The 49ers keep stacking wins, and now the rest of the NFC West is left chasing shadows.
San Francisco improved to 6-0 and 3-0 in the division with a 23-17 win over the Washington Commanders, a game that got a little too tight for comfort but still ended the same way all the good ones do: with another 49ers victory. Even better for San Francisco, the teams behind them stumbled again.
The Seahawks lost to the Denver Broncos, and the Rams fell to the Arizona Cardinals. That leaves the 49ers with a three-game lead - and more if tiebreakers come into play - over Seattle.
There’s some bad news mixed into the good for San Francisco. Wide receiver Mike Evans may miss some time.
Christian Kirk has returned to practice, but it may take a while for him to get on the same page with Brock Purdy. On the brighter side, the 49ers could get Dre Greenlaw back next week and maybe Nick Bosa as well.
Seattle’s loss was the kind that raises more questions than answers. The Broncos won 17-14, and the odd part is that Bo Nix probably drew more criticism than Sam Darnold afterward - and he earned it.
Nix went 17 for 27 for 107 yards passing, with no touchdown throws and no interceptions. He also got sacked twice.
Denver’s offense didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard, either, with just 74 rushing yards, but the Broncos leaned on defense and came away with the win anyway.
Seattle made things harder on itself by struggling to run the ball, finishing with 113 total yards on the ground. Rashid Shaheed also lost one of his two fumbles.
Darnold was not able to cover for any of it, finishing with two interceptions, zero touchdowns, and five sacks. The Seahawks are now games behind San Francisco, plural, and that gap is only getting more uncomfortable.
Then there’s Arizona and Los Angeles, where the Cardinals pulled off an 18-16 win by kicking six field goals and little else. That was enough to beat a Rams team many had pegged for a much bigger season before the year began. Instead, Los Angeles is sitting in last place in the division.
The Rams had a real shot to steal it at the end, too. They drove down the field, scored a touchdown, and left Arizona with 45 seconds and no timeouts.
That turned out to be plenty for Jacoby Brissett, who moved the Cardinals into field-goal range in 10 seconds. The Rams also lost their kicker early and didn’t have a field-goal option when they needed one.
That’s a brutal loss for a team already dealing with plenty. Davante Adams is out 6-10 weeks with a hamstring injury, which is a major blow to the receiver room.
On top of that, Blake Grupe was injured on Sunday and was placed on injured reserve. Now the Rams are trying to dig out of a four-game hole without a kicker or one of their veteran pass catchers.
Week 7 brings another round of divisional pressure.
The 49ers head to Atlanta for a 10:00 AM start against the Falcons, who were rolling for a couple of games before Sunday’s 31-23 loss to the Chicago Bears. Atlanta scored 16 of its 23 points in the fourth quarter, but Chicago had already done most of the damage by then. The matchup still centers on Bijan Robinson, who gives the Falcons a true ground-game threat and will test a San Francisco defense that has been limiting explosive runs.
Seattle gets the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. It’s a strange spot, wanting the Seahawks to win just so the Chiefs take an L, but that’s where things stand. A Kansas City win would push Seattle to 3-4 and help the 49ers’ cushion even more.
The Cardinals will host the Denver Broncos, the same Denver team that just beat Seattle. Given what Arizona has already done this season, another win wouldn’t be a shock.
As for the Rams, they’ll be at home against the Las Vegas Raiders in their second straight week without a primetime slot. The Raiders lost to the Buffalo Bills but hung around until the end. For Los Angeles, this is the kind of game that can either steady the season or deepen the mess.
In Other News...
Commanders Fans Had Plenty To Say About One Pregame Performance
Before kickoff at Levis Stadium on Monday night, Train vocalist Pat Monahan handled the national anthem before the Washington Commanders and San Francisco 49ers met under the prime-time lights. The matchup itself carried plenty of weight, with both teams coming in at 3-4, but the pregame moment quickly became a talking point for reasons unrelated to the standings.
Monahans rendition drew significant negative reaction on social media, where fans wasted little time weighing in on the performance. For a game that already had plenty at stake for both sides, the anthem became an unexpected early flashpoint and added another layer of chatter before the first snap. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Are Undefeated But This Start Is Not Making Them Comfortable
The 49ers are rolling through the early part of the season with six straight wins, a perfect record and the top spot in the NFC, but the mood around the building has stayed measured. San Francisco is also 3-0 in the NFC West after taking care of the Seahawks and Rams, the kind of division start that usually makes a team feel comfortably ahead of the pack.
Kyle Shanahan, Trent Williams and Fred Warner have all spoken about the way the team is approaching the run, and the tone has been more about focus than celebration. Even with the results piling up, there is a clear sense that this start has not fully eased the concerns inside the locker room, especially with the long season still ahead and the margins in recent games still feeling tighter than the record suggests. [Read more 🡒]
Ex-49ers Depth Piece Suddenly Became A Much Bigger NFL Story
Jordan Elliotts stint with the Titans ended almost as quickly as it began, and the reason has turned him into a much bigger league-wide story than the former 49ers depth piece usually draws. Tennessee released him after an incident at the team facility involving a firearm in his car, and the Titans made clear the move came after a violation of NFL rules on possessing a gun on team property.
The situation only became more notable when Robert Saleh addressed it, calling it a lapse in judgment while still voicing support for Elliott. Saleh also nudged other teams to take a hard look at him, which leaves the attention less on the dismissal itself and more on whether another locker room is willing to give him a second chance after such a messy episode. [Read more 🡒]