49ers remained fueled by their dominance with explosive plays in win over Seahawks
Brandon Aiyuk didn’t hesitate when a reporter asked him to describe Brock Purdy ’s fourth-quarter touchdown pass, a 28-yard bolt that hit him in stride and sealed the San Francisco 49ers’ 31-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Thanksgiving night.
“That,” Aiyuk said, “was what you call a dot.”
It was a strike of lightning at just the right time for the 49ers , who’d ridden an explosive start to a 24-3 halftime lead but needed one more punch to comfortably stave off Seattle’s comeback attempt. Purdy was eager to take the swing, even though coach Kyle Shanahan expected a more conservative approach based on the defensive alignment.
“I couldn’t believe he was throwing it,” Shanahan said. “The zone coverage guys were so deep, usually you can check down right underneath them and get about 12. But Brock thought he could drop it in over the guy. It was a clear view for all of us. It was just a hell of a throw. Like perfect touch, got it over (Quandre) Diggs. It was a big play that sealed it.”
And it was emblematic of a key ingredient in the formula that the 49ers are using to throttle most of their opponents this season.
Put simply, this team is delivering more explosive pass plays than any other offense in the NFL . The 49ers defense is also preventing explosive passes at an elite rate. Put together, those two figures have translated into eight commanding victories for the 49ers, who now have the second-best record in the NFC with a return trip to challenge the conference’s leading team — the Philadelphia Eagles — coming next.
The exclamation point of the 49ers’ win in Seattle was Purdy’s delivery to Aiyuk.
“He does that pretty consistently,” Shanahan said of his QB. “He’s always trying to get that one in. Very rarely does he check it down and you have to tell him he missed the deep one. He looks at it that way. He proved to us while the ball was in the air that it was the right decision. We’re all holding our breath as soon as he lets it go because the guy was so deep.”
Purdy’s consistency is reflected in the season-long numbers, which have put the 49ers ahead of even the high-octane Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins offenses (coordinated by former Shanahan lieutenants Bobby Slowik and Mike McDaniel, respectively) in terms of explosive passes — measured by gains of at least 20 yards.
Explosive pass rate, NFL offenses (TruMedia)
- San Francisco 49ers: 21.4%
- Houston Texans: 19.6%
- Miami Dolphins: 19.1%
The 49ers’ rate is their highest under Shanahan (the 2021 team led the NFL at 18.9 percent) and even higher than the rate of the 2016 Atlanta Falcons , who delivered explosives on 20.7 percent of their plays with Shanahan as the coordinator and quarterback Matt Ryan as the league’s MVP. The 49ers’ explosive pass rate is also on track to be the best delivered by an NFL team since the 2013 Eagles (21.5 percent). It’s in the ballpark of the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams, who logged explosive pass rates of 21 percent and 22.5 percent in 2000 and 2001, respectively.
All of these numbers give context to how the 49ers are operating so efficiently as a team. They opened up their three-touchdown first-half lead on the fuel of a passing game that used its bevy of weapons to stretch Seattle thin downfield.
“The way they were playing and the way Kyle was calling the plays, it was just wide open,” 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel said.
The run game hit its stride down the stretch, helping set Purdy up for that dagger to Aiyuk. The quarterback continued to showcase the nuanced improvements he’s made in Year 2 as the 49ers’ starter. His subtle movement in the pocket ensured that Seahawks edge rusher Boye Mafe , who’d beaten 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz , wouldn’t reach him in time to disrupt the throw.
“He’s playing at a high level right now, especially for what we do,” Samuel said. “All the plays we threw at him this week, to come out on a short week to play the way he played was amazing.”
On the other side, the 49ers defense stifled any chance of an explosive Seahawks’ counterpunch. Seattle’s only pass play of more than 20 yards to a wide receiver, in fact, was rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba ’s sensational one-handed grab in the third quarter.
Outside of that play, the 49ers allowed nothing of significance on the outside. Ambry Thomas delivered an interception and fellow corner Charvarius Ward — following a late adjustment to man coverage — smothered top Seattle wideout DK Metcalf on all of quarterback Geno Smith ’s attempts to him.
“The game plan wasn’t for me to follow him,” Ward said of the plan for defending Metcalf after the game . “But coach Shanahan was like, ‘Why not? We need him to.’ They told me to do it and I was up to the task. I feel like I had a pretty good game.”
Ward broke up three passes and Metcalf managed only three catches for 32 yards. It seemed the Seahawks’ only legitimate hope of keeping pace with the 49ers was to hit a few downfield strikes of their own, but the coverage made those unavailable. That helped translate into more pressure from the 49ers’ vaunted defensive line and six sacks of Smith.
It was emblematic of what the 49ers’ pass defense has done for most of this season — outside of its troublesome rut before the bye week, of course. That seems far in the rearview mirror now, with the 49ers’ pass rush and coverage again married together and the key statistical splits indicating that this is again a defense to be reckoned with.
Explosive pass rate allowed, NFL defenses (TruMedia)
The 49ers are stopping explosive passes much more effectively than even their No. 1-ranked defense of last season. That 2022 defense let up an explosive pass rate of 12.4 percent. These 2023 49ers are about on par with the franchise’s vaunted 2019 defense, which led the NFL in allowing a 7.9 percent explosive play rate.
This 49ers’ ascent, then, is happening in simple fashion. They’re landing the big punches on the offensive end, and they’re dodging those swings on the defensive side.
“That’s what we went out there and did tonight,” Ward said. “Show the world what 49er football looks like.”
(Top photo of Brandon Aiyuk scoring a touchdown: Jane Gershovich / )
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