Russell Wilson has beat every team but the Seahawks. The way the Broncos have played it looks like he’ll never beat the Seahawks. He had a chance last year but lost by 1 point.
Rodgers has beaten every team but the Packers. The Jets don’t even have Green Bay on the schedule this year so it probably doesn’t matter that he got hurt in the first game, unless this was a crazy year where both teams made the Super Bowl that wouldn’t have happened. Maybe next year?
Unless they force it via the 17th game, the Jets face the NFC North in 2026.
Rodgers will be 43 in 2026. He’s no Tom Brady, I don’t expect him to be playing anymore by then. He might not even be playing next year.
So that Brock Purdy guy is pretty good. 72.1% completion percentage, 9.3 yards per attempt, 9/0 TD/INT, and leading the league in passer rating (122.1) and whatever ESPN says QBR is (“83.7”).
He’s really good, he has some ridiculous weapons (George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Bradon Aiyuk) and the best defense in the NFL. I love his story, and I want to root for the guy. But dammit, he is in the same division as the team I root for. 
Unless they get snakebit again like they did last year (they ended up without any quarterbacks on the roster in a playoff game) and it happens early on, I have trouble seeing them not winning their division and even going to the Super Bowl, regardless of the Eagles.
Did anyone notice the Lions and Niners ran the exact same trick play, with the same result? Handoff to running back, pitch to WR on a reverse, flea flicker back to QB and pass to the open tight end for a touchdown.
Purdy is good. But most of it is the Shanahan system. The 49ers got a 90 passer rating out of Nick Mullens, an undrafted rookie (who is now out of the league).
Not watching the games, I see.
You can’t just say it’s the system. The Niners are a very different team when Purdy is playing compared to when he isn’t. The big questions around him were, was last year just a fluke (because sometimes a QB will have a great year and then that’s it, especially as other teams get to know that player and adjust) and would be come back from his injury okay. I think the answers might be no and yes to those questions.
I just wish he wasn’t a Niner. (grumble)
He’s definitely defeating the Broncos on a regular basis.
That’s awesome! Do their respective coaching staffs have a common history?
On the contrary. I’ve watched all the Niners’ games this season - Purdy is my fantasy QB. He has been okay through four weeks (obviously he was very good last night). He’s a talented player, but the Shanahan system has taken bad players and made them decent and is now taking a good player and making him a star.
Literally the only difference between Purdy and Mullens, though, is that Purdy isn’t throwing picks. Through his first eight games, Mullens threw for 13 TDs, 2277 yards and 8.3 yards per attempt. Through his first 9 games, Purdy threw for 18 TDs, 2397 yards and 8.5 yards per attempt.
Note also that Mullens did not have Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel or Christian McCaffrey to throw to when he was a rookie. He had George Kittle and that was it (no other receiver even had 500 yards that year). The team’s leading rusher was Matt Breida with 814 yards.
I noticed it while I was watching the 9ers game, as the play was happening! I saw the highlight from the Lions game and shouted “That’s the same play the Lions used earlier today!” On the news this morning they showed the play from the 9ers game but failed to mention it worked for Lions earlier in the day. Pretty play that was! I don’t know if the 9ers were inspired by the Lions, or if they had planned that play for use against the Cowboys all along. It was uncannily exact - even the camera angles for both plays, and the defense played it the same in both cases.
Maybe they’re repeating plays because of the writers’ strike, and they ran out of people to write scripts for the games.
The 49ers have had the play in their book for a couple years and tried running it last year, but Kittle was covered and McCaffrey was the QB, so it didn’t work. According to Shanahan, “Detroit ran it earlier in the day. They scored. I saw it before the game. Based off what we were going against today, we planned on calling it. But definitely, seeing it work for someone else gives you more confidence.””
And from Kittle: “I was sitting on my couch and I saw LaPorta scored on it with the Lions and I sent to my tight end coach, I was like, ‘Dude, they ran our play. How’d they know?’ He was like, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to run it better.’ And yes, 10 yards farther out, so I guess that counts.”
All these Niners watching the Lions play…scouting out their main competition?
Bit surprising to see it in 2 NFL games on the same day but the play’s been around a while.
Michigan ran pretty much the same play a few weeks ago against Rutgers. Didn’t quite make it to the end zone but it did setup the subsequent TD
Something fascinating just mentioned on the MNF broadcast: the two placekickers tonight, Anders Carlson of Green Bay and Daniel Carlson of Las Vegas, are brothers.
There were two Gramatica brothers kicking in the league for a while in the late nineties.
Jordan Love should not have been allowed to throw the ball farther than 10 yards in that game.
As well as the Bahr brothers in the '70s and '80s, the Zendejas brothers in the '80s, the Mike-Mayer brothers in the '70s, and the Gogolak brothers in the '60s (two of the first soccer-style kickers in pro football).