For 30 minutes, Sunday’s matchup between the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers was a defensive slugfest.
Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense eventually broke through. Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos fell short of another comeback as the 49ers improved to 4-0 with a 24-14 win in the matchup of Super Bowl hopefuls.
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Playing against a secondary that lost both starting cornerbacks Patrick Surtain II and Riley to injury, the 49ers turned a 3-3 halftime tie into a 17-6 lead in the fourth quarter.
The Broncos eventually answered with their first touchdown and a two-point conversion to cut their deficit to 17-14 with 4:05 remaining, raising the spectre in San Francisco of yet another Denver rally. But Purdy and the 49ers struck again to quickly dash those hopes.
Denver blitzed on second-and-5 near midfield on San Francisco’s ensuing possession, and Purdy found his favorite target, George Kittle, on a screen pass. Kittle did the work from there, running untouched through Denver’s secondary for a 56-yard scored to ice the win and maintain San Francisco’s undefeated season.
The win keeps San Francisco in control of a stacked NFC West, ahead of the 2-1 Seattle Seahawks and 2-2 Los Angeles Rams.
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For the Broncos, the game script was familiar until the end. Nix and the Broncos have depended on second-half comebacks with 14 of them to win games since the start of last season. They fell behind again on Sunday, and couldn’t mount a rally against a strong opponent.
Denver’s formula of rallying late for wins is a difficult one for consistent success. It didn’t work on Sunday.
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