Week 1 - With the San Francisco 49ers kicking off their 2025-26 regular season on the road against the rival Seattle Seahawks, head coach Kyle Shanahan's team would have a chance to make an early statement within the NFC Western Division with a win on Sunday. With three straight wins at Seattle's Lumen Field for the 49ers, including a Thursday Night win last season during Week 6, San Francisco would look to continue their success in the same building that was once a house of horrors for this 49ers franchise. Under quarterback Brock Purdy, however, San Francisco has enjoyed a turn of the tide as he entered Sunday boasting a perfect 3-0 record in the Emerald City. But with a revamped defense and plenty of new faces on offense, Purdy and company would look to keep that trend going against his QB counterpart and former teammate Sam Darnold.
Making his Seahawks debut and facing his former team after a resurgent year as the man at the helm of the Minnesota Vikings, which of course followed up his bounce back season as a backup to Purdy in 2023, Darnold gives plenty of credit to coach Shanahan for helping him turn things around after a tumultuous start to his career with the Jets and Panthers. After handing San Francisco a loss a season ago during the team's Week 2 visit to Minneapolis, Purdy and Shanahan would love to return the favor to start off their 2025 campaign by handing Darnold an L in his first game with Seattle. While Darnold was certainly Seattle's biggest offseason acquisition, perhaps the biggest acquisition during the offseason for the 49ers came in the form of a coach with the return of former defensive coordinator Robert Saleh who found his way back as the team's defensive play-caller. After four solid seasons at the helm of the Niners defense from 2017-2020, Saleh made the jump to head coach for the New York Jets for three-plus seasons before being fired mid-season after a 2-3 start. But one team's trash is another team's treasure and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan couldn't be any happier as the re-hired Saleh was right back to his old self, dialing up magic as the San Francisco defense turned up the heat in the season-opener and ultimately kept the 49ers in it after a shaky start on offense. Although the 49ers did score on their opening-drive to jump out to a quick 7-0 lead behind their new $265 Million dollar man Brock Purdy under-center, the rest of the day was rather forgetful on offense until their final drive.
One of the biggest question marks entering the season for the 49ers was the health of All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey who missed 12 games a season ago but had shown signs during training camp that he was back to his old self and as healthy as he's been in over a year. But on Thursday, CMC was pulled from practice and added to the team's injury report with a calf issue. With uncertainty hanging over McCaffrey's head in the days leading up to the season-opener, San Francisco's do-it-all playmaker was right back out there on Sunday helping lead the way on offense. After the 49er defense forced a punt on Seattle's opening-drive, Purdy hit McCaffrey for a 3-yard gain on the team's first play from scrimmage. From there they would be off to the races as they embarked on a 17-play, 85-yard drive that ended in Purdy finding tight-end George Kittle for a 5-yard touchdown. Making an impact early on and primed for a big day, Kittle would unfortunately leave the game in the first half with a hamstring injury and would have to watch the rest of the game from the sideline.
After witnessing a successful drive by San Francisco, the Seattle offense would follow suit and orchestrate their best drive of the day with a 13-play, 51-yard touchdown-scoring drive spearheaded by backup running back Zach Charbonnet who scored from a yard out. From there, the game would turn ugly as defense began to steal the show for both teams, leading to a combined four consecutive punts. Marching down the field just before halftime, San Francisco appeared as if they would be heading into the locker room at the half with a 3-point lead when kicker Jake Moody setup for a 27-yard field goal attempt with a minute remaining. But after struggling mightily a season ago, Moody's demons appeared once again as he missed the short field goal attempt by hitting the left upright. Coach Shanahan was visibly upset on the team's sideline and his frustration would only grow as Seattle was able to march into field goal range in the final minute of the first half to setup kicker Josh Myers for a 48-yard field goal to turn the tables and pull off the 6-point swing as it was Seattle who instead took a 10-7 lead into the half.
