CLEVELAND – In the end, the 49ers are on their bye week, after 9 wins, 4 defeats, and quite a few accidents that have been imagined to derail their playoff hopes way back.
Week 14 is right here, and the 49ers’ three-game win streak is on maintain. The latter fuels bravado and perception.
So not everybody was taking the cliché, firm line of moderately saying the 49ers want a psychological and bodily break.
“It doesn’t matter when our bye is,” security Malik Mustapha stated in an unique interview after Sunday’s 26-8 win over the Browns. “We could have a bye in Week 17. We have the guys that just love ball.”
Coach Kyle Shanahan stated he “loves where we’re at right now” by way of playoff place. They might be within the seventh and last NFC spot with 4 video games to go, however they’re solely a half-game out of the NFC West lead behind each the 9-3 Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks, they usually’re 1 ½ video games up on the Detroit Lions (7-5).
Listed below are 10 issues that caught my eye within the 49ers’ first win in Cleveland since 1984 (and everyone knows how that season ended with 49ers Devoted sitting on Apple seat cushions within the Tremendous Bowl at Stanford Stadium):
1. PURDY VS. GARRETT
Nothing was extra entertaining than watching Brock Purdy dodge, duck, dip and dive previous NFL sack chief Myles Garrett, who did notch his league-leading nineteenth sack however in any other case missed out on extra due to Purdy’s pocket sense and improved mobility.
The 49ers led 10-8 when Purdy aborted a bootleg when he noticed Garrett coming freed from George Kittle’s chip block, so Purdy threw the ball away all Garrett might do was smile and dab up the quick-thinking QB. “He was like, ‘Come on, bro,’ and smiled at me,” Purdy stated. “And I was like, ‘Sorry, bro.’ But it’s nothing but love and respect. He’s really cool. He’s a monster.”
Stated Garrett: “He likes getting (the ball) out on time or, you know, he sees me, and, you know, credit to him, he also avoided the rush pretty well, too,” Garrett stated. “… They were doing what they do best.”
Purdy’s a number of throw-away passes clearly have been higher than dangerous throws like his earlier recreation’s interception hat trick.
2. PURDY SWAGGER
A lot is being product of Purdy’s hidden expertise: celebrating his 2-yard landing run with the “Dougie” dance. He promised teammates he’d do it if he scored, they usually laughed whereas he labored on these strikes in observe and within the locker room (and in Purdy’s kitchen, as he attested).
The celebration was symbolic, although. Purdy, whose maligned toe saved him out of eight video games this season, seemed particularly assertive and aggressive as soon as the 49ers wanted it most, once they trailed 8-7 simply earlier than halftime.
“He does a good job of bringing swag to the game,” huge receiver Ricky Pearsall stated. “I actually told him, ‘We need that Brock Purdy swag back.’ He brought it back.”
As nice because it was for Purdy and Kittle to attach on a 33-yard catch on the 7-yard line to arrange Matt Homosexual’s go-ahead discipline aim getting into halftime, the extra clutch throw got here two snaps earlier, when Purdy discovered Pearsall on a third-and-10 boundary throw for a 13-yard completion close to midfield.
3. SHORT-FIELD SUCCESS
All three of the 49ers’ landing drives began deep in Browns’ territory, on the 16-, 32 and 18- yard traces. That beneficiant discipline place got here courtesy of, so as, Skyy Moore’s 66-yard punt return, Luke Gifford’s fourth-and-1 fumble restoration, and Darrell Luter Jr.’s restoration of a muffed punt.
“That’s not the way to play a good team, where you’re giving them short fields,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski stated. “We’ve got to make them earn it. And I don’t think we did that today.”
The 49ers’ common beginning discipline place was at their very own 46-yard line. Cleveland’s was at its 24.
4. MALIK MANIA
As Ji’Ayir Brown headed for his locker, he requested aloud, “Did you see No. 6 out there today? Did you see him out there? He was doing it all.”
No. 6 is Mustapha, a second-year security who joined Jordan Elliott in tackling Quinsohn Judkins for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-1 on the 49ers’ 21-yard line, on the Browns’ second possession.
“I knew the gap would be open, and once it opened up, I shot it the only way I know how: as fast as possible and then try to get the ball carrier down,” Mustapha stated. “Everybody was swarming as well. Getting that stop early and showing them what kind of game this would be, that was pivotal in getting this ‘W’ today.” Mustapha had seven tackles and broke up a third-down go.
5. JENNINGS’ MAKING ENEMIES
Third-and-Jauan Jennings was in excellent place for Purdy’s excellent landing go, on third-and-goal from the 7 within the fourth quarter. Postgame, Jennings’ fame for bodily warfare intensified to a psychological dimension, when you hearken to the Browns.
Per week in the past, Jennings’ blocking (and speaking) resulted in him getting punched within the groin by Carolina’s Tre’Von Moehrig, who drew a one-game suspension “Like I see why he got punched in the nuts, because he said some things that you should not say to another man, ever,” Browns defensive sort out Shelby Harris instructed reporters. “But, like, I don’t respect it because you say that then run behind your O-line. That’s some real soft (expletive), and I want that known. I see exactly why they punched him in the (groin). I’m surprised nobody punched him in the jaw yet.”
