The 49ers walked away with a 23-17 win over the Commanders on Monday night, but George Kittle wasn’t interested in pretending it felt clean. San Francisco built a 20-3 cushion in Week 6, then let Washington hang around long enough to turn a comfortable night into a tense one. Kittle’s takeaway was blunt: that kind of slip-up won’t always end well.
“When you’re up 20-3 and you can’t shut the door on a team that has been struggling - I think if we were playing a super-efficient team we lose that game pretty easily. And we can’t have that,” Kittle said, via Matt Barrows of The Athletic. “There are teams out there that will take advantage of us going three-and-out multiple times.”
Even with the second-half wobble, San Francisco safety Malik Mustapha said the group kept coming. The message from his side of the locker room was about toughness, not polish.
“We were going to take those body shots today. We were going to take them and keep standing up,” Mustapha said.
Out in Los Angeles, the Rams are still waiting on tight end Terrance Ferguson. Adam Schefter reported Ferguson, who is dealing with an ankle injury, is not expected to be ready to come off injured reserve by next week, the first time he’ll be eligible to be designated to return. A source told Schefter that Ferguson “will take some time.”
The Rams may also be looking at help elsewhere on offense. ESPN’s Dan Graziano said the team is expected to at least explore a trade for a receiver after losing Davante Adams to a major hamstring injury.
In Seattle, the spotlight is once again on Sam Darnold. Through the early part of the season, the Seahawks quarterback has thrown for 1,033 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions, and Jason La Canfora of Casino.org cited executives who believed Darnold had traits that once made him look like a first-round bust.
La Canfora described Darnold as a “system QB” who needs a talented playcaller as an offensive coordinator, while Seattle OC Brian Fleury has been “questionable at best.”
One high-ranking NFL official who was with Darnold earlier in his career said the quarterback needs the right coordinator to get the best out of him: “I’m not going to say that he was fragile, but it takes a certain kind of OC to bring out the best in him.”
Seattle could have one more weapon back in the mix soon. Mike Macdonald was asked whether he expects Zach Charbonnet to play in Week 7, and the Seahawks head coach sounded optimistic.
“Zach is gonna have a full week’s worth of reps, so that’s exciting. And there’s a possibility that you could see him on Sunday in some capacity.” (Brian Nemhauser)
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Seahawks Suddenly Have A New Problem Ahead Of Chiefs Week 7
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Arroyo, in his second year, had been working with limited production before the injury, and now Seattle has to sort out the tight end snaps without him. The team will lean on the other players at that position to absorb the workload, but losing a young contributor this early in the season adds another layer of pressure to a matchup week that already demands clean roster management. [Read more 🡒]