The 49ers won consecutive games for the first time in two months, beating the Panthers 20-9 on Monday night at Levi’s Stadium.
Christian McCaffrey led the offense with 89 yards rushing, including a 12-yard touchdown, and 53 yards receiving on seven catches. George Kittle had 78 yards on six catches, and Jauan Jennings caught a 12-yard touchdown from Brock Purdy on the Niners’ opening drive.
The 49ers never trailed, but Purdy had a rough first half after that opening drive, throwing interceptions on each of the next three drives. He settled in after that, finishing with 193 yards on 23-of-32 passing.
Bryce Young also struggled passing down the field, throwing two interceptions to 49ers safety Ji’Ayir Brown. He found a groove later when the 49ers defense sat back and finished 18 of 29 for 169 yards, a touchdown and those two interceptions.
Here’s what the 49ers said after the win in an ugly primetime game:
Kyle Shanahan
On Purdy’s picks:
Just had three throws you’d love to take back. All three, good decisions, just a hair late on them. And when you’re a hair late on stuff, you can’t throw behind them and he threw it behind them and all three guys made him pay.
On Brown:
He was awesome. We’ll see more on the tape but feels like his best game as a Niner. He’s been playing at a high level here for a while but those two picks were huge and he looked like he made a number of good tackles too.
On whether his mindset changes when Brock throws picks:
It makes me a lot more hesitant if they’re all bad decisions and stuff, but he was seeing it right. They were all really good decisions, just missed the throw on them.
On McCaffrey’s revenge game:
I’ve never felt anything from Christian any week about being the most fired up you could possibly be. So I don’t feel much of a change. But anytime you play the team that drafted, a team you were with a while, I’m sure it was a little extra special for him.
On Saleh:
I thought he did an awesome job. The whole D did, especially overcoming those three turnovers. I believe one was right there in the red zone and got the pick. Another one, held them to a field goal, I think. It was huge. He had an awesome game plan and the guys played at a high level too.
On the defense:
These guys have been playing a while together. Ever since losing Fred and stuff, it’s been a bunch of young guys, guys who haven’t had their opps yet. And I think each week you can feel them in practice get better and better. It’s not always that result on Sunday or on Monday but today it was.
On potentially raising expectations with the young D:
We don’t really talk about raising expectations. We just talk about trying to play as good as we can every week.
On whether he considered going to Jones after Purdy’s third interception:
No.
On Jennings being hit by Moehrig below the belt:
The guy took a cheap shot and hit him in the (groin). I was real proud of Jauan for not losing his mind out there and getting him to the sideline.
Brock Purdy
On his three interceptions:
Honestly the decisions of going to those spots, I was fine with, it was just the execution of throwing a better ball.
On whether his toe is impacting him:
No, the toe is fine. Feels good out there. It’s just seeing the play develop and anticipation and letting it rip at the end of the day.
On what happened with the picks:
My read just took me to where I threw the ball. From what I saw up on the big screen, I thought the guys were there. I just missed the throws, to be honest. So got to go back and watch the film and actually see what happened.
On his mentality:
Mentally as a quarterback, you want to play aggressive. You want to take what the defense gives you but when you turn the ball over, really three drives in a row, it’s like ‘All right’, you feel it. You feel a bit of pressure and stuff, but I mean, this is why we’re put in this position. I can handle this. As a quarterback, you can’t lose confidence in yourself. You can’t shrivel back and then all of a sudden take a bunch of checkdowns.
On whether he could tell McCaffrey had extra motivation:
The way that he prepares every single week, he’s always on one. He’s always on top of his stuff and the details and stuff and his mindset — he wants to go out and he’s ready to humble somebody. That’s Christian.
On working with McCaffrey immediately after the 2022 trade:
He acted like he was a rookie in terms of wanting to learn, wanting to know all the ins and outs of the offense and the details. So he’s been like that. He still is like that. You guys see it every Sunday, he puts on performances like this.
On checking back with his teammates after interceptions:
We’ve got grown men playing for their careers and every game, every play matters. When I’m out there and I’m not driving the ball and completing the ball, when Ricky’s working hard on his route, the offensive line is working their tail off blocking for me. I want to play really good for them.