Jennings verbally clashed with a number of Browns gamers whereas defensive sort out Maliek Collins, a 2024 49ers starter, was getting medical consideration for a third-quarter knee harm.
“I can’t speak for how he was raised, but if you have nothing good to say, don’t say something to somebody,” stated Garrett, who went on to say … Jennings had “demeaning and disparaging” feedback. “I mean, some guys just roll like that.”
Jennings joined Kittle and McCaffrey for the workforce lead with 5 landing receptions, and this was his fourth up to now 5 video games.
6. MULTIPLE SACKS?!
The 49ers’ three sacks matched their season excessive from Week 2 in New Orleans. Two got here by way of Clelin Ferrell and the opposite by Keion White, all in opposition to Shedeur Sanders in his first residence begin with the Browns.
“We had to make a rookie quarterback play quarterback for real and see what he could do. He’s going to figure it out,” White stated. “I have a lot of respect for him and the stuff he overcomes. He’s poised. They wouldn’t let him spin. They were trying to run the ball a lot. If you let him play quarterback, who knows what’s going to happen.”
Sanders completed 16-of25 for 149 yards with no turnovers and a 34-yard landing go to Harold Fannin 39 seconds earlier than halftime.
Ferrell didn’t gloat about proudly owning 4 sacks in 4 video games since his signing; his profession excessive was 4 ½ sacks as a 2019 Raiders rookie.”I’m simply targeted on the method, and the method actually panned out immediately,” Ferrell stated. “I’m gonna try and get two more next (game).”
7. DEFENSIVE SHUTOUT
The 49ers posted a second-half shutout for the primary time since 2023 New Yr’s Eve in Washington, once they clinched the No. 1 playoff seed – and that spot could also be in play once more this season.
The Browns went 0-for-4 on fourth down they usually didn’t penetrate the purple zone contained in the 20-yard line. A lot for controlling the clock with a first-half run recreation.
“We knew coming in they’d try to run the ball and their screen game would be a big part of it,” linebacker Luke Gifford stated. “We knew if we could keep things in front of us and play well against the run, we’d be fine.”
“They were running the heck out of the ball in the beginning then we just settled down and played physical up front,” White stated. “We had to swarm to the ball. We were getting run fits but missing tackles, so we just had to calm down.”
8. SKYY SETS HIS SIGHTS
Not since Ted Ginn Jr. within the 2011 season opener has a punt return resulted in a landing, and nobody since then appears extra decided to finish that drought than Skky Moore, who had a career-long 66-yard return to arrange the 49ers’ first landing drive. That was 11 yards longer than Ginn’s which capped the 33-17 win over the Seahawks.
“That’s what I’m chasing. Whatever comes between that, I’ll take it,” stated Moore, two weeks faraway from a 98-yard kickoff return to open a win in Arizona. “I’m in that zone. We’re getting better as a unit.”
Stated Christian McCaffrey: “Anytime he gets the ball, I love the way he hits it. He’s built for this team.”
9. McCAFFREY’S NUMBERS
With 53 dashing yards and 21 receiving yards, McCaffrey’s 74 mixed yards have been his second-fewest this season (48 in Houston), however he additionally put the 49ers forward with a 1-yard run, his eighth dashing landing in his previous eight video games.
His 849 dashing yards have come on an NFL-high 237 carries, and his 806 receiving yards are by way of the fourth-most catches, 85. The one different gamers in NFL historical past with over 800 yards in each classes are 49ers’ legend Roger Craig (1985) and Rams’ Corridor of Famer Marshall Faulk (1999). Memo to voters: Put Craig in as a Senior finalist this yr.
“A guy like Roger is a pioneer in this league and a staple of the 49ers franchise. Super well deserving,” McCaffrey stated final week of Craig’s overdue Corridor of Fame bid.
10. BIZARRO WORLD
We’ve extra proof this can be a bizarro-world season for the 49ers, the place earlier mistaken turns into rights. This time, Matt Homosexual was hitting a go-ahead discipline aim off the left uprights as the primary half expired, two years after Jake Moody missed a possible winner within the last seconds right here.
Even larger, Darrell Luter Jr. recovered a muffed punt to arrange the 49ers’ last landing, the identical participant who had a punt careen off his shoe within the 2023 workforce’s Tremendous Bowl loss to the Chiefs.
“We were hoping for some big plays from special teams, which we got the huge one with Skyy (Moore) on the return; got a huge one on the (Luter-recovered) turnover,” Shanahan stated.
As Shanahan stated these phrases, a well-known tune echoed by means of the locker room partitions, the identical tune as their final highway recreation two weeks earlier in Arizona: Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue.” “Don’t mess with it. That’s good stuff,” punter Thomas Morstead, 39, stated of Grant’s 1982 anthem.
