The San Francisco 49ers’ season ended in a massive crash and burn at the hands of a SCORE rout by the Seattle Seahawks.
Rashid Shaheed took the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and the next 59 minutes and 47 seconds of game time felt like torture. By the time the 49ers took the field for their third possession, they were already facing a 17-point deficit, and it would only get uglier from there.
For the final time, let’s look at the three stars from Saturday’s season-ending loss:
Third star: K Eddy Pineiro
For the second time in three weeks, Pineiro was responsible for 100 percent of the 49ers’ points against Seattle. After his season with the 49ers began after the 49ers’ Week 1 victory in Seattle, Pineiro proved to be the 49ers’ only offense in their next two games against the Seahawks.
Pineiro opened the scoring for the 49ers with a 40-yard field goal to start the second quarter. He quickly followed with a 56-yard make on the next drive to cut the Seattle lead to 11. Unfortunately for the 49ers and Pineiro, the 49ers kicker needed 12 more field goals on the night to put San Francisco in the lead.
After several years of kicking woes, Pineiro solidified the position for the 49ers, making 31-of-32 kicks on the season.
Second star: LB Dee Winters
There wasn’t much to brag about for the 49ers’ defense on Saturday night, but No. 53 was far and away the unit’s best player.
Winters finished with a team-high nine tackles, but his most significant impact came around and behind the line of scrimmage.
With Seattle already up seven in the first quarter, they moved the ball into field goal range, looking to double their lead on their first offensive possession. Facing a third-and-2, Seattle attempted a run with Zach Charbonnet to extend the drive, but Winters had other plans. The linebacker exploded through the line, barely giving the Seattle running back time to react after getting the ball, blowing up the play for a loss of two, and forcing the Seahawks to settle for three points.
Winters’ next big play wasn’t a tackle for loss, but a big hit was involved. Coming out of the two-minute warning, Darnold looked for an easy completion to fullback Robbie Ouzts in the flats. While the ball got to Ouzts, Winters read the play well and made a beeline to the fullback, blowing him up, knocking the ball free, and forcing an incomplete pass.
Winters would add his next two tackles for loss on run attempts by Shaheed and Walker, but both came when the game was well out of reach. On such an embarrassing night for the defense, Winters was the only standout on the night.
First star: QB Brock Purdy
Purdy’s performance wasn’t perfect, but it was nothing short of heroic.
Yes, there was the interception, but that felt more of a Luke Farrell effort issue than it was a Purdy issue, and the fumble lost came when the game was a lost cause.
But Seattle’s secondary was allowing no space and making everything tough on the quarterback, and he still didn’t have too bad of a game. Purdy was pulled at the start of the fourth quarter with a line of 15-for-27 for 140 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
It’s tough to find any stretch where the 49ers’ offense looked exceptionally great. Still, they managed back-to-back field goal scoring drives where Purdy led the offense, completing nine-of-12 passes for 81 yards, with consecutive completions to Jake Tonges going for 15 yards each.
Purdy also got the job done with his legs, leading all 49ers rushers with 37 yards on five attempts. While the 49ers’ longest play of the game was a 19-yard completion to Jauan Jennings, right before the half, Purdy scrambled for a gain of 18, good for the 49ers’ longest run of the game.
Other than that, it was a quiet night for Purdy, but that’s more of a credit to Seattle’s defense kicking the 49ers’ ass for 60 minutes. But despite it all, it was a gritty performance from the 49ers quarterback, and on a night where not much was going right, that’s enough to earn the final first star of the season.
Throughout the season, I will track the three stars of the season, tallying points for each star award using a complex scoring system: three points for being the first star, two for the second, and one for the third. At season’s end, the standings are:
- RB Christian McCaffrey – 20 points
- QB Brock Purdy – 14 points
- LB Fred Warner – 11 points
- TE George Kittle – 11 points
About the Author: Insidethe49