George Kittle
On talking to Purdy after the picks:
I never said anything after the first one. Second one, I just said ‘Dude, just take a deep breath, man. You’ve been here, you’re good. Just breathe, let it out, move on to the next play.’ That’s it. He’s a professional.
On Ji’Ayir Brown:
The thing I love about Tig: He works really hard every single day and I respect the hell out of him for that. He’s had down days where fans aren’t really happy with him and he shows up every single day and just works really, really hard. If he doesn’t have those two interceptions and that’s a touchdown or it’s a completion somewhere else, it’s a completely different game.
Christian McCaffrey
On having a big game:
I really don’t see it that way. There’s probably a lot left out there that we want.
On whether anything felt different this week playing the Panthers:
When it comes to playing in the league, you have to approach each week as similar as possible, stay in your routine. You can’t get too far outside of what’s normal for you, so I try to do that. Obviously when you see familiar faces, it’s always good to see them before the game and after the game. But that’s a completely new team than when I was there, so it’s really just business once the ball is snapped.
On Purdy’s aggressive mindset:
I love that about him. I love that when he might be struggling early, he still rips it. That’s what we want him to do. We want him to keep playing confident, so when he’s playing like that and doesn’t miss a beat, we know that he can do special things.
On whether he said anything to Purdy amid picks:
If I make a mistake and I have a drop, somebody says “Catch the ball,” it makes you want to knock them out. There’s really nothing to say.
Ji’Ayir Brown
On tonight’s picks:
I always pride myself on being a ballhawk. Like you said, man, it’s just been slow. Just keeping at it, keep going. Keep taking it game by game, waiting on your opportunity, I was able to capitalize.
On his mantra of “Chop wood, carry water”:
Not down on yourself, just going out there every week and trying to be your best. Dropping expectation for appreciating the game, appreciating the guys I work with and going out there to execute my job.
On whether it feels like he came full circle:
It’ll feel full circle soon enough, but not right now.
On his first pick:
First one was sudden change (after Purdy’s pick). It don’t really matter, let’s go out there and play defense. Seeing Bryce looking down the middle of the field, looked like he was finna scramble first but then he kind of stopped but looked like he’d seen something. Kind of read his eyes, just went to go jump it.
On his second:
Just reading his eyes and it was tight coverage by Renardo Green, just jumped in front of that and made the play for the team.
On Saleh:
It’s his passion for the game, bro. To see him hanging out late nights, early mornings, watching endless tape. Being accountable to himself to put us in the best situation possible. You just want to go out there and execute when you see a guy that passionate about defense.
On the defense:
I love this group, man. A bunch of young guys — hungry, passionate, want to be great. Want to be put in a situation to be great. … Every last one of those guys wants to be great, man, and they just want to contribute to a win as much as they can. And when you have a young group like that that’s hungry and passionate, you can be an unstoppable defense.
On the motivational speeches this week:
We had a couple of guys speak this week. Couple of guys spoke last night. Sam O. spoke about opportunity, and a lot of guys felt that story coming from Sam O. Tonight was a night we had the opportunity to show the world what the 49er defense is, being down some of our best players, and the guys did a great job of doing that tonight.
On the defense picking things up despite Purdy’s interceptions:
Having the offense’s back like they had ours in previous weeks and playing complementary football.
Jauan Jennings
On the postgame scuffle:
TV is going to tell you what happened. I was just responding, to me, to some childish behavior. That was just out of nowhere. It’s probably the history of me playing ball. I play hard. I’m physically stronger than a lot of DBs. A lot of things happen in between the whistle, with me at least.
On Kyle being proud he didn’t immediately punch Moehrig:
You’re talking about how small this window is for us. Being a seventh-rounder, cut, I don’t want to make any mistakes. I try to go out and play the hardest I can. I’d like the refs to help me out.
On his TD:
I’m never surprised. I just watched the movie “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”. The No. 1 rule, when you’re surprised it actually worked, don’t be surprised.
On Ji’Ayir Brown’s defense:
Big ups to Tig. Very proud of him. We want more for him, because that’s what it’s about, a guy making a name for himself.
On Purdy’s interceptions:
It’s ups and downs, ups and downs. But talking about Ji’Ayir and having a defense that bends but doesn’t break, that was the key to the game tonight.