The 49ers Lead the NFC West After a Turnover Heist

The San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 32-29 on Sunday, and 21 of those points came straight off four Seattle turnovers. The win lifted San Francisco to 5-0, two games up in the NFC West on the defending Super Bowl LX champions, in a game that never looked like the 4-0 machine that walked into Lumen Field.

Until late in the third quarter, the 49ers had not mounted a scoring drive of more than four plays. Brock Purdy took his first three sacks of the season. The offense that had converted third downs at a 57 percent clip went 4-for-12. What decided the NFC West’s first true heavyweight night was the other side of the ball, plus a punter, plus a Seattle team that keeps handing out points.

Four Takeaways Built a 21-Point Lead

San Francisco’s first 21 points all came off Seattle mistakes: two Sam Darnold interceptions, a Fred Warner strip, and a goal-line fumble the 49ers turned into six. Combined, the clubs dumped seven turnovers, the most in any NFL game this season, and scored 38 points off them, the most in a game since 2017. Seattle got 17 of those. San Francisco got the other 21, and they were enough.

HOW THE 32 AND 29 LANDED

Seattle’s own recap put the inversion in one line: only 11 of San Francisco’s 32 points came on drives that did not start with a Seahawks giveaway. Mike Macdonald’s club has now allowed 45 points off turnovers in three games, including two defensive scores. Two of those three games were losses.

THE FOUR 49ERS TAKEAWAYS

1. First quarter: Renardo Green jumps Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s route on third-and-10. Four plays, 18 yards, Mike Evans 2-yard touchdown. 7-0.
2. Second quarter: Warner punches the ball out of Emanuel Wilson’s arms. Malik Mustapha recovers. Christian McCaffrey scores from 11 yards on the next snap. 14-10.
3. 13 seconds left in the half: Gracen Halton strips George Holani in the end zone and falls on it. 21-13.
4. Third quarter: Green’s second interception, his third of the season, on Darnold’s first pass of the half. Eddy Pineiro misses a 52-yarder, the one gift Seattle declined to cash.

Nehemiah Pritchett answered with an interception of Purdy, just Purdy’s second of the year, and Seattle turned that short field into a 16-yard Darnold-to-Smith-Njigba touchdown. Deebo Samuel later fumbled, the seventh giveaway of the afternoon, and Jason Myers made it 26-21. The defending champions could steal points too. They just kept giving more back.

Seattle’s Defense Won the Yardage Fight

Macdonald’s unit did the thing the rest of the league has not done to this 49ers team. It held San Francisco to 269 net yards to Seattle’s 251, 14 first downs apiece, and 4.8 yards per play. Byron Murphy II, the interior tackle, sacked Purdy twice after four weeks of zero. Ernest Jones IV chased him down for a third. George Kittle, sick with flu-like symptoms, finished with five catches for 24 yards. Samuel left with a hamstring injury after two carries and two catches.

WHAT THE 4-0 START LOST IN SEATTLE

• Third down: The NFL’s best rate at 57 percent through four games became 4-for-12, with the 49ers forced off the field on eight of 12 chances.
• The clean pocket: Purdy had not been sacked all season. Murphy and Jones got him three times, and Connor Colby had a long afternoon against Murphy.
• Discipline: One of the league’s least penalized teams drew eight flags for 70 yards, including holds on Trent Williams and Dominic Puni, a crowd-forced false start, and Dre Greenlaw’s personal foul. Seattle, the sloppier club on paper, was flagged five times for 46 yards.
• Sustained drives: No San Francisco touchdown drive covered more than 25 yards before the late third quarter. McCaffrey still averaged 6.2 yards on 11 carries, 68 yards and a score, but the holes were short-lived.

Kyle Shanahan still liked the run blocking. “By no means was everything perfect, but I just thought the grit of the guys in all three phases, they never wavered,” he said. The offensive line helped pound out 94 yards on 24 carries. It was enough to survive. It was not the offense that beat the Rams 27-7 in Melbourne, Miami 35-13, Arizona 36-30, and Denver 24-14.

In terms of playing complementary football the way that we want to play here as Seahawks and become the team that we want to become, we’re not there yet.

Mike Macdonald, Seahawks head coach, after the loss

A 68,664 crowd watched its Super Bowl club outgain nobody and still have a chance in the last minute. Complementary football is Macdonald’s word. The tape is four giveaways and a fourth-down incompletion.

Why Renardo Green and Gracen Halton Decided It

Green was benched the last time this team visited Seattle, in January, when the Seahawks won 41-6 and punched a ticket to the NFC title game. Warner was still healing a broken ankle. Evans was still under contract in Tampa Bay. On Sunday, Green picked Darnold on the opening series of each half. The first one set up Evans from the Seattle 18. The second one should have been a dagger and became a missed field goal instead.

We didn’t know how many turnovers we were going to get, but we knew we were going to get our opps this game. It was up to us to capitalize on every opp we get to win the game. We just didn’t know how many.

Renardo Green, 49ers cornerback

Halton, a rookie defensive tackle, had his first career sack, a 9-yard drop of Darnold in the second quarter, before the play that will follow him around. Seattle took over at its 4-yard line with 18 seconds left in the half and San Francisco holding three timeouts. Kneeling was not free. Macdonald stayed aggressive. Holani got the ball. Halton drove center Jalen Sundell backward, knocked the handoff loose, and recovered in the end zone with 13 seconds on the clock.

