SANTA CLARA – The 49ers will be fine.
I find.
Don’t hold me to it.
That’s because the Niners’ season is four games old, but if we’re being honest when it comes to the modern NFL, it’s just getting started.
Given the way NFL teams train in the summer (if they practice at all) and their disdain for the exhibition schedule, September is practically the preseason in this league. It’s a time to sort things out; find his identity.
And although the 49ers have had an up-and-down “preseason,” they’re doing just fine at 2-2 after a 30-13 win over the Patriots on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
Nothing ideal. Nothing grueling.
If you distort a baseball axiom, you can’t win a division in September, but you can lose one.
And despite the gloom following the Niners’ back-to-back losses in Weeks 2 and 3, there’s a lot to celebrate with this team.
They finally found an identity:
This is Brock Purdy’s team.
This is Fred Warner’s team.
It doesn’t take 25 years in the NFL to figure out that the quarterback and middle linebacker are important to the team’s success – after all, they’re the guys wearing the helmet speakers. But after four games, the 49ers can claim they have the best quarterback-Mike combination in the league.
This is a development – a promising one – in a season that has so far been characterized by noise and nonsense.
Not only does Purdy look like a franchise quarterback, but he also looks like an MVP candidate once again. And he’s doing it without the other MVP candidate, Christian McCaffrey. He can do it without elite defense (at least in Weeks 2 and 3). He does it with an offensive line that desperately wants to make him run for his life.While the conditions aren’t perfect, Purdy was pretty close overall.
Purdy has taken his game to new levels in 2023, with Sunday’s performance scrambling and throwing balls deep showing just how dangerous he is to opposing defenses. No. 13 isn’t just any guy in Kyle Shanahan’s offense – he’s the guy Shanahan has been waiting for since he arrived in the Bay.
“He has the confidence to know when to hold on, when to make the game work and when to break it,” Shanahan said of Purdy’s Russell Wilson-like climbing ability.
“(I) love having that aspect to our offense.”
You also have Warner performing at a level far beyond anything – or anyone – I’ve ever seen. This is something of the Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis type, made all the more impressive because the middle linebacker role is much more athletically demanding these days.
Not only is Warner the best run-stopping linebacker in the game, getting past blocks with astonishing ease and delivering the kind of hits that make seasoned pros question their work, but he’s also the best in pass coverage linebacker that exists.
Fred Warner (54) of the San Francisco 49ers returns an interception for a touchdown against the New England Patriots in the second quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) His interception on Sunday, which gave the Niners an early 13-0 lead, was the most impressive individual defensive play you’ve ever seen: Warner read quarterback Jacoby Brissett like a children’s book, abandoning his original responsibility to go where he was Brissett knew would throw the ball.
Warner rose up like a video game linebacker in the wee hours of the morning (my millennials know this) and not only made an insane catch, but despite landing on his Tuchus, managed to get up before he was touched and run 45 yards into the end zone and stretched the ball across the goal line like he was George Kittle.
It all happened so quickly that the otherworldliness of the piece could have been overlooked. But to be clear, linebackers aren’t supposed to be able to do that.
Especially not the linebackers who, the game before, hit Patriots running back Antonio Gibson so hard that you could hear the pads cracking in the press box, about a thousand feet above the field.
Warner is no longer appointment television. He’s the kind of player that you only have to get to the stadium to understand. The higher you stand in the stands, the better you can understand how otherworldly this ghost of a player is.
I know TJ Watt is having a great season in Pittsburgh, and I know we’re not even a quarter of the way through the season, but if Warner isn’t the clubhouse leader for Defensive Player of the Year voting, we need to find him one new voting bloc.And then there’s the outstanding play of Jordan Mason (on pace for nearly 1,900 yards this season), Jauan Jennings (in two straight games in which he was the Niners’ top receiver) and Nick Bosa (still just as good). Defensive end like). exists in the league).
There is a lot of reason for optimism with the Niners.
Of course there are also disadvantages.
The injuries – my God, the injuries.
It was easy to predict that the Niners, one of the NFL’s oldest teams who played 20 games last season, would not be able to repeat their injury luck in 2024.
But the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction so quickly, so quickly, that it’s downright comical.
And there’s no reason to think it’s going to stop any time soon. These injury gods are vengeful and relentless.
San Francisco 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey (23) enters the field after the San Francisco 49ers’ 30-13 victory over the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer /Bay Area News Group) They’ve already claimed McCaffrey and Javon Hargrave and beaten Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Trent Williams and now Dominck Puni.
Oh, and we’ll see what they did with Warner, who played only one half Sunday because of an ankle injury (he still led the Niners in tackles through more than three quarters).
“I know Fred tried to leave … but he didn’t feel like he could,” Shanahan said.
“I would have been out there if I could have been,” said Warner, who was seen on the sideline and needed several Niners employees to stop him from entering the field. “We’ll see.”
The Niners have weathered the storm of injuries. To some extent, they’ve navigated the nonsense of offseason and training camp contract negotiations (but Brandon Aiyuk’s reputation hasn’t).
A long-term injury to Warner might be the one thing this team can’t handle.
“We’ll see,” indeed.
But if Warner stays at the top of his game week after week and Purdy continues to pull from his seemingly limitless bag of tricks, the 49ers will be just fine.
Perhaps this will disappoint you and them – after all, high hopes were placed on this team.
But on Sunday, the Niners’ season was at stake. After a home defeat against the Patriots there would have been no turning back – that’s disqualifying.
Purdy and Warner came through. The Niners followed suit.
At least at this point, you can’t ask for much more.
The Niners are in good hands, and even though they have little wiggle room in the final 13 games of the season, they still have everything that matters.
Kevin Givens (90) of the San Francisco 49ers sacks starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) of the New England Patriots in the second quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Maliek Collins (99) of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates his loss of the ball with teammates against the New England Patriots in the first quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area Newsgroup)
San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback Brock Purdy (13) throws against the New England Patriots in the first quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Nick Bosa (97) of the San Francisco 49ers pressures New England Patriots starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) in the fourth quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Jauan Jennings (15) of the San Francisco 49ers makes a 45-yard catch against Marcus Jones (25) of the New England Patriots V in the fourth quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, September 29, 2024 . Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) of the San Francisco 49ers makes a 53-yard catch against Jonathan Jones (31) of the New England in the third quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, September 29, 2024 Patriots. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Kyle Juszczyk (44) of the San Francisco 49ers is tackled by Josh Uche (55) of the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Kevin Givens (90) of the San Francisco 49ers sacks starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) of the New England Patriots in the second quarter at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
