Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong for the 49ers in their season-opening game Sunday in Seattle.
You had a special teams unit that looked like the players had never met each other before and a kicker who missed another easy field goal.
You had star players going down faster than the stock market on a bad day — George Kittle, Trent Williams, Jauan Jennings, all picked up injuries, conjuring memories of last year’s debacle of a season.
You had Brock Purdy throwing two interceptions that left you screaming at your TV.
But amid all that, we’re talking about a first-place team following San Francisco’s 17-13 come-from-behind win over the Seahawks.
In a few weeks, we won’t remember how the 49ers won on Sunday; we’ll only remember that they did, and that win in the standings could loom exceptionally large come December.
Yes, in the NFL, the ends justify the means.
But the Niners have to hope Sunday’s victory over the division-rival Seahawks qualifies as a tone-setter for the remainder of the season.
And we’re talking about the good tones, here.
Like the one that says, “We’re not perfect, but we’re going to fight until the final whistle, no matter how ugly it gets.”
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To be fair, no one expected the 49ers’ first game this season to look crisp, detailed or organized. This team is relying on a slew of rookies and unproven players on both sides of the ball. They’ve spent the last few weeks scrambling to build a roster and practicing with limited personnel.
The Niners entered the season with far more questions than answers. That doesn’t change after Sunday.
In fact, they might have added a few more questions to the pile with their performance.
But one of the questions coming into Sunday’s game was whether Purdy could rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. If he could be clutch.
Does a final drive where he goes 6-for-6 for 67 yards and a touchdown answer that question?
Purdy’s game-winning drive was the kind of performance you expect from a quarterback making more than a quarter of a billion dollars — franchise money. He purged the bad play that preceded it and made big-time plays when big-time plays were needed.
And this season, it looks like they are going to be needed quite often.
The Niners are not the juggernaut they once were. Far from it.
Perhaps at some point, down the line this season or beyond, their young talent can help them reach that level again. But in the meantime, they’re going to be playing down-to-the-wire, scrap-it-out games, week in and week out. This is how most teams in the NFL operate, and how players perform in those final minutes of games is how reputations are burnished.
Purdy performed with aplomb Sunday. Yes, his game-winning touchdown pass to Jake Tonges (no, that’s not a typo), might have been eminently interceptable, but it was also only made possible because of Purdy’s scrambling ability. He extended the play, kept his eyes downfield, and gave his guy — even if you didn’t know who the guy was — a chance.
You’re going to have to learn to be comfortable living on the edge if you’re going to watch this team this season.
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And it wasn’t just Purdy who came up clutch in Seattle.
Christian McCaffrey fought through a midweek calf injury to gut out 142 yards of offense, more than a third of the Niners’ overall output. Tonges came out of nowhere to make the first three catches of his NFL career on the game-winning drive. Amid a never-ending string of injuries at his position, sophomore receiver Ricky Pearsall lived up to his singular jersey number with a 108-yard performance. And defensive end Nick Bosa – quiet for the vast majority of the game — made back-to-back winning plays to cap the win, not only stuffing a run in the red zone, but then forcing a fumble from Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold on the next play and picking the ball up to seal the win.
When you have that kind of well-timed good play, you can live with the bad.
It’s on the Niners to set Sunday’s game as a baseline. If that’s as bad as it gets all season, they will win more than they lose.
If that’s a sign of things to come, it’s going to be a long year.
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh put it best when he was asked about his young, inexperienced roster on Thursday: “Put your seatbelt on, enjoy the ride.”
He might as well have been talking about the whole team. What a bumpy, twisty start to the journey that was.
But the Niners look like they have the right guys at the wheel on this road-trip of a campaign — Purdy, McCaffrey, Bosa and Fred Warner. And that might just let them get where they want by the end.
But in the meantime, please pass the Dramamine.