SEATTLE — It’s the greatest active rivalry in the NFL.
And it produced another instant classic on cloudless fall Sunday at Lumen Field.
Against the defense that has been his kryptonite, Brock Purdy took over trailing late in the third quarter and showed why he has firmly established himself in the MVP conversation.
Purdy completed six of seven passes — four to Mike Evans for 75 yards — as the 49ers overcame a first-and-20 on their first play of the drive and another 11-yard penalty during a methodical 12-play drive.
Purdy found Brandin Cooks in the back of the end zone, threw up a 2-point conversion to Mike Evans and the 49ers never looked back on their way to a thrilling 32-29 win that put them firmly in command of the NFC West.
“That was the one drive that got us going,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after his team improved to 5-0 against the defending Super Bowl champions in a game that featured four lead changes, two ties, seven takeaways, one ejection and plenty more big hits and momentum swings.
Until that point, the 49ers had failed to mount a scoring drive of more than four plays. Renardo Green picked off a pair of passes, Fred Warner forced one fumble and Gracen Halton knocked out another that he recovered in the end zone — all of their first 21 points came off turnovers.
The key to beating Mike Macdonald’s defense? Turns out, it’s to fight defense with defense.
Here are the other takeaways from the latest installment of the Seahawks-49ers rivalry:
Turning points
Cooks, a childhood 49ers fan, got quite the introduction to his first game inside the rivalry.
“You definitely see it from afar over the years,” he said, “but to be a part of it was definitely fun.”
The evenly matched NFC West foes traded leads four times and tied the score two other times. The largest advantage either team took was after Halton recovered the fumble he forced out of George Holani’s hands in the end zone to put the 49ers on top 21-13 in the closing seconds of the first half. It was the third takeaway of the half — the 49ers’ total in four prior games.
The Seahawks had allowed their opponents to put up 24 points off turnovers in their past two games. Green — the culprit of two Darnold interceptions — said they knew they’d have their chances. He jumped Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s route for his first interception and came down with a second — his third this season — on Sam Darnold’s first pass of the second half.
“We didn’t know how many turnovers we [were] going to get, but we knew we were going to get our opps this game,” said Green, who was benched on the 49ers’ last visit in January. “It was up to us to capitalize on every opp we get to win the game. We just didn’t know how many.”
Difference makers
Fred Warner was still recovering from a broken ankle and Mike Evans was still under contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 49ers’ 41-6 loss here almost nine months ago.
In the rivals’ next meeting, both players proved just how much their presence mattered.
Warner, as always, played a pivotal role at the heart of the 49ers defense, punching the ball out of Emmanual Wilson’s arms for their second of three first-half takeaways. The “Warner Whack,” as play-by-play man Greg Papa termed it in a text to NBC Sports Bay Area, has become an art form.
Purdy completed just two of his first seven pass attempts — both of which threaded the needle into the hands of Evans. The first went for one of the 49ers’ two third-down conversions on seven chances in the first half. The second put the Niners’ first six points on the scoreboard.
“Obviously, he’s a game-changer,” Purdy said of Evans. “He can make defenses pay, and I thought today he did a great job of that, going up to get the ball multiple times.”
Evans, still only two weeks removed from breaking his ribs, finished with seven catches for 113 yards — both team-highs and personal-bests this season — including four catches for 75 yards as the 49ers marched down the field early in the fourth quarter to take a 29-26 lead with 11:02 to play. He also hauled in the successful 2-point conversion.
Warner led the 49ers with 10 tackles to go with his 20th career forced fumble, the most in franchise history. And he played the second half without Dre Greenlaw by his side after his fellow linebacker was ejected for head-butting a Seahawk after delivering a late hit on Darnold.
The reinforcements proved to be the difference against the Super Bowl champs on their home turf. Evans proved to be all the more important with George Kittle, in the words of Shanahan, “feeling like s—” with flu-like symptoms and Deebo Samuel leaving with a hamstring injury.
Penalties? Sacks? So what?
The defense’s production helped paper over two areas that had been strengths through the 49ers’ 4-0 start that suddenly went in the other direction in an imposing environment.
Trent Williams and Dominic Puni were called for holding, a rollicking crowd of 68,684 forced a false start and Greenlaw was ejected after drawing a personal foul. The 49ers, one of the NFL’s least penalized teams, racked up eight flags for 70 yards. On the flip side, Seattle had been one of the least disciplined teams but was flagged only five times for 46 yards.
“There’s obviously emotions that go into [this matchup],” said running back Christian McCaffrey, who still managed 6.2 yards per carry on 11 handoffs. “The challenge is not letting the emotions get the best of you. … These are two teams that don’t like each other. That’s what makes it fun.”
Greenlaw’s personal foul put Seattle in range for a field goal, and the penalty on Puni forced San Francisco to pass up a chance to go up 17-13. But in a microcosm of the 49ers’ winning effort, Halton made it 21-13 only moments later, forcing and recovering a fumble in the end zone.
As expected, the Seahawks defense presented the toughest challenge yet for the 49ers, particularly in the trenches. Left guard Connor Colby was exposed by defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, who recorded the first and second sacks of Purdy this season.
Similarly, the 49ers’ offensive line had helped them move the chains on third down at the highest rate in the NFL this season (57%). But they were forced off the field eight times in 12 chances against Seattle’s imposing defense.
Still, Shanahan came away happy with the work of his offensive line, which helped the 49ers find enough holes to pound out 94 yards on 24 carries.
“By no means was everything perfect, but I just thought the grit of the guys in all three phases, they never wavered,” Shanahan said. “Of course they beat us on a few — we expected that to happen at times. I loved how they played. I thought they blocked real well in the running game.”
Big Waitman game
Shanahan handed out game balls to Evans for his big offensive day and Green for his pair of interceptions. But there was a third candidate who made a strong case for the honor.
Punter Corliss Waitman.
When the 49ers offense stalled out, which was more often than any previous game this season, Waitman flipped the field position with five punts that all landed inside the 20-yard line.
Waitman’s best boot of the afternoon backed the Seahawks up on their own 4-yard line late in the first half, after the 49ers stalled out on their final drive before halftime.
Gracen Halton burst through the line of scrimmage on Seattle’s first play, punched the ball out from George Holani and recovered it himself in the end zone to put the 49ers up 23-14.
“We had to play the field position a ton,” Shanahan said. “He’s probably another guy I could’ve given a game ball to.”