49ers’ 3rd Quarter Notes - Niners 23, Seahawks 17

The San Francisco 49ers (2-3) are visiting the Seattle Seahawks (3-3) at Lumen Field, in a battle for first place in the NFC West. You can find more injury and roster news here and here.

Here are some quick notes and observations from the third quarter of play.

3rd Quarter start - SF 16, SEA 3 at SF 30 yd. line

1. Good to see RB Jordan Mason back in. He's been an absolute stud this year, even if I'd still like to see him outrun the pack in the open field at least once.
2. WR Deebo Samuel drawing the (recalled) DPI - for all of San Francisco's trouble getting guys open short and taking forever to throw downfield, it seems like there should be a lot more laundry going on when the 49ers are passing... SF has traditionally not been great at drawing those big flags downfield, though. If you're going to be a deep ball offense, you've gotta have that in your toolkit.
3. Rookie RB Isaac Guerendo with a couple vicious runs inside Seattle's half of the field. He seems to be picking up right where Mason left off, in terms of attacking the defense with intensity. Fellow rookie rusher Patrick Taylor in, too, now. Worth checking on how much Mason is active the rest of this game.
4. QB Brock Purdy to TE George Kittle for the red zone TD! It took an absolutely perfect route, throw, and toe tap, but 49ers finally converted - just their second TD in their last 9 red zone trips.

SF kickoff - SF 23, SEA 3 - returned for TD

1. On one hand, you figure that special teams is volatile, and you'll have some good plays and some bad plays. On the other hand, especially with the kicker absolutely needing to not hurt himself on the tackle, 49ers have given up their weekly extremely damaging special teams play.
2. I don't know what the stats are, but it seems like approximately every 4 kick returns, the 49ers give up an extremely long return. That has to get better.

SEA kickoff - SF 23, SEA 10 at SF 31

1. San Francisco immediately trying to return a poor kickoff return with a return of their own absolutely feels like a recipe for disaster. Decent return though, so now time for the offense to settle things down and keep Seattle out of this game.
2. Offensive holding on C Jake Brendel wipes out a big first down for San Francisco. It certainly seems that this season's longer passing plays have been more troublesome on the offensive line than opposing secondaries, at least as it relates to penalties.
3. 14-yard screen on 3rd-and-18 really helps out the 49ers, who pin Seattle at their own 5. But with 4th-and-4 at midfield, even up 2 scores, you'd kind of want to at least fake going for it, right? Make Seattle work for it.

SF Punt - SF 23, SEA 10 at SEA 6

1. Thankfully for Seattle, the NFL doesn't use two-hand touch rules. If they did, DT Kevin Givens would have had his first sack of the game.
2. Perfect pass by Seattle QB Geno Smith to get WR Tyler Lockett a huge gain, and the Seahawks are looking to quickly get within a score here. It turns out that S Malik Mustapha injured his ankle late in the first half, and the 49ers' secondary is looking like it.
3. Fred Warner makes a big impact on the game by driving into the goal-line sneak, but plenty of confusion as SF tries to substitute in Nick Bosa and crew, and Walker charges in. Seahawks were down by 20, and now it's a 6 -point game.

SEA kickoff - SF 23, SEA 16 at SF 26

1. Jordan Mason still off the field. If the 49ers can't get their running game going in this second half, it'll be another late-game blown lead.

End of 3rd quarter - SF 23, SEA 16