Wide receiver Deebo Samuel said: “We lost because we played with 10 people” after the defeat that ended the Niners’ Super Bowl hopes, before publicly calling Eagles cornerback James Bradberry “trash” over the summer.
At the same time, fellow wideout Brandon Aiyuk argued: “We have, hands down, the best football team in the league… hands down.”
Aiyuk was referring to the 49ers’ path to that championship game in the aforementioned quote. They had a 12-game winning run going. They led the league in both defensive and offensive yardage and points scored categories, while finishing fifth in both.
Then, without much of a fight, or at least a chance for one, the season ended.
It’s almost the ‘business end’ of the regular season; is San Francisco back in the saddle?
The Niners of this year may be even better than last, based only on the numbers. offensively, third in yards and fourth in points per game. On defense, they rank fifth in yards and first in points allowed per game (15.5 vs. 16.3 last season).
Still the main attraction, Christian McCaffrey leads the league in rushing yards with 939, more than 150 more than Raheem Mostert, who is in second place. Tyreek Hill is only ahead of McCaffrey with 1,328 yards from scrimmage, and he leads all players with 16 touchdowns overall.
But without being in the conversation about it, it has been amazing to watch how Purdy, a sophomore quarterback, has developed into one of the league’s best quarterbacks. Purdy does not have very good MVP odds, but if you visit Pro Football Reference’s 2023 leaders page, you will see a lot of mentions of him.
