By admin 
The San Francisco 49ers are unsure when Mike Evans will be back after leaving Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals with what Kyle Shanahan said is a rib or oblique injury. They weren’t sure when Nick Bosa would return after suffering a calf injury while warming up for a walkthrough Thursday. They also didn’t know how they would piece together their defensive line or receiving corps in the coming weeks with their growing list of injured players.
Read more Sacramento charter school seeks move to Sutter County after $180M audit dispute
But the 49ers knew one thing for certain: They were 3-0 and in first place in the NFC West following their 36-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, a game in which Evans and All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams left the field on a cart.
They also knew they had Brock Purdy playing at an MVP level and Deebo Samuel resembling the force he was five years earlier, when he was one of the NFL’s most dynamic players. They had Shanahan, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, who had shown they could win football games despite losing player after player.
“You don’t have time to think about anything else,” Kyle Shanahan said. “When guys go down, you hope they return. But you adjust and wait until they tell you they’re back. And if you don’t, you keep it moving.”
The injuries piled up throughout Sunday’s win. Evans left late in the second quarter after a third-down incompletion over the middle. Williams was carted to the locker room with a stinger after San Francisco opened the second half with a touchdown drive. Both starting cornerbacks, Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green, exited the game to be evaluated for concussions, but both returned.
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw suffered a quadriceps injury in the second half and was held out after attempting to return for one play. Defensive tackle Gracen Halton had lower-leg cramps and didn’t return after the 49ers had already lost C.J. West and Alfred Collins to long-term knee injuries during the season’s first two weeks.
Brock Purdy continues to step up at an MVP level
Even as injuries stacked up around him, Purdy continued to thrive. He threw four touchdowns Sunday while completing 15 of 27 passes for 297 yards. He had no turnovers and wasn’t sacked, extending his sack-free start to the season.
Purdy’s nine touchdowns were tied with Kirk Cousins for the most in the NFL through Sunday afternoon’s games. He led the league with a 133.1 passer rating and ranked second only to Lamar Jackson in yards per attempt at 9.5. He was the only quarterback in the NFL to have a passer rating of 100.0 or better in all three games to start the season.
He had a potential 45-yard touchdown run negated by a holding call on Kittle, who scored two plays later with 1:36 remaining. Kittle acknowledged afterward that he could have gone out of bounds, which would have allowed the 49ers to run out the clock instead of giving Arizona the ball back before its field goal and late onside-kick attempt.
The negated touchdown came on a designed passing play, an aggressive call from Shanahan with San Francisco protecting a late lead. The 49ers ran four passing plays, including Purdy’s scramble, after the Cardinals made it a 29-27 game with 2:55 remaining.
The willingness to risk incompletions that would stop the clock reflected the confidence Shanahan had in Purdy, a level of trust he said he had rarely placed in quarterbacks during his 10 seasons with San Francisco.
“I had that (trust) with Matt (Ryan) in 2016,” Shanahan said. “I had it with (Matt) Schaub way back in the day. And I’ve had it with Brock four years in a row now.”
Cardinals almost pulled the upset
The ingredients were there for a late-game upset that could have stalled the 49ers’ early-season momentum. Normally reliable kicker Eddy Pineiro missed two extra points, and San Francisco also had a punt deflect off the foot of Siran Neal, giving Arizona the ball back and leading to a touchdown that cut the lead to 23-20 early in the fourth quarter.
Those mistakes helped produce nine points for the Cardinals as the 49ers’ injuries stacked up. Arizona scored 24 points in the second half, forcing more tense moments than San Francisco had faced in its first two games.
It was unlike the previous two games, when the 49ers were able to rest starters thanks to commanding second-half leads against the Rams and Dolphins, whom they had beaten by a combined 62-20.
Read more Another wave of ‘No Kings’ protests planned in California in October
“I think it was finally just an NFL game, honestly,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “I think the last two weeks we got, not comfortable, but that’s not truly NFL ball where you have your starters sitting out the fourth quarter. I mean, that’s great the goal. You want to be able to dominate teams. But that’s the NFL, it’s always close.
“Not to say that it should have been close, by any means.”
Deebo Samuel is back — and the 49ers need him
One of the biggest plays of the game came early. The 49ers opened the game with a false start on the first snap, then followed with an incompletion and a 3-yard run. That set up third-and-12, when Shanahan called a hook-and-lateral on a pass to Evans, who pitched the ball to Samuel as he was being tackled.
The play officially went for 82 yards, with Samuel credited with 80 receiving yards without making an official reception — the most receiving yards in NFL history by a player without a catch.
Samuel turned on the jets in a way he hasn’t in years, beating former All-Pro safety Budda Baker along the sideline before cruising into the end zone. Baker appeared to have the angle to at least force Samuel out of bounds, but Samuel ran by him.
“That was crazy because we talked through that place like once this week,” Samuel said. “Once I saw Mike catch the ball, there were two guys on him. I was like, if I get around here, there ain’t gonna be nobody. And Budda (Baker) showed up, and I showed the speed that people don’t think I got.”
Samuel had emerged as one of the 49ers’ biggest surprises after joining the team late in training camp. He returned to the 49ers after a year with the Washington Commanders and appeared rejuvenated. Through three games, he averaged 63 scrimmage yards per game, more than the 54 he averaged during his last season with the 49ers in 2024. He had two touchdowns through three weeks after scoring just four in 2024.
“I don’t think he gets talked about enough,” said McCaffrey, who scored a touchdown and finished with 116 yards on 19 touches. “But he’s an absolute baller, a force on the field. I think he’s better than before he left. You could see it all (training) camp too. All he did was show up and work, and I’m glad it’s paying off. And everybody gets to see what we already what know Deebo can be.
“I don’t think he’s lost a step or a missed a step all. I actually think it’s the opposite. I think when he showed up, he was, in my opinion, in the best shape of his life.”
The 49ers had believed internally that Samuel could have one of his best seasons, despite being 30 and five years removed from his lone Pro Bowl and All-Pro season in 2021, when he had 1,770 total yards while playing receiver and running back and scored a career-best 14 touchdowns.
“He can do all all the really cool stuff,” Kittle said. “And when you do that a lot, people just expect you to do it all the time. So when you don’t do it, people are like, ‘oh well you’re slow, you’re old, you’re not the same guy any more.’ No, he just needs the opportunity to do it on a team that knows what his talents are. And I think Kyle knows exactly who Deebo is.”
With Evans’ immediate future unknown — he was expected to undergo more testing during the week — along with De’Zhaun Stribling expected to miss eight more weeks, Ricky Pearsall out for the season and Demarcus Robinson recently placed on injured reserve, Samuel was poised to become one of the 49ers’ most important players.
“Those plays that he makes, people forget about him, but those are huge plays in the game,” McCaffrey said. “Momentum-changing plays. When you watch it, it’s easy to just go to the next play and you forget that he broke four tackles and got eight yards after contact by himself. That’s Deebo.”
They would need Samuel to help maintain their hold on first place as the schedule became more difficult, beginning with a home game against the Denver Broncos before a trip to face the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks on Oct. 11.
Read more No. 5 Montana routs No. 10 UC Davis 62-22 in Big Sky football showdown