SANTA CLARA — The 49ers are going to be alright.
I believe.
Don’t maintain me to that.
That’s as a result of whereas the Niners’ season is likely to be 4 video games previous, if we’re being trustworthy in regards to the fashionable NFL, it’s additionally simply getting began.
With the best way NFL groups observe in the summertime (in the event that they observe in any respect) and their disdain for the exhibition schedule, September is, in impact, the preseason on this league. It’s a time to work issues out; to seek out one’s id.
And whereas the 49ers had an up-and-down “preseason” they’re, at 2-2 after a 30-13 win over the Patriots on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, doing simply nice.
Nothing best. Nothing backbreaking.
Bastardizing a baseball axiom, you’ll be able to’t win a division in September, however you’ll be able to lose one.
And opposite to the doom-and-gloom following the Niners’ back-to-back losses in Weeks 2 and three, there’s lots to have fun with this staff.
They discovered an id, in any case:
That is Brock Purdy’s staff.
That is Fred Warner’s staff.
It doesn’t take 25 years within the NFL to determine that the quarterback and center linebacker are necessary to staff success — they’re the blokes who put on the helmet audio system, in any case. However 4 video games in, the 49ers can argue they’ve the very best quarterback-mike combo within the league.
That’s a growth — an auspicious one — amid a season that has been outlined, to this point, by noise and nonsense.
Purdy not solely seems like a franchise quarterback, however as soon as once more an MVP candidate. And he’s doing it with out that different MVP candidate, Christian McCaffrey. He’s doing it with out an elite protection (not less than in Weeks 2 and three). He’s doing it with an offensive line that appears hellbent on making him run for his life.
Situations are hardly good, however Purdy has been fairly near it, total.
Purdy’s taken his recreation to a brand new stage in 2023, with Sunday’s scrambling-and-deep-ball-throwing efficiency exhibiting how harmful he’s to opposing defenses. No. 13 isn’t just a few dude in Kyle Shanahan’s offense — he’s the dude Shanahan has been ready for since he arrived within the Bay.
“He has the confidence of when to hang in there and when to make the play work and when to break,” Shanahan mentioned of Purdy’s Russell Wilson-like scrambling skill.
“[I] Love having that aspect [to] our offense.”
You even have Warner working at a stage far superior to something — or anybody — I’ve ever seen. That is some Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis-type stuff, solely all of the extra spectacular, as a result of the position of the center linebacker is a lot extra athletically difficult lately.
Warner isn’t solely the very best run-stopping linebacker within the recreation, slipping previous blocks with beautiful ease and delivering the form of hits that make seasoned professionals query their line of labor, however he’s additionally the very best pass-coverage linebacker going, too.
His interception on Sunday, which gave the Niners an early 13-0 lead, was as spectacular a person defensive play as you’ll ever see: Warner learn quarterback Jacoby Brissett like a child’s e-book, abandoning his preliminary accountability to go to the place he knew Brissett would throw the ball.
Rising up like a video-game linebacker circa the early aughts (my fellow millennials find out about this), Warner not solely made an insane catch, however, regardless of touchdown on his tuchus, he was capable of rise up earlier than being touched and run 45 yards into the tip zone, stretching the ball over the aim line like he was George Kittle.
All of it occurred so quick that the otherworldliness of the play might have been ignored. However let’s be clear: Linebackers aren’t supposed to have the ability to do stuff like that.
Particularly not linebackers, who, the play earlier than, delivered a success so onerous on Patriots working again Antonio Gibson, you would hear the pads crack within the press field, roughly a thousand toes above the sector.
Warner is past appointment tv. He’s the form of participant that requires you to be within the stadium to totally perceive. The upper you might be within the stands, the extra you’ll be able to comprehend how otherworldly this specter of a participant is.
I do know TJ Watt is having an incredible season in Pittsburgh, and I do know we’re lower than 1 / 4 of the best way by means of the season, but when Warner isn’t the clubhouse chief for the Defensive Participant of the 12 months, we have to discover a new voting bloc.
After which there’s the excellent play of Jordan Mason (on tempo for practically 1,900 yards this season), Jauan Jennings (back-to-back video games the place he’s been the Niners’ high receiver), and Nick Bosa (nonetheless as nice a defensive finish as there’s within the league).
There’s lots to be optimistic about with the Niners.
After all, there’s additionally the downsides.
The accidents — my god, the accidents.
It was straightforward to foretell that the Niners, one of many NFL’s oldest groups, which performed 20 video games final season, wouldn’t be capable to repeat their good luck with accidents in 2024.
However the pendulum has swung so swiftly in the wrong way, so shortly, it’s downright comical.
And there’s no motive to assume it can cease anytime quickly. These damage gods are vengeful and relentless.
They already claimed McCaffrey and Javon Hargrave, and have smitten Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Trent Williams, and now Dominck Puni.
Oh, and we’ll see what they did to Warner, who solely performed one half Sunday (he nonetheless led the Niners in tackles for three-plus quarters), due to an ankle damage.
“I know Fred tried to go… but didn’t feel like he could,” Shanahan mentioned.
“I would have been out there if I could have been,” Warner, who was seen on the sideline needing a number of Niners’ staffers to cease him from occurring the sector. “We’ll see.”
The Niners have managed the storm of accidents. To a passing diploma, they’ve dealt with the contract-negotiation nonsense of the offseason and coaching camp (although Brandon Aiyuk’s status has not).
A protracted-term damage to Warner is likely to be the one factor this staff can not overcome.
“We’ll see,” certainly.
But when Warner stays on the high of his recreation, week-in, week-out, and Purdy retains tapping into his seemingly bottomless bag of methods, the 49ers shall be simply nice.
Maybe that can disappoint you and them — in any case, there have been excessive hopes about this staff.
However on Sunday, the Niners’ season was on the road. There would have been no coming back from a house loss to the Patriots — that’s disqualifying.
Purdy and Warner got here by means of. The Niners adopted swimsuit.
You possibly can’t ask for way more, not less than at this juncture.
The Niners are in good arms, and whereas they’ve little slack for the ultimate 13 video games of the marketing campaign, they nonetheless have all the pieces to play for.
Initially Printed: September 29, 2024 at 6:11 p.m.
