SANTA CLARA — The 49ers are going to be alright.
I feel.
Don’t maintain me to that.
That’s as a result of whereas the Niners’ season could be 4 video games outdated, if we’re being sincere concerning the trendy NFL, it’s additionally simply getting began.
With the way in which NFL groups apply in the summertime (in the event that they apply 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 search 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 fantastic.
Nothing splendid. Nothing backbreaking.
Bastardizing a baseball axiom, you possibly can’t win a division in September, however you possibly can lose one.
And opposite to the doom-and-gloom following the Niners’ back-to-back losses in Weeks 2 and three, there may be a lot to have fun with this workforce.
They discovered an id, in spite of everything:
That is Brock Purdy’s workforce.
That is Fred Warner’s workforce.
It doesn’t take 25 years within the NFL to determine that the quarterback and center linebacker are essential to workforce success — they’re the fellows who put on the helmet audio system, in spite of everything. However 4 video games in, the 49ers can argue they’ve the most effective quarterback-mike combo within the league.
That’s a growth — an auspicious one — amid a season that has been outlined, up to now, by noise and nonsense.
Purdy not solely seems to be 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 (at the least in Weeks 2 and three). He’s doing it with an offensive line that appears hellbent on making him run for his life.
Circumstances are hardly good, however Purdy has been fairly near it, general.
Purdy’s taken his recreation to a brand new stage in 2023, with Sunday’s scrambling-and-deep-ball-throwing efficiency displaying 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 boldness of when to hold in there and when to make the play work and when to interrupt,” Shanahan mentioned of Purdy’s Russell Wilson-like scrambling means.
“[I] Love having that side [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 function of the center linebacker is a lot extra athletically difficult today.
Warner will not be solely the most effective run-stopping linebacker within the recreation, slipping previous blocks with beautiful ease and delivering the type of hits that make seasoned professionals query their line of labor, however he’s additionally the most effective 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 duty 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 learn about this), Warner not solely made an insane catch, however, regardless of touchdown on his tuchus, he was in a position to rise up earlier than being touched and run 45 yards into the top zone, stretching the ball over the purpose line like he was George Kittle.
All of it occurred so quick that the otherworldliness of the play might have been missed. 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 operating again Antonio Gibson, you can hear the pads crack within the press field, roughly a thousand toes above the sector.
Warner is past appointment tv. He’s the type of participant that requires you to be within the stadium to completely perceive. The upper you might be within the stands, the extra you possibly can comprehend how otherworldly this specter of a participant is.
I do know TJ Watt is having an important season in Pittsburgh, and I do know we’re lower than 1 / 4 of the way in which by the season, but when Warner isn’t the clubhouse chief for the Defensive Participant of the Yr, 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’ prime receiver), and Nick Bosa (nonetheless as fantastic a defensive finish as there may be within the league).
There’s a lot to be optimistic about with the Niners.
In fact, 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 of repeat their good luck with accidents in 2024.
However the pendulum has swung so swiftly in the wrong way, so rapidly, it’s downright comical.
And there’s no cause to suppose 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 do know Fred tried to go… however didn’t really feel like he might,” Shanahan mentioned.
“I’d have been on the market if I might 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 repute has not).
A protracted-term damage to Warner could be the one factor this workforce can’t overcome.
“We’ll see,” certainly.
But when Warner stays on the prime of his recreation, week-in, week-out, and Purdy retains tapping into his seemingly bottomless bag of methods, the 49ers can be simply fantastic.
Maybe that may disappoint you and them — in spite of everything, there have been excessive hopes about this workforce.
However on Sunday, the Niners’ season was on the road. There would have been no getting back from a house loss to the Patriots — that’s disqualifying.
Purdy and Warner got here by. The Niners adopted swimsuit.
You’ll be able to’t ask for far more, at the least at this juncture.
The Niners are in good fingers, and whereas they’ve little slack for the ultimate 13 video games of the marketing campaign, they nonetheless have all the things to play for.
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