49ers win ninth straight, eliminate Raiders from playoff contention with OT game-winner (2024)

By: Vic Tafur, Tashan Reed, David Lombardi and Matt Barrows

The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 37-34 in overtime Sunday. Here’s what you need to know:

• 49ers kicker Robbie Gould missed a 41-yard attempt to win it in the closing seconds of regulation, forcing overtime.
• Raiders quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw an interception in the first possession of overtime. Gould avenged his earlier miss, hitting the 23-yard game winner.
• The Raiders fall to 6-10 and are eliminated from playoff contention. The 49ers improve to 12-4 and have won nine in a row.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Raiders’ first game post-Derek Carr

The first day of life after Derek Carr was pretty good. Stidham threw for 365 yards and three touchdowns, driving the Raiders to a touchdown to tie the game and send it to overtime. He also ran for 34 yards and his escapability was key in the Raiders getting out to a 24-14 lead.

The Raiders always blow double-digit leads and the would lose in overtime after Stidham’s second interception. They are officially eliminated from the playoffs at 6-10 but they preserve their top-10 draft pick and Stidham gives the brass some things to think about.

The 49ers, with a huge crowd advantage on the road, sleep-walked through the first half but the Raiders’ defense is very bad. Especially without injured Chandler Jones and Denzel Perryman. — Tafur

Evaluating Stidham’s performance

Stidham surprised everybody. When coach Josh McDaniels announced the Raiders were benching nine-year starter Carr this week, his notion that part of the reasoning was to get a look at what Stidham could do was quickly brushed aside by those on the outside looking in. In response, all Stidham did was light up the 49ers — who entered the game with the best scoring defense in the league — in his first career start. He’s been in coach McDaniels’ system since 2019 going back to their years together with the Patriots, so everyone knew he was familiar with the system, but his ability to translate that into results on the field was largely unknown given he hadn’t played any meaningful snaps for the Raiders this season and entered the game with just 61 passing attempts in his four-year career.

Not only did Stidham make a number of nice throws, but he frequently used his legs to evade sacks, create extra time to make plays downfield and scramble for positive yardage. That added an element to the offense that the Raiders have simply been lacking this season. His two interceptions were significant, but the first was a tipped pass and the second was a result of one of his offensive linemen getting pushed into him as he went to throw. Both plays still contributed to the Raiders ultimately losing, but that doesn’t negate how well Stidham played overall.

Stidham’s showing would’ve been impressive against anybody, but to do this against a 49ers defense that’s given teams hell all year is nothing short of remarkable. He sparked arguably the best offensive performance for the Raiders this season as they put up 34 points and gained 500 total yards. There’s no reason to go over the top — Stidham probably isn’t going to be in consideration to be the Raiders’ full-time starter beyond this season — but he still deserves a ton of credit for flat-out balling in this one. And, from a broader standpoint, it’s pretty good evidence for the Raiders to justify their decision to move on from Carr this offseason, which is all but guaranteed at this point. —Reed

49ers’ defense struggles

The 49ers’ defense struggled profusely throughout most of the game, allowing 500 yards of total offense to the Raiders and their backup quarterback Stidham. But the 49ers delivered when it absolutely mattered, registering two goal-line stops in the first half before notching two interceptions in the second half.

The second one of those picks came when Gipson Sr. intercepted Stidham after Nick Bosa delivered a throw-altering pressure, and that set up the game-winning field goal in overtime.

The 49ers’ best defender came through at the biggest time. This defense and this team are developing a penchant for that. The 49ers have won nine straight. — Lombardi

Evaluating Brock Purdy’s performance

The rookie quarterback, who just turned 23 this past week, had dazzled with his composure and confidence throughout about a month at the helm in place of the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. But Purdy hit a rough patch down the stretch against the Raiders. He missed three shots downfield that could’ve busted open the game for the 49ers, including an underthrow to George Kittle that instead ended in an interception for the Raiders. For the first time in his NFL career, Purdy looked shaky against a steady diet of aggressive Las Vegas blitzes.

But 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan dialed up devastating adjustments — and they involved continuing to trust his quarterback. Purdy rewarded that trust with several clutch connections to Brandon Aiyuk down the stretch. Those set up screen passes that punished the Raiders’ blitzes and fueled a sterling 49ers’ finish on offense. Purdy finished 22-35 for 284 yards and, most significantly, showed an ability to bounce back from a difficult stretch under intense pressure. —Lombardi

49ers lean on McCaffrey

If this game had been played last season you get the sense that Deebo Samuel would have gouged a Raiders defense that has reliably faded in second halves this season and was flagging late on Sunday. Instead, the 49ers leaned heavily – very heavily – on Christian McCaffrey, who set up his blocks perfectly and who had a very Deebo-like 38-yard catch and run late in the fourth quarter that set up San Francisco’s final touchdown.

After grabbing a short screen, McCaffrey stopped and waited for his blockers to catch up, then plowed over cornerback Amik Robertson before being taken down at Las Vegas’ 14-yard line. McCaffrey finished with 193 yards from scrimmage – 43 percent of the team’s total – and had more than 100 rushing yards for the third time in the last four games.

His 37-yard run in the first quarter also put him over 1,000 rushing yards for the third time in his career. Could he achieve 1,000 rushing and receiving yards for the second time in his career? That’s very unlikely – he’d need 293 receiving yards in next week’s finale against the Cardinals. —Barrows

Highlight of the game

DAVANTE OMG

📺: #SFvsLV on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/AWLwvE0huJ pic.twitter.com/H6iuoxHqYo

— NFL (@NFL) January 2, 2023

Key stats

Adams surpassed Tim Brown for most single-season receiving yards in Raiders franchise history.

Davante Adams now has 15 career games with 100+ receiving yards and multiple receiving TD.

The only players with more in the Super Bowl era: Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison and Terrell Owens.#RaiderNation @Raiders

— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 1, 2023

Required reading

• How Brock Purdy overcame struggles in the 49ers’ epic outburst against Raiders
• Who’s Jarrett Stidham? A QB the 49ers want to use to get ready for the playoffs
• Tafur: Raiders have fun and educational start to post-Derek Carr era
• Tafur: Where Raiders season went wrong — false expectations, big underperformance

(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)