Despite opening the second half with possession of the ball, things were already less than ideal for the San Francisco offense which would be without George Kittle for the remainder of the game. But things would take another turn for the worse after the team began to march across midfield when Purdy was intercepted on a pass intended for receiver Jauan Jennings. After being stopped in their tracks, San Francisco's next possession which saw them convert four first downs ended with another head-scratching moment on special-teams, this time as Jake Moody's 36-yard field goal was blocked. Luckily, San Francisco's defense would force a turnover of their own when Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba was stripped of the ball from behind on the first play of the fourth quarter from Sam Okuayinonu, recovered by rookie starting safety Marques Sigle. The 49ers would convert the turnover into points as they tied the game at 10 behind Jake Moody's 32-yard field goal. After forcing a Seattle three-and-out on their ensuing possession, things were looking up for San Francisco before Purdy was picked off for a second time as he tried forcing a pass to second-year man Ricky Pearsall. The turnover would allow Seattle to jump back ahead with another Josh Myers field goal.
Trailing 13-10 with just over 3-minutes remaining, Niners QB Brock Purdy would remind us all of his magical prowess as he launched a 45-yard pass on the second play of the drive down the left sideline to Pearsall to put his team within striking distance. With things slowing down a bit on the next few plays, Purdy was flushed out of the pocket and forced to make a running pass to one of the most unlikeliest of heroes in third-string tight-end Jake Tonges who had to pry the ball away from a defender before coming down with the go-ahead 4-yard score in the game's final minutes. With the 49ers leading 17-13 and 1:44 remaining in regulation, the game was all but over as Seattle looked to pull off some magic of their own with 1-timeout remaining. And after a 40-yard reception from Darnold to Smith-Njigba helped Seattle setup shop inside the red zone, it looked as if the Seahawks were going to deal the latest heartbreaking-loss to coach Shanahan and the 49ers. Luckily for them, San Francisco defensive-end Nick Bosa would have other plans as he picked the perfect time to come up with the team's one and only sack on the day with a strip-sack, forcing and pouncing on the loose ball to seal the 17-13 win for the 49ers in the opener.
Helping San Francisco start the season 1-0, quarterback Brock Purdy who had perfect bookend touchdown drives to start and finish the game, helped lead the game-winning drive by going 6-for-6 for 67 yards and a touchdown before ultimately finishing with 277 yards passing, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on the day. Elsewhere, running back Christian McCaffrey who was active for the frist time since December 1, 2024, registered 142 total yards on 9 receptions and 22 carries, marking his 31st career game with 50+ rush yards and 50+ receiving yards, second most since 1950 (Marshall Faulk: 41). But the biggest storyline of all is that of San Francisco's third-string tight-end Jake Tonges who's career numbers before Sunday were as follows: 20 games, 34 offensive snaps played, 10 routes run, and 1 target for 0 catches. Helping fill-in for the injured George Kittle, Tonges finished Sunday's game with 31 offensive snaps played, 15 routes run, 3 targets and 3 catches for 15 yards including the game-winning touchdown. Purdy's game-winning touchdown to Tonges had a completion probability of 14.7%, the most improbable completion of the week entering the Sunday Night game. At the time of Purdy's pass, the Niners QB was traveling 15.98 mph, while Tonges had 0.4 yards of separation when the ball arrived.
The 49ers have now won 5 of their last 6 matchups against Seattle, all with Brock Purdy as the starting QB, with four straight victories at Seattle's Lumen Field, their longest road winning-streak against Seattle in franchise history. The two teams will not meet again until Week 18.
Week 2 Preview: The (1-0) 49ers will continue their 2025-26 season on the road in Week 2 when they pay a visit to the Big Easy to take on the (0-1) New Orleans Saints. With the Saints falling in Week 1 by a final score of 20-13 to the Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers will look to become the second NFC Western team in as many weeks to leave New Orleans with a win. Hopefully they'll receive some good news in time for that meeting on the injury front as both George Kittle (hamstring) and Jauan Jennings (shoulder) are scheduled to undergo MRI's on Monday after both left Sunday's game with injuries. Having to play Week 2 without both players would be a big blog considering the team is already thin at the receiver position with Brandon Aiyuk, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins all on the shelf with injuries, and while newcomer Demarcus Robinson serves a 3-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy in the offseason. Whether or not Kittle or Jennings make it back in time for Week 2 action, expect another big game from receiver Ricky Pearsall who hauled in 4 catches for 108 yards in Week 1 for the Niners.
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