The San Francisco 49ers’ injuries finally caught up to them.
The 49ers battled the Atlanta Falcons, which was commendable given their long injury report. But trailing 26-20 late, Brock Purdy threw an interception to linebacker Kendal Daniels. That was it for the 49ers and their undefeated streak to start the season. They are 6-1 after the Falcons won 29-20.
Losing a road game that was an early start in the Eastern Time Zone isn’t a big deal for a team that was 6-0 and up multiple games in the division. Nobody expected the 49ers to go 17-0. The problem isn’t a single loss. It’s the injuries.
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Most other teams dealing with the 49ers’ list of injuries would be closer to winless than undefeated. They overcame numerous injuries last season to make the playoffs and then were dealt the same hand this season. Last season and through six games this season, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan found a way to get his team to rise above it.
Sunday brought a new challenge, and that was playing without wide receivers. San Francisco had six receivers either inactive or on injured reserve. Mike Evans is dealing with an Achilles injury and left the team’s Week 6 game early due to it. In Week 7 Evans was inactive. That meant Brandin Cooks, who is 33 and hasn’t posted a 1,000-yard season since 2021, and Jordan Watkins, who had five career catches before Sunday, started at receiver against the Falcons.
It wasn’t just receiver injuries. Defensive end Nick Bosa missed another game. Christian McCaffrey had to manage a thigh injury during the game.
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If it was a normal team, even injuries wouldn’t be a big deal. Players like Evans and Bosa should be back soon. Every team deals with it. But the 49ers have been the most injured team in the NFL over the past few seasons, and while that seems like terrible luck, it’s not turning around. It’s also an older team, especially among the elite stars, so more injuries and wearing down over a long season are concerns.
And there’s a dropoff to their second team. Without Evans, Deebo Samuel Sr. and other receivers the 49ers got very little out of their wideouts. With McCaffrey banged up, Jordan James fumbled, then rookie Kaelon Black fumbled on the very next play, and the 49ers lost that one. That lost fumble changed the game’s momentum.
The 49ers are off to a great start and one loss doesn’t change that. They’re still in good shape in the NFC West. But it was the first time the 49ers couldn’t overcome their injuries. And now they have to hope that, somehow, the bad injury luck doesn’t continue. At least they have their bye in Week 8.
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Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 7 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Denver Broncos’ offense: Consistency is the next challenge for the Broncos’ offense. But at least they found some explosive plays.
The Broncos got a 62-yard rushing touchdown from Bo Nix, a 52-yard receiving touchdown from RJ Harvey and a 47-yard catch from Marvin Mims Jr. that set up another touchdown in an easy 30-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Broncos are 5-2 but the offense has been tough to watch at times. Before Sunday, Denver had one 40-yard pass play, and only Arizona had posted zero. The Broncos hadn’t had a 40-yard run either.
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The offense still wasn’t moving much on a play-to-play basis, but at least there are some positive strides coming out of Sunday’s win.
J.J. McCarthy and Cam Skattebo: They each dealt with adversity this season. McCarthy was traded by the Minnesota Vikings and Skattebo found himself deep in the doghouse a week ago.
They both teamed up for an impressive 27-21 upset win over the Houston Texans in overtime on Sunday.
McCarthy got the start after a hot finish to last week’s loss as Jameis Winston’s replacement. It was a tough assignment on the road against a good Texans defense, but McCarthy played well. He went 20-of-28 passing for 252 yards.
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Skattebo shined too after being practically benched last week. He got no carries against the Saints in Week 6 after fumbling in overtime the week before, but on Sunday he came up with a huge play, a 42-yard run in overtime that got the Giants in field-goal range. They didn’t need the field goal as Devin Singletary walked it off with a 30-yard touchdown run for the 27-21 victory. Skattebo had 124 yards rushing and a touchdown.
McCarthy will get more starts going forward after looking good against Houston. And Skattebo is unlikely to be benched again anytime soon.
Harrison Smith and the Vikings’ defense: Smith is one of the more popular Minnesota Vikings players in recent years, and he was celebrated as he appeared to retire at the end of last season.
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Harrison’s retirement didn’t last long, as he came back before the season. Then on Sunday he sealed a win with his 40th career interception. The 16-10 win for the Vikings wasn’t pretty, and the Indianapolis Colts had a shot to win it at the end on the final drive. But Daniel Jones was pressured and threw downfield, where Smith stepped in front of the receiver for an interception to win the game.
The Vikings are playing great defense this season. They allowed only 218 yards Sunday. After falling behind early they shut out the Colts in the second half. The Vikings are 6-0 and while there are things to correct after Sunday, particularly on offense, it was a good day to cheer for a franchise legend.
Todd Monken: He is getting his first chance to be an NFL head coach at age 60. He’s showing that maybe he should have gotten that shot earlier.
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The Cleveland Browns are 5-2 and one of the best stories in the NFL. They had another dramatic win Sunday, driving down for a field goal after the Tennessee Titans tied it with 58 seconds left. Andre Szmyt hit the game-winning field goal as time expired and the Browns won 27-24.
Monken took over a situation that seemed terrible due to questions at quarterback. But Deshaun Watson has played well enough, especially with multiple game-winning drives, and the Browns keep winning. That has to be a satisfying start for the rookie head coach.
Aaron Rodgers: He used to typically make a few plays a game with his scrambling ability. That was a long time ago.
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Quarterbacks who are creeping up on their 43rd birthday aren’t supposed to be effective anymore, unless they’re Tom Brady, and they surely shouldn’t be scrambling for first downs to clinch wins. But Rodgers’ 8-yard scramble on third-and-6 gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a key first down in a 16-10 win over the New Orleans Saints in the first NFL game in Paris.
