The 49ers’ turbocharged offense led them to a 48-27 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night, giving them a fifth consecutive victory.
Brock Purdy was nearly perfect for the game’s first 55 minutes, completing five touchdown passes to four different receivers before a late interception off the hands of Kendrick Bourne. He hit Christian McCaffrey for two scores and found George Kittle, Jauan Jennings and Demarcus Robinson.
Purdy finished 25-of-34 for 295 yards. His counterpart Philip Rivers started hot as well, but cooled off some after the first quarter. He completed 23 of 35 attempts for 277 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, which came just three plays after Purdy’s pick. Dee Winters undercut a pass and returned it 74 yards for a game-sealing score, papering over a shaky performance by the 49ers’ defense.
McCaffrey had 117 yards on 21 carries in addition to six catches for 29 yards and the two scores. Kittle, who missed the last few series with an ankle injury, had seven receptions for 115 yards. Jennings had five for 71 yards and the score after being shut out in the first half. Bourne earned his bonus with three catches for 27 yards, while Robinson had two for 23 yards.
Kyle Shanahan
On Brock Purdy’s game:
He did awesome, man. Played really well. Got on him for a couple he missed, but it was pretty close to a perfect game.
On the playoffs:
Now it’s time to position ourselves to try to do something special.
On Jauan Jennings:
Jauan has been huge. The way he stepped it up last year when BA went down with his ACL and Jauan played as our No. 1 receiver all last year. He’s had a lot of injuries this year. He’s battled through them all and he’s been able to come back.
On finally addressing the playoffs with his team:
Last night was the first time I mentioned anything about that, because we got into the playoffs last night. I didn’t want to talk about it all year. When you know you’re in the playoffs, you shift your goals next, and that’s trying to make the playoffs the best situation we can possibly do. So would love to try to play a home game at Levi’s and we know the only way to do that was to win tonight vs. the Colts. We got that done and we got a lot to do that for Chicago.
On his messaging this season:
Every time we’ve gone to OTAs, it’s been all about trying to get to a Super Bowl, trying to win a Super Bowl. And I wanted to make sure we didn’t really talk that way this year. We needed to focus on just trying to be the best team we could be and we’ll see what happens.
On the season:
I don’t think we’ve dropped any games that we should have won. I think we’ve been able to stay consistent throughout the year and I think we came in with the mindset just taking one game at a time and trying to get better throughout the year, and I think we have.
On Philip Rivers:
He’s unbelievable. He looks like I remember. The ball always goes to the right spot. He lets it go as fast as anyone can. Understands almost every coverage you’re in. He got them into so many good plays today and the ball was coming out. He’s amazing.
On messaging to the team and major injuries:
If everything you talk about is Super Bowl of bust in OTAs and stuff, and then you lose someone like Fred and Bosa, that can change that. We weren’t talking about that from the beginning. We were just talking about trying to be the best we can.
On Christian McCaffrey’s game:
I know he was battling stuff last week and just for him to go out there and run the ball the way he did versus that run defense — I think that’s one of the better run defenses we’ve seen on tape. I was proud of how the guys blocked and Christian seemed like he ran real well today.
Brock Purdy
On Shanahan’s message to the team Sunday:
He spoke to the team and just basically told us, obviously, congrats on making it to the playoffs. And it’s not something we can just overlook — it’s pretty cool to do that. Felt good about that but obviously the next challenge is we just win one gameat a time and try to be the best that we can going into the playoffs.
On Shanahan’s week-by-week message:
This year, I think it was just really cool for him to understand our team, where we’re at (with) the turnover and all that kind of thing, being real with the older guys that have been here and the challenge of ‘Hey man, we got to win some cgritty games early in the year, in the middle of the season and then late in the year and jsee where we’re at.’
On his level of intentionality this season:
Every play has a life of its own, but put pressure on yourself to be detailed, do the fundamentals right. And it’s like living in that kind of mindset rather than trying to make stuff up or just say ‘Hey, let’s get into a rhythm here.’ It’s like, actually take action in that.
