San Francisco 49ers 30, New England Patriots 13: Grades

SANTA CLARA – The San Francisco 49ers just beat the New England Patriots 30-13. Here are the 49ers’ grades for this performance.

BROCK PURDY: B

He was good, but not great. He completed two beautiful deep passes and threw a beautiful touchdown pass to George Kittle, who was triple-covered in the back left corner of the end zone. These were Purdy’s best pieces. Keep in mind that he was facing one of the worst pass defenses in the league. New England came into the game with a passer rating of 103.6. And late in that game, with Purdy leading by several points, he forced a pass to Brandon Aiyuk, who was double-covered in the end zone and intercepted. Purdy currently ranks sixth in the NFL in passer rating, which is good, but not as good as last season when he led the league in passer rating. Losing Christian McCaffrey clearly hurt the entire offense.

RUNNING BACKS: A-MINUS.

Jordan Mason averaged 5.1 yards per carry, gained 160 yards from scrimmage and scored a touchdown. He is the toughest runner in the NFL. He also fumbled twice, which is concerning, but he recovered both. He is having a Pro Bowl season. Unfortunately, the 49ers don’t have a replacement for him. And their fullback Kyle Juszczyk caught a pass as usual.

WIDE RECEIVER: C

They only caught 8 of 18 targets. Each of the top three wide receivers caught a long pass, but none of them were consistently dominant. And Purdy’s passer rating when targeting Aiyuk in particular in this game was 35.8. In a month, Aiyuk has become the No. 3 most expensive wide receiver in NFL history. His contract extension will go down as one of the worst ever.

TIGHT ENDS: A

George Kittle had 45 yards and a touchdown catch and blocked extremely well in the run game. The 49ers appear to be averaging at least a full yard per carry more with Kittle on the field than when he’s not on the field.

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: A

They gave up just one sack and paved the way for 148 yards on the ground. Granted, the Patriots have a terrible pass rush, but their run defense is good and the 49ers still won the battle in the trenches.

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: A-PLUS.

For the first time all season, they dominated the running game and passing game. This group didn’t do anything good last week, which means they had a lot to prove today, especially considering Javon Hargrave is out for the season with a triceps injury. And the 49ers were better without him today. Hargrave is a good pass rusher, but he doesn’t make plays until kickoff or chase ball carriers from sideline to sideline, so he hasn’t been particularly productive for the 49ers. His replacement, Kevin Givens, had 2.5 sacks in the first half alone. Upgrade.

LINEBACKER: A

Fred Warner essentially won the game with an incredible pick-six in the first half. He is clearly the best player on the team. The other two linebackers – De’Vondre Campbell and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles – both struggled. Dee Winters is better than both of them.

DEFENSE: B.

They faced an offense with no weapons and a glorified backup quarterback and shut it down. They haven’t really been tested.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D.

Isaac Guerendo fumbled a kickoff return and the Patriots recovered it, and Jacob Cowing injured his shoulder on a punt. Special teams have been a big problem three games in a row.

COACH: A

Nick Sorensen saved his job with an outstanding performance against a terrible offense. He needed to show he could generate a pass rush, and he did just that. He also needs to show that he can stop a good attack, not just a terrible one. Meanwhile, Kyle Shanahan is still trying to figure out an identity for the offense without Christian McCaffrey. They still move the ball around the field easily without him, but they have a hard time scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Today the 49ers didn’t have to do much as the Patriots basically beat themselves early in the game. But the schedule will become much more difficult in the next few weeks and the 49ers will have to play better football to win. Today was a step in the right direction.