After squeaking out a trio of one-score wins to open the 2025 season, the San Francisco 49ers saw their undefeated campaign come to an end on Sunday in a 26-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But don’t let the five-point final margin fool you, as the Niners were thoroughly dominated in this game and simply made too many mistakes to pull out a victory. Truth be told, they were lucky to be as close as they were at the end.
Let’s have a quick look at the winners and losers for Kyle Shanahan’s squad from Sunday’s defeat.
Winner: Fred Warner
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner was far and away the best player for the Niners’ defense on Sunday, recording eight total tackles, six of which were unassisted, en route to a 90.9 overall PFF grade, easily the highest mark of any San Francisco defender.
Warner also recorded the 17th forced fumble of his career, thus breaking out of a tie with Patrick Willis for the most in franchise history. But with nobody else really around to recover it, his effort was wasted, as the Jags kicked a field goal on the very next play. The four-time Pro Bowler has to get some help as this season progresses.
Winner: Eddy Pineiro
It’s almost sad that we have to list a kicker as a winner, but after what San Francisco went through with Jake Moody, Eddy Pineiro making all three of his kicks with a pair of field goals and an extra point has to be taken as a small victory at this point.
Winner/Loser: Ricky Pearsall
Sadly, we have to go both ways on Ricky Pearsall here.
Coming into Week 4, the second-year stud ranked third in the NFL in receiving yards (281), and we actually predicted him to have a monster day against the Jags. And for a while, it looked as if he was in for precisely that, catching four passes on five targets for 46 yards, including an incredible one-handed grab that went for 31 yards, which ultimately went to waste.
Sadly, though, the injury bug bit the 49ers yet again, as Pearsall left the game after falling hard on his knee while trying to make a diving catch on the sideline in the third quarter. He attempted to fight through the pain, but that lasted all of one play, and he now seems doubtful to suit up for San Francisco this Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams.
Loser: Brock Purdy
While Brock Purdy threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns in his return to action after missing the last two weeks with turf toe, he was also responsible for three of San Francisco’s four turnovers, tossing a pair of interceptions and losing a fumble on what turned out to be the Niners’ final offensive drive of the day, thus sealing the win for Jacksonville.
Purdy doesn’t deserve a ton of blame for the first pick, as he was trying to make a play that simply went wrong, but the second was all on him, as he got baited something fierce. Even if the ball doesn’t get tipped, it was going to be picked off.
And the fumble? Also all on him. Sure, he got hit by Arik Armstead (of all people, by the way) in less than four seconds, but he failed to protect the football and lost it. Plain and simple.
While Purdy was left off the injury report ahead of this game, Shanahan said on Monday that his quarterback is still dealing with soreness in his toe, thus putting his status in question for Thursday night as well.
Loser: Kendrick Bourne
Purdy deserves plenty of blame for the 16 incompletions he recorded against the Jags, as he sailed several passes over the heads of his receivers.
But he can’t take all the blame, as San Francisco suffered several drops throughout the afternoon, three of which came from Kendrick Bourne, one of which could have and should have gone for an easy touchdown.
Bourne is only on the field because so many others are injured, and if Pearsall can’t go against the Rams, he’ll likely have to see even more targets than the four he got on Sunday. And that’s not what you want right now.
Loser: 49ers’ offensive line
We’ll give the 49ers’ offensive line a little credit for its overall pass protection, as Purdy had an average of 3.04 seconds to throw the ball, which was the third-highest time among all QBs in Week 4, not including the Monday night games. We will, however, call out Connor Colby, who allowed five pressures and received an abysmal 47.7 pass-blocking grade.
And we’ll also go ahead and call out the entire O-line for once again failing to provide ample room for either Christian McCaffrey or Brian Robinson Jr. to establish the running game. For the third consecutive week, the Niners failed to hit triple digits on the ground, gaining just 83 yards on 24 carries. When a healthy CMC averages 2.9 yards per carry, that’s a problem.
Loser: 49ers’ pass rush
Everyone knew the 49ers’ pass-rush attack would take a hit with Nick Bosa out for the season, but it was even worse than expected against Jacksonville.
San Francisco tallied just five pressures on Trevor Lawrence, marking the team’s lowest total since Week 13 a season ago. But there was a bit of a built-in excuse there, as that was the game in which the Niners took on the Buffalo Bills in the snow.
Bryce Huff was the only player to generate multiple pressures against the Jags, and that’s not a great look.
Loser: 49ers’ kick coverage
On the kickoff side of things, the Niners allowed Bhayshul Tuten to return a kick 54 yards with just over 30 seconds remaining in the first half, which the Jags ultimately turned into a field goal to take a 17-6 lead into the break.
And on the punting side of things, of course, there was the 87-yard touchdown San Francisco surrendered to Parker Washington in the third quarter, which marked the first punt-return TD allowed by the 49ers since December 2017.
That’s 10 points effectively allowed in kick coverage, which looks pretty bad in a five-point loss.
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