The San Francisco 49ers made a strong case for best team in the NFL, now that they are at full strength. Key words: full strength. They dominated the Eagles 42-19 on Sunday, the largest road win vs. a 10-1 or better team since the 1970 merger, doing so with six straight touchdown drives, the best run by any team all year.
They've destroyed the competition since getting healthy during the bye week, going 4-0 and outscoring teams 134-49.
Their numbers since Brock Purdy took over as the starting QB last year with a healthy supporting cast are downright ridiculous.
Including playoffs, they are 16-0 in games with a healthy Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, the trio that went off on the Eagles on Sunday. You could probably throw Trent Williams in the mix, too.
In those 16 games, they've …
- Outscored teams 529-239
- Won 12 of 16 games by 13+ points
- Purdy has 34 Pass TD and three INT
- Beat the Cowboys, Jaguars and Eagles 118-32
- Trailed for 70 minutes and 36 seconds.
Yes, the 49ers at full strength have a great case for best team in the league with an MVP contender in Purdy, surrounded by the best weapons in the league, and perhaps the best defense.
Of course, any mention of "16-0" brings the 2007 Patriots to mind. The 2007 Patriots outscored teams by 19.7 points per game compared with the healthy 49ers number of 18.2. The rest of the 49ers numbers are favorable, trailing for about half the time vs. the 2007 Patriots
New England dominated in record-breaking fashion thanks to 50 touchdown passes by Tom Brady and 23 by Randy Moss. I'm not trying to debate whether this full-strength 49ers team could hang with that team. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. But, the fact that their numbers are even in the same ballpark says something about the upside of San Francisco's team.
2007 Patriots vs. full-strength 49ers
| 2007 Patriots | Healthy 49ers | |
|---|---|---|
W-L | 16-0 | 16-0 |
PPG | 36.8 | 33.7 |
PPG diff | +19.7 | +18.2 |
Points per drive | 3.19 | 3.04 |
Drive score pct | 53% | 53% |
Yards per play | 6.2 | 6.6 |
Time trailing | 2:21:01 | 1:10:36 |
The Patriots of course lost in the Super Bowl to the Giants. The 49ers will likely need to stay at full strength to flirt with a Super Bowl trip. Consider the four games with Purdy as their starting QB where they dealt with significant injuries to the supporting cast:
- 2023 Week 8: Samuel and Williams did not play (lost 31-17 vs. Bengals)
- 2023 Week 7: Samuel and Williams did not play (lost 22-17 at Vikings)
- 2023 Week 6: McCaffrey and Samuel injured in game and did not return (lost 19-17 at Browns)
- 2022 NFC Championship: Purdy torn UCL in first quarter (lost 31-7 at Eagles)
It'll be very hard for the 49ers to keep their full core healthy the rest of the year based on the injury history for Purdy, McCaffrey, Samuel, George Kittle, Williams, Nick Bosa and others. But if they do, watch out.
