49ers, Brock Purdy hold off Seahawks to regain NFC West lead

SEATTLE — The San Francisco 49ers held on to defeat the Seahawks, 36-24.

In the run up to Thursday night, the 49ers stopped short of calling it a “must win” game.

Mathematically, at least, there’s no such thing in Week 6 of the NFL season. But defensive end Nick Bosa and his teammates were clear in their assessment Tuesday that this one was the closest thing possible given the circumstances.

At 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the NFC West division, a loss to the Seahawks wouldn’t have buried the 49ers’ season but it would have dug the hole plenty deep.

Even as things piled up against San Francisco on Thursday night in Seattle — more injuries, unseen replay angles and special teams woes, to name a few — the 49ers sent a reminder that they will not allow their Super Bowl window to close without a fight.

Somehow these Niners, even at 3-3, are back atop the division, tied with Seattle but now holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.

That happened despite playing without cornerback Charvarius Ward and losing running back Jordan Mason (left shoulder) and safety Malik Mustapha (ankle) to injuries that kept them out for big chunks of the game, while seeing others, such as tight end George Kittle and receiver Deebo Samuel Sr., limp off the field at various points.

What’s more, the 49ers overcame a bizarre officiating incident in which coach Kyle Shanahan challenged that Seahawks returner Dee Williams touched a punt and San Francisco recovered it deep in Seattle’s territory. Officials upheld the call that Williams didn’t touch it, though there were “enhanced” replays shown to viewers that suggested he did.

The NFL said in a pool report that the league was not sent the replay showing the ball touching Williams’ hand until it was too late.

“Once [referee Craig Wrolstad] made his announcement and they came back from TV, the network had an enhanced shot that they did not send at all until after they played his announcement,” said VP of instant replay Mark Butterworth.

The 49ers probably should have put Seattle away much earlier. But they’ve made it clear through the first six weeks that nothing is going to come easy this year. As of Thursday night, the Niners have proven they’re up for the challenge when things aren’t going their way.

QB breakdown: Brock Purdy was under pressure for much of Thursday’s game but it didn’t prevent him from finding ways to make the plays needed to get the win. Purdy finished 18-of-28 for 255 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. It was exactly what the 49ers needed.

Troubling trend: At some point, the 49ers will have to do something about their special teams issues. It was a problem in the biggest moments of their loss in Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs and has persisted through the first six games this season.

On Thursday night, the Niners looked poised to put the Seahawks away with a touchdown drive to open the second half. But they gave those points back almost instantly allowing a 97-yard kick return for a touchdown.

That’s on top of the fake punt they allowed for a first down that flipped the Week 3 game against the Los Angeles Rams into a loss, the 39-yard kick return they allowed that led to kicker Jake Moody getting hurt in last week’s loss to the Cardinals and a handful of other costly miscues this season.

It’s hard to make wholesale special teams changes in the middle of the season but something has to give. Soon.

Silver lining: Injuries to Mason and Ward left the 49ers turning to a pair of rookies to fill the void. There were some rough moments but cornerback Renardo Green and running back Isaac Guerendo were up to the task, providing a pair of plays that helped put the game away.

Green intercepted Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith in the fourth quarter to help the Niners extend the lead to double digits, and Guerendo finished with 10 carries for 99 yards, including a 76-yard burst that ended any hopes Seattle had of a comeback. — Nick Wagoner

Next game: vs Chiefs (4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 20)

Seahawks replaced coach Pete Carroll over the offseason and installed fresh schemes on both sides of the ball, including the defense that got the best of San Francisco last Christmas Eve while new coach Mike Macdonald was still the Ravens’ coordinator.

While that change provided hope that they could finally get over the hump that has been the 49ers, the new-look Seahawks had pretty much the same result Thursday night against their NFC West rival.

This one wasn’t quite as lopsided as the previous five matchups, which the 49ers won by a combined score of 148-72. Then again, the Seahawks benefitted from a missed call that would have put the 49ers in scoring position, and they were outgained 483-358.

This one was shaping up to be another blowout before the Seahawks stormed back in the third quarter to make a game of it. It was a valiant effort for a team that’s short-handed and worn down after playing three games in 11 days, but the result was a third straight loss that has halted all the good vibes that followed their 3-0 start.

And if they can’t beat the 49ers at home while San Francisco’s defense was struggling and the offense was missing Christian McCaffrey, when can they?

“It stings to have lost three in a row, to lose against your division rival at home in prime time,” Macdonald said “… Our guys fought their tails off down to the last minute, but we’re not playing well enough to beat the team we need to beat.”

Familiar issues did the Seahawks in. They allowed 228 rushing yards, turned the ball over three times, started slow and couldn’t get their run game going.

“We’ve got to start faster,” Macdonald said. “We have to win the takeaway differential. That’s a team stat. We’re just not doing the things that good football teams to do win football games. So we’re going to attack it. We’re going to take a breather here and really go back and dissect the heck out of this thing. I just told them, ‘You have one of two options. You can give up or you can keep fighting like heck to make it right,’ and that’s what we’re going to do.”

QB breakdown: The 49ers’ defense has had a way of making life hard on Smith, and it was more of the same Thursday night. This time, it wasn’t because he was overwhelmed by San Francisco’s pressure like he has been in past meetings. But he couldn’t do enough with the clean pockets he got, throwing for 312 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and an un-Smith-like 57.7% completion rate.

His first interception came on an over throw to Tyler Lockett, while the second went right to cornerback Green, who had jumped a crosser to DK Metcalf. It appeared Smith may have been expecting Metcalf to run his route differently, but the QB took the heat postgame, saying: “It was an interception, man. We all saw it. Bad play by me.”

Troubling trend: The Seahawks are turning the ball over way more than they’re taking it away. Only four teams had a worse turnover margin than theirs at minus-3 entering Thursday. That’s now minus-6 after Smith’s two interceptions and Laviska Shenault Jr.’s lost fumble on a kickoff return. Shenault atoned for the mistake by returning a later kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, but this is not a sustainable trend.

Seattle has turned the ball over 10 times in six games.

“It’s probably single-handedly the biggest thing that’s hurting our football team,” Macdonald said. “We have to take care of the ball better. We have to practice it better. You get what you emphasize and apparently we’re not emphasizing it enough. Shoot, that’s my responsibility.”

Biggest hole in the game plan: The Seahawks’ run game remains a problem. Over the first five games, much of the issue was that they were leaning way too heavily on their passing game, ranking last in the NFL in designed rush rate. They ran it more Thursday night but didn’t have much success, totaling only 52 yards on 20 attempts before the large second-half deficit forced them into throwing mode. Kenneth Walker III scored a touchdown but managed only 32 yards on 14 carries. — Brady Henderson

Next game: at Falcons (1 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 20)