On the change in mindset this season:
Since I’ve been here early in my career, we were dominating teams and the game was basically over in the fourth quarter. So now it’s like we got to find way to win all the way through the very end and keep stacking those wins so you never take a win for granted in the NFL. That’s something that I’ve learned the last two years.
On his mentality:
Not letting the environment or the situation of the season and the game dictate how I go out and think throughout a game. I feel like right now I got to be my best one play at a time, be smart with our team and where we’re at, but also still have the chip on my shoulder to attack.
George Kittle
On his ankle:
I don’t think it’s a high ankle sprain, so we’ll take it one day at a time and we’ll go from there. … Happened second quarter, I know, whatever. Feel like i got hip-dropped, Ankle got stuck in the grass or the turf, the cork turf. Really weird field. Tried to tape it up, went into the third quarter, it just got worse from there. If I can’t run very fast or plant, then I think it’s a better op for my other tight ends to go out there and make plays.
On Brock Purdy
I think he’s operating at an incredibly high level. I thought he looked really good last weekend against Tennessee. He did a lot less running around today too than he did last week. He has a bunch of different elements to his game that allows him to be a really good quarterback.
On the offense:
From the start, I think I told you guys I feel like we’re going to go as far as our offense takes us. If our offense is putting up 40-ish points and we got the pick-six at the end, too. That’s really helpful.
On Shanahan’s messaging:
I appreciate Kyle saying that our mindset’s a bit different this year. Me personally, I’ve always been one week at a time. It is what it is — we’ve had great teams where we started the year 5-0, lost three games in a row and then we bounce back, we go off on a roll there. So it’s always one game at a time for me.
On Purdy playing well now that he’s healthy:
When you miss games and you’re concerned with an injury, like you’re thinking about multiple things at once. So now that he’s not thinking about it, hey, there’s Brock Purdy.
Christian McCaffrey
On the success of the run game:
Those guys up front did a hell of a job all day. Coaches did a great job scheming it up and they blocked their asses off all day, so it made our job easy.
On the offensive efficiency:
When we can not punt and continue to move the ball and finish with touchdowns instead of field goals, I think it’s a big deal.
Trent Williams
On what might be different this year from last year:
This year we understand it’s not going to be given to us. You think coming off the Super Bowl like you’re just going to be right back there or even close and maybe that knocked the edge off a little bit. And this year is kind of like no matter what kind of team we got, we got to go out there and play the game.
On Purdy:
When you’re in that huddle, there’s only one voice speaking, right? And you got 10 grown men staring at you, and you can’t fool grown men, right? And the confidence that he has in that huddle, no matter what phase of the game, those long play calls, just getting everyone where they need to be. I mean, from A to Z he does it all at a really high level.
On the difference with this year’s team:
We knew we had a team that can compete, but we knew it wasn’t going to be one of those things where we just walked through everybody how we did in ’23. We knew we was going to have to ride together a little bit tighter. We was going to have to play a little harder. We’re going to have to make plays.
On the impact of the injuries to Warner and Bosa:
I think it brought us closer together. I’d belying to tell you that it didn’t affect us. It affected us. It affected everybody. Seeing your leader, the best linebacker in the game, on the ground, hearing that one of your other leaders, Nick Bosa one fo the best ends in the league, has a torn ACL. It’s really hard to take that and just say next man up.
Dee Winters
On the Colts’ game plan throwing deep:
That surprised us a lot, honestly. We saw a bunch of quick game against seattle and we wanted to be very reactive once we saw the quick game. So them coming out was a little bit different and that’s what we had to adjust to. But Saleh did a great job at halftime letting us know what kind of looks we were going to get and I think we executed pretty well.
On settling into the game:
Saleh brought us to the sideline and pretty much said stop panicking.
On what tipped him off on the interception:
On the drive previously, I kind of heard and check and they kind of ran a little spot ut the same way they did on the interception. I kind of just heard the check and I was like ‘Man, I’m just about to just trust my instincts right here and make a play.
On picking off Philip Rivers and talking to him postgame:
It was crazy, just watching him play football growing up and then obviously getting to play against him and have a pick-six against him was huge. So definitely grateful for that and, you know, appreciate him for coming up and speaking with me.