just imagine\u2019: Gracen Halton\u2019s flying strip-and-score showed the 49ers what\u2019s possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014\u00a0Rookie Gracen Halton was giddy holding his friend\u2019s iPhone in the 49ers\u2019 locker room, where \u201cDown Under\u201d \u2014\u00a0the team\u2019s victory theme song since its Week 1 triumph in Australia \u2014 blared.<\/p>\n

The phone belonged to fellow defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez, a second-year player, and it replayed Halton\u2019s Superman moment. Halton watched with a massive grin as he reviewed his end-of-half destruction of Seattle center Jalen Sundell, his flying punch-out against running back George Holani, and his fumble recovery in the end zone that fueled a 32-29 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an athlete in high school, now,\u201d Halton said shortly after reliving the most simultaneously destructive and acrobatic play a 293-pounder can make. \u201cBut hey, I was running back, tight end, wide receiver \u2014\u00a0everything. A lot of people don\u2019t know. But now, I\u2019m going back to my D-line roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halton, a 2026 fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma, delivered the one play that was perhaps most emblematic of this 15-round prize fight between two of the NFL\u2019s true titans. There are plenty to choose from, as this might rank among the highest-scoring defensive battles in league history \u2014 a product of two ferocious defenses combining to force seven takeaways and create plentiful short fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 49ers, who\u2019d generated only three takeaways over the month entering this game, turned the Seahawks over four times Sunday. Halton\u2019s was the most majestic. The rookie\u2019s get-off was so rapid that he somehow disrupted a handoff behind the goal line even though the line of scrimmage was at the 4-yard line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I felt my hand touch the ball,\u201d Halton said. \u201cAs I fell to the ground, I heard people screaming \u2014\u00a0and all my emotions took over after that. All I heard was the crowd. So I just flipped around, and the ball was right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Call it the touchdown that formally announced the arrival of the 49ers\u2019 next-generation pass rush.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without superstar Nick Bosa, who might return as soon as the Oct. 19 Monday night matchup against the Washington Commanders, the 49ers have seen a real-time blossoming of their young defensive linemen.<\/p>\n

The team had seven players record at least two pressures Sunday as it finished with five sacks and a 97th-percentile pressure rate of 51.4%. The performance built on the prior week\u2019s showing against the Denver Broncos, when the 49ers roughed up quarterback Bo Nix en route to a 24-14 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019ve seen it coming,\u201d left tackle Trent Williams said. \u201cBut you see [Romello Height], you see how many plays he has been close to affecting the game every week. You see G-Baby [Halton]. Getting Mykel [Williams] back in the fold. Keion [White] has been playing lights-out. The D-line is not a lot of household names outside of Bosa, but the way they play with their hair on fire, it\u2019s a very special group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unit is excited to get Bosa, who\u2019s long been the straw who stirs the drink, back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust imagine,\u201d rookie Romello Height said, \u201call of what we\u2019ll be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several defensive linemen\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including veteran Osa Odighizuwa, who notched his first sack of the season after delivering four weeks of relentless pressure \u2014 agreed in the locker room that the star edge rusher\u2019s return could lift the 49ers\u2019 defense to a level it hasn\u2019t reached in several years.<\/p>\n

3 days ago<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

5 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Thursday, Oct. 1<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Under coach Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers fielded great pass rushes in 2019 and 2022. But they\u2019d never roared the way they have the past two weeks without Bosa. Whenever he\u2019s been out, the defensive drop-off has been significant. Now, though, things are conspicuously different.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to think of the adversity we\u2019ve fought through, right?\u201d star linebacker Fred Warner said. \u201cAll of our Day 1 starting defensive line is out. You lose Bosa, and you\u2019re looking at, \u2018Man, what\u2019s the defense going to be?\u2019 And you just can\u2019t speak to how important those guys are who have stepped in those roles and produced big-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that, on Halton\u2019s strip-and-score, White blew up right tackle Abraham Lucas \u2014 that\u2019s who Bosa beat to strip-sack quarterback Sam Darnold and seal a Week 1 win at Seattle last season. Height collapsed the line from the other side. The 49ers overwhelmed the Seahawks as their defense allowed only 4.2 yards per play.<\/p>\n

The wins up front enabled the 49ers to execute their game plan on the back end. They knew Darnold was prone to putting the ball in harm\u2019s way, and they knew the Seahawks were disproportionately reliant on receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a risky combination for any offense, and cornerback Renardo Green capitalized with two interceptions.<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s success might have been the most symbolically satisfying for the 49ers, who were playing on the same field that hosted their demise last season. The Seahawks had beaten an injury-decimated 49ers team 41-6, and a lasting image from that game was of Shanahan berating Green on the sideline for blowing a coverage.<\/p>\n

It was constructive criticism that paid off about nine months later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got really great coaches,\u201d Green said. \u201cThey push us hard. My confidence came from myself already, but when you\u2019ve got a mind like Kyle and his resume and you hear it, it just lets you know that you are one of the ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green, after that rough finish to last season, has emerged as one of the leaders of what\u2019s been a top-flight NFL secondary. And that means he\u2019s now a bona fide spokesman for these resilient 49ers \u2014 whom Shanahan called \u201ca bunch of warriors\u201d after the win.<\/p>\n

\"ARenardo Green intercepts a Sam Darnold pass during the first quarter of Sunday\u2019s game between the 49ers and Seahawks. | Source: Sean Fan\/The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re out there, it\u2019s your time to play,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe don\u2019t care who\u2019s out there, it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s out there \u2014 we\u2019re all held to the same standard. That\u2019s how the players hold each other accountable and that\u2019s how our coaches push us. It doesn\u2019t surprise me the young guys are making plays. We do it in practice. We did it in camp. We were doing it in preseason. And we just knew we were gonna get our opps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such quotes are often clich\u00e9d lip service in the NFL. But not in the case of these 49ers, who\u2019ve now beaten three of the four conference championship participants from last season \u2014\u00a0even while being the league\u2019s most injured team so far.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re 5-0. They\u2019re winning critical games even with loads of star power watching on the couch back in the Bay Area (opens in new tab)<\/a>, and they\u2019re smiling at their phones in the locker room after.<\/p>\n

There were plenty of sensational plays to admire, and they all defined another riveting chapter of the 49ers-Seahawks rivalry.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014\u00a0Rookie Gracen Halton was giddy holding his friend\u2019s iPhone in the 49ers\u2019 locker room, where \u201cDown Under\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[879,8757,299,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,127],"class_list":["post-493301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brock-purdy","tag-george-kittle","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493301","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=493301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}