Niners Nation
Two weeks, two tight wins for a San Francisco 49ers team coming off plenty of close losses in 2024.
After a nail-biter Week 1 victory in Seattle, San Francisco pulled off another close win in New Orleans, holding off the Saints late to cling to a 26-21 victory.
The big story entering the game is just how well the hobbled 49ers offense could operate without Brock Purdy, and Mac Jones picked up the slack, leading the offense to 26 points against a gritty New Orleans defense.
While we learned what Jones can offer to the 49ers (more on that in a second), we start with what we learned on the defensive side of the ball:
The 49ers used their first five selections in this year’s draft on the defense, so there will be moments and games where players will have to learn on the fly, and Sunday had plenty of examples of that.
The defense didn’t even perform that poorly, holding Spencer Rattler to 207 passing yards, and the only skill player who had a notable day was Alvin Kamara, who rushed for 99 yards on 21 carries. But there were moments – mainly in the second half – where things got sketchy for the defense, specifically from the rookies in the secondary.
Upton Stout had a solid game around the line of scrimmage with his first career sack, but he was on the wrong end of a couple of second-half conversions with the Saints still in the game. The first came with the Saints facing a fourth-and-1 with the 49ers up 16-7 early in the third quarter. Stout perfectly read a Rattler keeper, getting into the backfield in an attempt to blow up the play, but Rattler put a move on the rookie to avoid the tackle, to extend a drive that resulted in a Saints touchdown. Then, in the fourth quarter, with New Orleans facing a third-and-3 inside the red zone, Chris Olave went up and got a pass from Rattler in front of Stout inside the five, resulting in a touchdown on the next play to cut the 49ers’ lead to five.
While Stout had his sack to redeem some of his rough play, the same can’t be said about Marques Sigle. Sigle was targeted three times on Sunday, allowing a reception on all three chances for 60 yards and a touchdown, with Rattler finishing with a perfect 158.3 passer rating when targeting the rookie. His touchdown allowed came in the second quarter with tight coverage against Juwan Johnson, but the tight end outmuscled the rookie for the 18-yard score.
Both Stout and Sigle had their issues with penalties on the same drive, both getting called for drive-extending penalties on third down on the same drive. First, Stout was called for a ticky-tack illegal contact against Olave, to bail the Saints out of a third-and-12. Then, on the following third down, Sigle was called for an obvious defensive holding...
