The numbers don't always tell the whole story, but in the case of the San Francisco 49ers' Week 6 win over the Seattle Seahawks , they are extremely reflective of the context.
In the aftermath of the 49ers' shock loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5, in which they let a 13-point lead slip, quarterback Brock Purdy referred to a team yet to find its identity.
But the identity of this team on offense that has long since been apparent under head coach Kyle Shanahan was on full display as the Niners got back on track with a 36-24 victory in Seattle. Though the 49ers briefly threatened to surrender a 20-point advantage over the Seahawks, San Francisco improved to 3-3 with an offensive performance that featured some of the hallmarks of an archetypal display from a Kyle Shanahan team.
Aided by a Seahawks defense ill-equipped to stop the run from both one-high and two-high looks, the 49ers racked up 228 yards on the ground, their most since a 51-13 rout of the Carolina Panthers in Week 8 of the 2019 season (232).
They did so without overcommitting to the run game. The 49ers tallied 33 rushes in the game, averaging 6.9 yards per attempt, though three of those runs were Purdy scrambles.
With Purdy throwing the ball 28 times, the 49ers' offensive approach was superbly balanced, and saw them dominate out of the personnel grouping they believe has become their most effective in recent seasons.
According to NextGen Stats, the 49ers used 21 personnel on 47 percent of their plays.
Those plays saw San Francisco gain 317 yards and score two touchdowns, the most such yards out of 21 in a game by any offense in the NextGen Stats era (since 2016).
San Francisco averaged 11.3 yards per play and registered a 61% success rate on 28 plays in 21 personnel.
The 49ers have long since had a unique advantage out of 21 personnel with their ability to get five legitimate passing game threats out into routes from what is a heavy grouping.
But it is running back Christian McCaffrey's abilities as a receiver that have maximized the 49ers' versatility and threat from 21 over the last two seasons. Their dominance from that grouping against Seattle came with McCaffrey still serving in the role of spectator and with none of San Francisco's tailbacks playing in his place offering anywhere close to the kind of upside the reigning Offensive Player of the Year brings in the passing game.
The Niners' outstanding production came against a Seattle defense that has struggled markedly over the last few weeks. Still, the 49ers' proficiency out of 21 on Thursday makes it enticing to think about the levels they could reach when McCaffrey returns, especially with Purdy playing some of the best football of his career and alleviating some of San Francisco's red zone woes with a pair of perfectly placed touchdown strikes to George Kittle.
With two of their three defeats seeing San Francisco surrender double-digit leads to the Los Angeles Rams and Cardinals respectively, the 49ers' ship was in danger of being blown way off course in Seattle, particularly when the Seahawks cut it to a one-score game in the third quarter.
But, with the help of a key interception from rookie Renardo Green that set up Kittle's second touchdown, the 49ers found a way to finish, capping a game in which they dictated matters on the ground and through the air from their favored personnel package but without all of their favored personnel.
The Niners appeared to be losing their way after the loss to Arizona. This, however, was a lot closer to the brand of football the NFL has come to expect from San Francisco, and the 49ers suddenly look to be close to finding themselves again.
Said Purdy after the game: "Obviously there's always going to be stuff that you can clean up and for us, our standard is high here and so I think a lot of us will go to, 'all right, we could have done this or that and be better here', but I think at the end of the day, man, it's a team sport and so to go four quarters with all these different kinds of motions and parts of the game and to be able to rally together and defense get a turnover and us score a touchdown at the end, that's team football, man.
"That's the sport that we play, so I feel like we did take a step in the right direction for sure and we're always going to be hard on ourselves and need to grow and get better, but I really do think that we all, as a team, came together and found a way to end it really well."
Related: 49ers avoid case of deja vu on injury front with good news on three stars of win over Seahawks
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