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The 49ers defense finished with four takeaways and five sacks after posting six sacks through the first four games. Jaden Dugger opened with a 7-yard sack on Seattle’s first series. Sebastian Valdez, Halton, and Osa Odighizuwa all got to Darnold, and Keion White added one in the fourth. Warner led the club with 10 tackles and his 20th career forced fumble, the most in franchise history, his third this season. Shanahan handed game balls to Evans and Green. Halton had a case.

Corliss Waitman Pinned Seattle Inside the 20

When the offense stalled, which was more often than in any of the first four games, the punter played field position as if it were a third phase that could score. Corliss Waitman hit five punts, all inside the 20, for a 43.2-yard average. The best of them backed Seattle up at its 4, the one Halton turned into six.

Shanahan said the 49ers had to play field position “a ton” and that Waitman was probably another guy who could have taken a game ball. A separate Waitman punt to the Seattle 9 preceded Warner’s strip of Wilson. Special teams also gave one back: Jacob Cowing muffed a Michael Dickson punt, Pritchett’s hit finishing the loose ball, and Eric Saubert recovered. Wilson walked in from 2 yards to tie the game at 7. Rashid Shaheed later returned a kickoff 39 yards to midfield after San Francisco had gone up 29-26. Waitman was the piece that held.

Pineiro, who entered among the league’s colder kickers, missed from 52 on a windless afternoon and then made the 44-yarder that actually ended it. Myers went 5-for-5 for Seattle, every make from 40 yards or beyond (49, 50, 43, 48, 40). He never got a sixth try.

One 74-Yard Drive Finally Looked Like San Francisco

Trailing 26-21 entering the fourth, Purdy finally got a possession that did not start on a short field. The 12-play, 74-yard scoring drive ate the start of the quarter. He went 6-of-7 on it, four completions to Evans for 75 yards, after an intentional grounding penalty had left him in second-and-21. Brandin Cooks, a childhood 49ers fan in his first game in this rivalry, sat in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard score with 11:02 left. Purdy then threw the 2-point play to Evans. 29-26.

Evans finished with seven catches for 113 yards and the 2-yard score, both team highs and his season highs, two weeks after breaking his ribs. The touchdown was the 111th of his career, tying Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez for ninth in NFL history. He had three receptions of 20-plus yards, including a 28-yarder that kept the go-ahead drive alive. Purdy, 19-of-29 for 189 yards, two scores and an interception, had completed two of his first seven attempts, both to Evans.

“Obviously, he’s a game-changer,” Purdy said. “He can make defenses pay, and I thought today he did a great job of that, going up to get the ball multiple times.” McCaffrey called him a difference maker who raised the standard. Shanahan had already named the late drive as the one that got them going.

Myers tied it from 40 at 6:55. San Francisco answered with an eight-play, 43-yard march and Pineiro’s 44-yarder at 1:56. Darnold then found Smith-Njigba, 5-for-102 with a score, who dropped a third-down ball that would have reached the San Francisco 25 with 54 seconds left. On fourth-and-10 from midfield, Cooper Kupp caught a sideline throw and dove. Mustapha tackled him at the 41, a yard short. Replay stayed with the call. Four lead changes and two ties, and the last inches went to the visitors.

Greenlaw’s Headbutt Leaves Warner Without His Partner

The game had already turned chippy when Greenlaw hit Darnold late, out of bounds, and into the Seahawks’ tablet station in the second quarter. Jones, Nick Emmanwori, and Ty Okada closed on him. Jones did not have a helmet. Greenlaw did, and he headbutted Jones, who later wiped at a cut. Officials flagged the late hit, then the league office, through Troy Vincent, disqualified Greenlaw for a non-football act under a rule that lets New York eject a player even when the booth has not thrown a flag. Mark Butterworth, the vice president of instant replay, said Vincent told them No. 57 was gone and the crew informed the field.

Warner played the rest of the night without him. The 15-yard foul had helped Myers to a 50-yarder that made it 14-13. Puni’s hold on another series cost San Francisco a chance to go up 17-13. Halton scored two plays of field-position later, which is the microcosm Shanahan will live with: the 49ers kept stepping in it, then taking the ball back. Greenlaw now sits in the same Monday queue as every player the league reviews for a non-football strike to the head. The game did not wait for him.

Christian McCaffrey, who still found 6.2 yards a carry in a building that hates this roster, put the temperature on the record. “There’s obviously emotions that go into this matchup. The challenge is not letting the emotions get the best of you. These are two teams that don’t like each other. That’s what makes it fun.”

The 5-0 Start This Locker Room Already Distrusts

San Francisco is 5-0 for the third time under Shanahan, with road wins over the Rams and Seahawks and a home win over the Broncos, three clubs that won at least 12 games last season. The Rams sit 2-2, 2 1/2 games back, with a Monday night date against Buffalo. The Cardinals are 1-4. Minnesota is also 5-0. Kansas City is 4-0 on its bye. That is not the sentence this locker room is using.

In 2023 the 49ers were 5-0 after five weeks, then lost three straight and went into the bye at 5-3. They still finished 12-5 and reached the Super Bowl. McCaffrey brought the scar up himself. “We’ve been here before. We’ve been 5-0 and went into the bye 5-3. We’re more worried about just continuing to get better. That’s what I love, the mentality of this team.”

They host Washington on Monday, October 19, at 5:15 p.m. PT, their first Monday Night Football slot this season, already with home dates left against both Seattle and Los Angeles. They have beaten their two top division rivals on the road. They have also just been held to 11 points of offense that did not start with a gift, against a champion that is 3-2 because it cannot keep the ball. Evans said toughness and heart, and that they knew it would be a dogfight. Smith-Njigba, on the other sideline, said defense and special teams deserved the win. He was talking about his own team. The scoreboard did not agree.