49ers Report Card: Dominant Defense and Run Game Secure Win Over Raiders

The San Francisco 49ers opened Week 9 at Levi’s Stadium by jumping on the Las Vegas Raiders, securing a 38-17 victory that marked their fifth consecutive win coming out of the bye week.

San Francisco controlled the game with a rushing attack that accumulated 190 yards on 43 attempts. Rookie Kaelon Black led the ground game with 70 yards on 11 carries, while Christian McCaffrey added 68 yards and a touchdown on 18 attempts.

Quarterback Brock Purdy also utilized his legs to pick up five first downs, finishing with 40 yards and a touchdown on seven rushes. In the passing game, Purdy threw the 100th regular-season touchdown of his 57-game NFL career during the first half.

Playing without Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel, Purdy distributed the football to multiple receivers, including Jordan Watkins, who hauled in a leaping 37-yard touchdown catch to give San Francisco a 35-17 lead late in the third quarter. The lone blemish through the air came when Purdy left a second-half pass short, resulting in an interception by Raiders rookie safety Treydan Stukes.

Defensively, the 49ers limited the Raiders to just 1.6 yards per rushing attempt, holding Mike Washington to minus-3 yards on six carries. Greenlaw contributed three tackles for loss, and Osa Odighizuwa added two tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

The second half featured five takeaways by the 49ers’ pass defense, starting 17 seconds into the third quarter when Jaden Dugger intercepted Kirk Cousins and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown. Fred Warner later punched the ball out from Raiders tight end Brock Bowers for Dre Greenlaw to recover, and Upton Stout forced a fumble on Michael Mayer that Warner recovered in the end zone.

Renardo Green and Malik Mustapha added two more interceptions off Cousins to complete the defensive onslaught. On special teams, Eddy Piñeiro converted all five of his extra-point attempts and added a 35-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, though the kickoff coverage unit allowed a 54-yard return to Dylan Laube.

Coach Kyle Shanahan mandated that his offense run the ball 40 times, a mark the team surpassed with 43 rushing attempts. Shanahan’s decision to let 40 seconds pass before Matt Gay’s field-goal attempt was part of the only time the 49ers did not score on a first-half possession.