SANTA CLARA — Ricky Pearsall was open on the crossing route. That isn’t news; the 49ers’ second-year wide receiver is almost always open.
The problem was that Brock Purdy was busy doing a little improvisational jazz in the Niners’ backfield. And Pearsall admits he rarely sees his 6-foot quarterback back there.
But there was no way the receiver was missing the absolute missile coming his way.
The NFL tracks nearly everything on a football field — there’s seemingly a new stat every day — but the league doesn’t provide data on pass velocity. So, I’ll have to guess, and I’m saying Purdy broke Mach 1 with this throw.
For all the hand-wringing about his turf toe and his ability to push the ball downfield, he didn’t just throw this pass; he might have broken the fabric of space-time with this absolute ripper.
It hit Pearsall in stride, right above the numbers. A picture-perfect, 37-yard strike. First down.
Two plays later, the Niners were up 24-10.
“It was humming,” Pearsall told me of the throw after the game.
Not unlike the 49ers’ offense as a whole.
The Niners’ 37-24 win over the Tennessee Titans wasn’t a masterpiece. It was neither perfect nor problematic. It was simply enough. Again.
And after four straight games of enough, the Niners have effectively sealed their place in the postseason. The NFL does track playoff probabilities, and the league put the 49ers’ playoff odds at 98 percent with three weeks to play.
That alone is worth a moment of appreciation. It has been fashionable to write this team’s obituary all season, usually somewhere between the third and fourth injury report of the week. It was easy to say this team was finished; I think I’ve suggested it about five times.
It is much, much harder to actually tape up the broken ribs, ignore the noise and grind your way to 10-4.
“You’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game,” Titans running back Tony Pollard said of playing the 49ers. “It’s a veteran team that’s been through the ups and downs. They know how to play together and how to fight back through adversity.”
There is no question about that.
No, the question moving forward for the Niners is much simpler: How far can this flawed but feisty team actually go?
The answer: As far as the offense can carry them, and not a yard further.
Luckily, this team can put up some yards.
Coming off the bye week, the Niners’ offense looked fresh, aggressive and liable to hang 40, maybe even 50 points on anyone. In a league that feels devoid of true juggernauts, that might be enough to make a run. Everyone looks vulnerable, save for perhaps the most injured team in the league, the 49ers. After all, you can’t break what’s already broken.
Don’t get me wrong, the Niners are no juggernaut themselves.
The Titans arrived in Santa Clara as a two-win team and left as a two-win team, but in between, they made the 49ers’ defense look inept. And Tennessee’s run-pass option drove the defensive line and linebackers crazy. The Niners’ secondary dropped three gift interceptions to boot, all while the team’s run defense was, to be charitable, porous.
Despite the lopsided final score, the game hung in a partial state of balance far longer than it should have.
Now, the 49ers were fortunate that they could afford to spell Christian McCaffrey — who woke up Saturday with a sore back despite not yet being 30 — more often than usual. They didn’t need every single one of Purdy’s 339 total yards. They didn’t strictly need all of George Kittle’s 88 yards or Pearsall’s 96.
But they sure needed a lot of them to put away a team tied for the worst record in football.
This is the Niners’ reality. And at least one more challenging test — if not three — are coming in the final three regular-season games, with the playoffs sure to provide even more quality.
The defense is trying to find its form, but time is running out, and, frankly, the search looks rather feeble.
If the 49ers are going to win in January, there is only one path left:
Shootouts.
Purdy needs to harken back to his days playing in the Big 12 and win some glorious, fun and exhausting shootouts.
It just might suit him and the Niners. While the defense searches for answers, the offense has seemingly found its rhythm at the exact right moment.
Kittle remains the gold standard at tight end. Pearsall seems impossible to cover. McCaffrey is still the league’s most dynamic weapon. Even Demarcus Robinson, largely forgotten since a great training camp, is emerging as a viable option.
And then there is Jauan Jennings. The man claimed he was playing on two bad ankles and five broken ribs, yet he looked like his old, violent self on Sunday, snagging two touchdowns. Sure enough, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said that Jennings has finally been relatively healthy over the last two weeks.
As Purdy’s security blanket, a healthy-ish Jennings will pay massive dividends down the stretch.
And Purdy? He has responded to that three-interception first-half meltdown against the Panthers in Week 12 by playing his best football since 2023. He was excellent against Cleveland in Week 13 and downright great on Sunday.
He wasn’t just managing the game against Tennessee; he was channeling Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young and prime Russell Wilson.
He’s feeling it, and he can’t hide it.
And his 26-yard scramble to spark a 95-yard touchdown drive (which ended with a jump-pass touchdown, of all things) was downright audacious. He faked a forward pass a good 20 yards past the line of scrimmage — a move of pure backyard arrogance — before doing a little dance to cap off the run.
If there are no great teams this year, perhaps a singularly great unit — led by a magician at quarterback — is good enough.
“Our goals we set out at the beginning of the year are still there, no matter who is in or out of the lineup,” Trent Williams said. “I’m super encouraged. … We’ll see how the big dance plays out.”
With the way Purdy is dancing right now, you have to like their chances.
