Takeaways

Seattle's turnovers made 21 points, and the 49ers still needed the last kick

The 49ers are 5-0 after a 32-29 win at Lumen Field. Dre Greenlaw was ejected in the second quarter, a fifth-round rookie played 47 snaps in his place, and Deebo Samuel left with a hamstring injury.

SK
Sam KezarOct 12, 20265 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Jaden Dugger, in a white 49ers practice jersey with number 53 and a gold helmet, walks on the field at training camp.

The 49ers won 32-29 at Seattle on Sunday and are 5-0. Eddy Pineiro kicked a 44-yard field goal with 1:56 left, and Seattle's last drive ended at the San Francisco 41 when Cooper Kupp was ruled a yard short on fourth and 10. Replay upheld the spot. The lead changed hands four times.

1. The defense scored or set up 21 points#

Seattle turned the ball over four times. Three of them became touchdowns.

Green's second interception, early in the third quarter, produced nothing: Pineiro missed wide left from 52. The 49ers gave three turnovers back, a muffed punt by Jacob Cowing, a Purdy interception and a Deebo Samuel fumble, and Seattle scored 17 points off those.

2. Jaden Dugger took Greenlaw's job for the afternoon#

Dre Greenlaw was ejected with 6:30 left in the second quarter. He hit Darnold after a scramble out of bounds, Seattle players came at him on their own sideline, and he head-butted linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who was not wearing a helmet. The game book carries it as a 15-yard disqualification penalty.

Kyle Shanahan did not argue the call. "They told me that he headbutted a guy without a helmet," he said, per the transcript published by 49ers Webzone. "So, if that's exactly what happened, then yeah, we've got to be a lot smarter than that." Whether the league adds anything is the open question of the week.

Greenlaw played 26 of the 63 defensive snaps. Dugger, a fifth-round rookie out of Louisiana, played 47, and finished with nine tackles and a 7-yard sack on Darnold. Luke Gifford played 19. If Greenlaw misses time, the man taking his snaps already has a full half against a division opponent on tape.

3. Five sacks from five different men, and two of them are rookies#

San Francisco sacked Darnold five times for 33 yards and hit him eight times. The sacks went to Dugger, Halton, Sebastian Valdez, Osa Odighizuwa and Keion White, one each. Halton played 34 snaps and added a second tackle for loss to go with the sack and the touchdown.

This was the third straight game without Nick Bosa. The rush that showed up was spread across the rotation rather than carried by one end. Mykel Williams, in his first game since November, played 23 snaps and made two tackles. That is a share consistent with Shanahan's stated plan to rotate him in his first week back.

4. Renardo Green played all 63 snaps and took the ball away twice#

Besides the two interceptions he broke up three passes, including a first-down throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on Seattle's final drive. Smith-Njigba still caught five passes for 102 yards and Seattle's only receiving touchdown, a 16-yarder on third and 3.

Upton Stout, questionable all week, played 30 snaps.

5. Evans carried the drive that took the lead back#

Seattle led 26-21 late in the third quarter. The 49ers went 74 yards in 12 plays across the quarter break, and Evans caught four passes on the drive for 75 yards: 15 on first and 20, nine on second and 5, 23 on third and 10, and 28 on second and 21 after an intentional-grounding penalty. Brandin Cooks caught the 7-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, then came back on a pass-interference flag against Josh Jobe, and Purdy hit Evans on the second attempt.

Evans finished with seven catches for 113 yards on 10 targets and played 38 of the 60 offensive snaps. He played through the rib injury he took in Week 3. "Actually, the ribs were way better this week," he said after the game.

6. Purdy was sacked for the first time this season#

Purdy took no sacks in the first four games. Seattle sacked him three times, twice by Byron Murphy II, and the offensive line drew holds from Trent Williams and Dominick Puni and a false start from Connor Colby. All five starters played all 60 snaps. Purdy finished 19 of 29 for 189 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

The run game closed it. On the winning drive McCaffrey ran for 8 and 13 yards and Kaelon Black for 11, and the 49ers took 4:59 off the clock before Pineiro's kick.

7. The injuries#

Samuel played 26 snaps before he left. Cowing, Cooks and second-year receiver Jordan Watkins, who started, divided the rest of the receiver snaps behind Evans.

Washington comes to Levi's Stadium next Monday night.

Sources: NFL official game book, 49ers at Seahawks, Oct. 11, 2026 (lineups, play-by-play, defensive statistics, playtime percentage); ESPN box score; Kyle Shanahan and Mike Evans postgame remarks as published by David Bonilla, 49ers Webzone, Oct. 11; 49ers.com roster.

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The call is on the ROLE the money implies, not on production. His 2025 usage in Washington was 260 slot routes against 141 out wide and 15 from the backfield, out of 416, at 5.3 average air yards per target across 99 targets, with 67 of those 99 inside ten yards. Niners Nation projects him to the slot with Stribling at Z and Mike Evans at X. A one-year agreement whose value the player's own agent describes as a ceiling is a continuity buy, and a continuity buy uses the player it just watched rather than the one from 2021. If he instead lines up mostly wide, the read in the piece is wrong and the team bought something closer to the older version.

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