49ers 31, Seahawks 13: Grades

The 49ers just won in spite of Brock Purdy.

The 49ers just beat the Seahawks 31-13 on Thanksgiving. Here are the 49ers' grades for this performance.

BROCK PURDY: B-MINUS

He played well enough for the offense to score 31 points, plus he threw a beautiful 28-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk to seal the victory in the fourth quarter. But he never had to play from behind, his run game gained 169 yards on the ground, his defense gave up six points and he still threw a pick-six and posted a quarterback rating of just 86.7. In a lot of ways, the 49ers won this game in spite of Purdy. Once he threw the pick-six, Kyle Shanahan took the game out of Purdy's hands and called lots and lots of runs and short passes until garbage time. Shanahan clearly lost confidence in his quarterback. It will be interesting to see how much Shanahan trusts Purdy in a close playoff game.

RUNNING BACKS: A

Christian McCaffrey averaged 6 yards per carry and gained 139 yards from scrimmage and scored two touchdowns. And that's a regular game for him. He's CLEARLY the MVP of this offense. Elijah Mitchell also averaged 5.6 yards per carry. He's healthy for the first time in a long time and he looks terrific.

WIDE RECEIVERS: A-MINUS

Deebo Samuel had 94 yards from scrimmage and a rushing touchdown -- he was excellent for the first time in a while. It seems like the big stage brought out the best in him. But Brandon Aiyuk was the one who put the game away in the fourth quarter -- he was clutch. Unfortunately for the 49ers, he got targeted only four times. That should never happen. The 49ers let the Seahawks off the hook.

TIGHT ENDS: B

George Kittle had only 19 receiving yards, but he made excellent blocks in the run game.

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: A

They gave up only 1 sack and paved the way for 169 rushing yards. Jon Feliciano was a big upgrade over Spencer Burford who missed the game with a knee injury.

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: A

They sacked Geno Smith five times. This defense has been so much better since the addition of Chase Young, who didn't register a statistic in this game, but he freed up Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead and Javon Hargrave, who were outstanding.

LINEBACKERS: A

They dominated Seattle's running backs and helped limit the Seahawks to just 4.2 yards per carry.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: A

Charvarius Ward broke up three passes and Ambry Thomas broke up two while intercepting one. They both were outstanding and seemed like they knew what was coming before it happened. Tashaun Gipson also had a sack.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-MINUS

They gave up a 66-yard kickoff return, but they caught the returner before he reached the end zone, plus they pinned the Seahawks inside their 20-yard line three times and recovered a muffed punt.

COACHES: A-MINUS

Steve Wilks was phenomenal -- he scouted the Seahawks stone-age offense perfectly and shut it down. His pass rush, his run defense and his coverage all were elite. Wilks deserves a ton of credit after all the criticism he took during the first half of the season. Kyle Shanahan wasn't as good, although he did some good things, particularly in the first half when the 49ers scored 24 points. His run game worked all night. But his passing game was inconsistent at best, partly because Purdy didn't play his best game, but also partly because Shanahan didn't feature Brandon Aiyuk, which is a strange decision, considering Aiyuk has become an elite wide receiver. In the third quarter, Aiyuk got zero targets and the 49ers scored zero points. Then when it was time to put the game away in the fourth quarter, Shanahan finally called Aiyuk's number and he scored a 28-yard touchdown, because he's a gamebreaker. Shanahan should have gone to him in the third quarter. There's no reason to freeze out Aiyuk. Bill Walsh never would freeze out Jerry Rice. Still, the 49ers won their third game in a row by a wide margin, and now they're 8-3. And next week, they'll face the Eagles. And they just might win, because they're just that good.