NFL’s Best Skill-Position Group Powers 49ers on TNF, Shows Why SF Is Title Contender

49ers WR Deebo SamuelAP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn

The San Francisco 49ers didn’t play the cleanest of games against the New York Giants on Thursday night and still came away with a decisive 30-12 win. Brock Purdy made some questionable decisions early, penalties were a constant problem, and San Francisco allowed the Saquon Barkley-less Giants to hang around until a 10-point fourth-quarter surge.

Thanks to star skill players Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, the 49ers proved to be far too much for the outmatched and injury-hampered Giants to handle.

The stat sheet will suggest that San Francisco dominated from start to finish. New York generated just 150 yards of offense, and the 49ers held the ball for more than 39 minutes of game time.

But it was not smooth sailing in the first two-and-a-half quarters.

Purdy threw several balls that could have been intercepted in the first half. One of them was a completion that didn’t finish in the hands of his intended target.

Purdy did throw a first-half touchdown to rookie Ronnie Bell, but his stat line at intermission—14-of-23 for 147 yards—was more good than great. Yet he settled in during the second half by trusting Samuel and Kittle (150 combined receiving yards, 1 TD after halftime), which was perfectly logical.

Kittle remains one of the biggest mismatches at his position in the NFL. He can out-physical most defensive backs and outrun most linebackers.

Samuel is a yards-after-catch machine who will turn short- and medium-range passes into big gains more often than not.

And Samuel is perfectly capable of winning deep, as he did on Purdy’s second touchdown pass of the evening.

San Francisco also got a strong performance from McCaffrey, a dark-horse MVP candidate who can play just about any role asked of him in Kyle Shanahan’s multifaceted offense.

McCaffrey split time with backup Elijah Mitchell (14 total touches) but still finished with 85 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown, five receptions and 34 receiving yards.

Add in 1,000-yard receiver Brandon Aiyuk—who missed Thursday’s game with a shoulder injury—and Mitchell, Bell, Jauan Jennings and Kyle Juszczyk, and it’s clear San Francisco has the top overall skill group in the NFL.

On Thursday, that was enough to power San Francisco past the Giants despite six penalties, only one forced turnover and three red-zone trips that yielded field goals. Purdy didn’t play his best, and yet he had the first 300-yard regular-season game of his career (310 yards, 2 TDs), thanks in part to the skill-position group’s YAC abilities.

Moving forward, it means that Shanahan is only scratching the surface of what he can do offensively and that the 49ers can win with Purdy playing like the young game-manager that he occasionally reminds us he is.

“Other quarterbacks around the league are so jealous of Brock Purdy because he gets this innovative offense,” Hall of Famer Steve Young told KNBR’s Tolbert and Copes (h/t David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone). “He gets these guys to throw the ball to, and he gets Trent Williams to protect him, you know what I mean? That doesn’t happen in the league. You don’t get this kind of support.”

It means that combined with Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Fred Warner and one of the NFL’s toughest defenses, San Francisco has a roster that can compete with anyone.

Defenses may win championships, but teams that don’t produce offensively simply do not reach championship games in today’s NFL.

The 49ers can win in a variety of ways, and while they made it look relatively easy in the end against New York, they will be tested soon enough. The rudderless Arizona Cardinals are up next, but then they will play the Dallas Cowboys—perhaps the only other squad that can currently lay claim to being the NFL’s best.

Against a legitimate contender like Dallas, the 49ers might not be able to lean entirely on their defense. They might get the shaky four-quarter performance from Purdy that they’ve yet to see.

Yet San Francisco is going to have a chance to win any contest it’s in this season because it has too many great skill-position players to contain—and Shanahan knows how to get the most from each of them.

Defenses that key in on the run or bring heavy pressure can be burned by quick passes to the intermediate and deep passing areas, as evidenced by Purdy beating the blitz to deliver the fourth-quarter touchdown strike to Samuel.

Teams that defend the back end will get chewed up by McCaffrey and the running game.

If the 49ers are desperate for a big play, Shanahan is likely to find the mismatch by using Samuel as a runner, McCaffrey as a receiver, Juszczyk as a tight end or by getting Kittle one-on-one coverage.

As Young noted, it’s a great luxury for Purdy to have, and it makes a 49ers team that forged a defensive identity in 2022 dangerous on the other side of the ball. San Francisco won’t rack up 441 yards or reach 30 points in every game, but it can get the yards and points it needs in the games that matter most.

As long as this group can stay healthy—admittedly a big “if” with big injuries dominating the early 2023 headlines—the 49ers will have every chance to return to the NFC title game and make a push for the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy.