Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive regular email newsletters, including “The Dime.”
Through the first three weeks of the 2025 season, the 49ers have done everything in their power to reverse the ugly trends that contributed to a brutal 6-11 season.
So far, so good.
With a dramatic, two-minute drill led by backup quarterback Mac Jones, the 49ers exorcised demons from last year as new kicker Eddy Piñeiro drilled the game-winning 35-yard field goal to lift San Francisco to a 16-15 win and a 3-0 record.
Last season, the 49ers couldn’t put teams away in the fourth quarter. They collapsed against teams in their own division. The toll of significant injuries proved too overwhelming for a team that didn’t have enough young and capable reinforcements.
Subscribe to The Dime
News, gossip, and inside-the-locker-room access for Bay Area sports fans, every Friday and Monday.
A defense that looked overwhelmed in the fourth quarter of division games in 2024 proved critical on Sunday, as rookie players contributed to huge stops that gave Jones the ball with enough time to put his field goal unit on the field with a chance to win.
No contribution was bigger than that of Upton Stout, the nickel corner who came up with a huge pass breakup on a deep ball intended for Zay Jones that gave the 49ers possession with 1:46 left to play. That’s when Jones proceeded to complete five passes, four of which went for gains of at least 10 yards, to set up Piñeiro’s kick that sailed straight through the uprights.
Huge defensive stops, accurate kicking — Piñeiro went 3-for-3 on field goals and converted an extra point — and timely moments from backups such as Jones enabled the 49ers to complete the last-minute comeback.
How battered were the 49ers on Sunday?
Starting quarterback Brock Purdy was ruled out with a toe injury for the second consecutive week while tight end George Kittle (hamstring) isn’t eligible to return until Week 5. After Jauan Jennings was downgraded from “questionable” to out on Sunday morning, the 49ers asked Jones, Pearsall, and Christian McCaffrey to shoulder a massive load against a division rival.
The 49ers got off to the most miserable start imaginable on a hot day. Two three-and-outs from their offensive combined with a couple plodding Arizona marches gave the Cardinals a huge possession advantage — a sure formula for 49ers’ defensive exhaustion.
Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, Nick Bosa (knee) and Mykel Williams (wrist) exited with injuries during this slog (Williams returned in the second half). The scoreboard might not’ve shown it at the time, but Arizona had a huge advantage in the arm-wrestling match that is a low-scoring game.
Then, late in the first half, the Cardinals decided to punt facing a 4th-and-1 from their own 37-yard line. They’d run 20 more plays than the 49ers at that point but bypassed a chance to further exhaust a San Francisco defense that had only three available defensive ends.
The 49ers, certainly relieved by Arizona’s decision to punt, turned the last two minutes of the first half into a field goal drive that gave them a 6-3 edge at the break. And this was a game in which every single possession mattered.
Jones knew it, too.
With the score tied 13-13 and less than six minutes to play, the former Patriots and Jaguars quarterback threw a fourth-quarter interception when he tried to go to the well with Pearsall — who finished with eight catches for 117 yards — one too many times.
A team that allowed fourth-quarter mistakes to dictate its season last year showed impressive resilience, though, as Stout and Fred Warner turned in third down pass breakups that put the ball back in Jones’ hands twice late in the fourth quarter.
The first time, right guard Dominick Puni committed a holding penalty in the end zone that resulted in a safety that gave the Cardinals a two-point lead and possession with 3:15 left to play.
The next time? The Cardinals were prepared for Jones to continue peppering Pearsall, but he was able to spread the ball around and march the 49ers down the field.
Jake Tonges caught an 11-yard pass. Then Skyy Moore added a 10-yard gain. Kendrick Bourne contributed a 7-yard catch and followed with an 11-yard completion. After an incompletion with 31 seconds left, Jones found McCaffrey for the 20-yard catch that turned a potential 50-plus yard attempt into a chip shot for Piñeiro.
The impact of Nick Bosa’s injury
Bosa’s departure in the first half was followed by what one might expect: A massive decline of the 49ers’ pass rush. This allowed Kyler Murray to convert several third downs with both his arm and legs and even a critical fourth down from the pocket in the second half.
The 49ers weren’t completely bereft of pass-rushing juice, as they nearly recorded a second-half safety thanks to pressure from their three drafted rookie defensive linemen. Williams, Alfred Collins, and CJ West all converged to coax Murray into intentional grounding. The QB’s only saving grace on the play, because his feet were in the end zone, was that the football remained across the goal line.
The stop did set up a punt and the 49ers’ first touchdown drive of the game, which featured a beautiful fourth-down deep toss from Jones to Pearsall and a scoring shot to Kyle Juszczyk.
Later, when the 49ers needed a key third-down stop, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh dialed up a massive blitz that Warner punctuated with a pass bat-down at the line of scrimmage.
It was clear that Saleh needed to bring extra juice on that rush because the Bosa-less unit couldn’t generate enough with four. And that’s a big concern for the 49ers moving forward: Their developing defense — already very reliant on its A-list pillars during this growing phase of the season — will be in a particularly tough spot for however long Bosa is out.
This story will be updated after David finishes reporting from the 49ers’ locker room.