The San Francisco 49ers enjoyed a few extra days of rest in Week 15 after powering through a big win on "Thursday Night Football."
San Francisco's 21-13 victory over the Seattle Seahawks is the team's seventh-straight win and marks the first series sweep of Seattle since the 2011 season. The 49ers are currently the No. 3 seed in the NFC and as the division champs, they have guaranteed themselves at least one home game in their upcoming playoff run.
However, with three regular season games to go, a lot can still happen. Per head coach Kyle Shanahan, the work is far from over, and the 49ers will continue to push for a higher conference seeding. In this final stretch of the regular season, the key is to strike a balance between staying competitive and getting players healthy before the postseason.
"You never just want to stop. You can't lose your edge," Shanahan said. "It's not something you can turn on and off. At the same time, you do need to be smart. It's very important to get home games. So, we'll do everything we can to do that, but by no means at the expense of risking someone that we shouldn't."
Before we transition to the team's Week 16 matchup against the Washington Commanders, let's recap Thursday night's momentous win. Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy played through rib and oblique injuries and connected on 17-of-26 pass attempts for 217 yards and two touchdowns. Defensive end Nick Bosa sacked Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith to secure his place on top of the NFL's sacks leaderboard with 15.5 takedowns on the year. Tight end George Kittle hauled in two 25+ yard touchdowns. Running back Christian McCaffrey shouldered the 49ers ground game, closing out the night with 26 carries for 108 yards and a rushing touchdown in addition to his six catches for 30 yards through the air. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw forced a fumble that was recovered by cornerback Charvarius Ward and set San Francisco up inside the 10 yard line.
The 49ers saw contributions from every phase of the ball to put together the win, earning several players top PFF scores for Week 15.
Here are San Francisco's top performers from Week 15:
Top Offensive Performers: George Kittle and Jordan Mason
The veteran tight end topped all offensive performers in Thursday night's matchup, earning a 91.9 overall grade for his 54 snaps of work. His outing against Seattle marks his second multi-touchdown game of the season, and additionally, helped him reach a career milestone. Kittle entered Week 15 just 11 yards shy of becoming the NFL's sixth tight end with 5,000+ receiving yards in his first six seasons and surpassed that mark with four catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns against Seattle.
"George Kittle had a career game against the Seahawks, which is saying a lot for a likely future Hall of Famer," PFF staff wrote in their game recap. "The sixth-year tight end currently has a 93.2 grade on first review, which would be one of the highest of his career. If it holds, then Kittle's three highest-graded games of his career will amazingly come against the Seahawks in Seattle."
Rookie running back Jordan Mason landed on the "top offensive performers" list for a second-straight week with a 91.4 mark for his seven snaps. It's a small sample size, but Mason continues to make the most of his opportunities. Against Seattle, the rookie had four carries for 64 yards including an impressive 55-yard gain to close out contest for the 49ers.
Top Defensive Performer: Nick Bosa
Bosa continued to do Bosa things versus the Seahawks. His Week 15 outing earned him a 90.8 overall grade for his 51 total snaps, and that mark topped all defensive players from "Thursday Night Football." The defensive lineman had six total pressures including a sack and two quarterback hits. The sack allowed him to once again be the lone NFL sacks leader.
"Nick Bosa showed why he's one of the leading candidates for the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday," PFF staff wrote. "The fourth-year edge defender finished with a sack, five pressures and a 33.3% pass-rush win rate on 39 pass-rushing snaps."