More than the play itself, that scramble epitomized how much juice Rodgers still has left in what he has said is his final season. The Steelers are 5-2, putting them in great position to make the playoffs. Rodgers had 212 yards and a touchdown Sunday. While his numbers are a bit down from his fantastic career level, he’s still far better than anyone other than Brady has been at his age. If this is it for Rodgers, he’s having a good sendoff.
LOSERS
Trey Smack, Josh Jacobs and Matt LaFleur: It’s the small things that win and lose most NFL games.
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The Green Bay Packers moved the ball well enough to get a big win at the Detroit Lions on Sunday, but they made several mistakes that cost them (and they’ll argue that several questionable calls that went against them contributed too). The Lions won 20-17 on a field goal as time expired.
Smack, the Packers’ rookie kicker, missed field goals from 26 and 35 yards. The second one was partially blocked. He wouldn’t have been kicking if Jacobs, playing his first game this season after being reinstated from the commissioner’s exempt list, hadn’t dropped a pass in the end zone right before the attempt. And it all might have looked different if LaFleur had taken a field goal in the first half instead of going for it on fourth-and-4 from the Lions’ 7-yard line, a try that was unsuccessful.
The Lions finally took advantage of the extra opportunities, putting together a drive after Smack’s second miss. A roughing the passer call on the Packers helped. The Lions got into field-goal range, let the clock run down and kicked a go-ahead field goal as time ran out.
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The Packers had their chances. And they’ll have regrets.
Kirk Cousins: The argument for Cousins continuing to start was easy when the Las Vegas Raiders were 3-0. It’s getting a little more complicated now.
The Raiders lost their fourth straight game. On Sunday they were beat 35-21 by the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams led 28-3 in the second quarter. The Rams finally put together a top-end performance, but it was also a poor showing by Las Vegas.
Cousins wasn’t awful and wasn’t the biggest reason for the loss — the Raiders’ defense was worked over by Matthew Stafford — but he didn’t elevate the offense either. In the second half the Raiders hit a fake punt for a first down, but had a turnover on downs to end the drive. Vegas got it right back with a fumble recovery, but its offense had another turnover on downs. Cousins and the Raiders rallied in the fourth quarter to cut the Rams’ lead to 28-18 but Los Angeles went on a long scoring drive to put it away. Had Cousins played better in the first three quarters, it might have been a different outcome.
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Cousins playing OK in another loss might not be a big deal except that No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza is behind him. With every loss and middling performance, there will be speculation that Mendoza is going to take the starting job soon. The Raiders have resisted that, wanting Mendoza to sit and learn. But the pressure will be on to make the move, especially with losses piling up.
Aaron Glenn: It was questionable that Glenn got a second season coaching the New York Jets, because his first year was terrible. After Sunday, his time with that job seems to be very close to running out.
The Jets lost 28-25 at home to the Miami Dolphins, who were 0-5 coming in.
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It was a good win for the Dolphins, and the first for Jeff Hafley as an NFL head coach. Miami won’t get any 0-17 questions. The Dolphins played like a team that knew it had a shot to beat a poor opponent. And that played out.
The Jets didn’t play well in any phase. They won their opener against the Titans but have won just once since. The Jets trailed by 11 late on Sunday, got a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, but couldn’t stop a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak just inside of the two-minute warning and the Dolphins ran out the rest of the clock for their first win.
The Jets didn’t want to fire Glenn after just one season, even though they went 3-14 and there were some alarming signs from Glenn. He replaced most of his staff over the offseason. The results are the same. An embarrassing loss Sunday is a terrible development for Glenn, who might not make it to the end of the season as Jets head coach.
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It’s possible he won’t make it to Week 8.
The second half Ravens: Baltimore needs to figure out how to play better after halftime. Because it has cost it three wins this season.
The Ravens, whose first two losses came after leading 14-6 and 10-0 at halftime, led the Cincinnati Bengals 13-0 after the first half Sunday in a big AFC North showdown. Then their offense, without Lamar Jackson, stopped moving the ball. And their defense, which had pressured Joe Burrow often in the first half, got run off the field in the second half.
Burrow had 249 yards and four touchdowns in the second half alone and the Bengals won 35-13 with five unanswered touchdowns in the second half. You can’t blame Jackson’s absence for that. The Bengals trailed by 13 at halftime but blew the Ravens out so bad in the second half that they pulled Burrow for the final few minutes.
The Ravens will be division contenders again after Jackson returns. But there’s frustration growing with why he was out again with an ankle injury, and there’s plenty of other issues that are now nagging at the Ravens.
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The weird NFC South: The one team that looked like it could be decent from this division trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had just one win, 33-6 at halftime. At home.
The Carolina Panthers’ momentum hit a wall Sunday. The Buccaneers, 1-5 coming into Sunday’s game, blew out Carolina 43-13.
It got ugly early. A strip-sack on Bryce Young, who had been playing very well before Sunday, was returned by the Bucs for a touchdown (with a flip into the end zone from 280-pound Calijah Kancey) and a 17-0 lead.
Young had just 163 yards, two interceptions and a lost fumble. When the Panthers finally scored, their extra point was blocked and returned by Tampa Bay for 2 points. The Panthers played a sloppy game all around. Baker Mayfield was back but the Buccaneers hardly needed him. Mayfield had just 64 yards passing but the Panthers were imploding on the other side of the field.
It’s hard to say a 2-5 team is back in a division race, but it’s not like the NFC South has any good teams, it appears. That’s nothing new.
