49ers 38, Raiders 17: San Francisco Forces Five Second-Half Takeaways as Purdy Throws His 100th Touchdown Pass
San Francisco scored on its first three drives, then let its defense finish the job — five second-half takeaways, three interceptions of Kirk Cousins, and a pick-six on the first play of the third quarter in a 38-17 rout of Las Vegas at Levi's Stadium.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers beat the Las Vegas Raiders 38-17 on Sunday at Levi's Stadium, in the Sunday game the search boards were still chasing Monday morning — '49ers vs raiders' drew more than 500,000 searches on the day's trending file.
The offense set the table early, scoring touchdowns on San Francisco's first three drives. Christian McCaffrey scored on a pass and a run, and Brock Purdy added a 1-yard touchdown run on the way to a 21-7 halftime lead. Purdy finished 17-of-25 for 232 yards and two touchdown passes — the scoring throw to McCaffrey was the 100th touchdown pass of his career, making him the 10th quarterback since the merger to reach 100 in his first 57 games — and he ran seven times for 40 yards.
The defense then took the game away. On the first play of the second half, rookie linebacker Jaden Dugger returned an interception from Kirk Cousins for a touchdown, and four more takeaways followed: San Francisco intercepted Cousins three times in all and recovered fumbles from Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer — Mayer's, just before he crossed the goal line, set up Purdy's 37-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Watkins that made it 35-17. It was the first time in 20 years the 49ers recorded five takeaways in a second half, and the opponent then was also the Raiders. Las Vegas's run game managed 24 yards all day.
Eddy Pineiro's 35-yard field goal closed the scoring at 38-17. San Francisco improves to 7-1, on top of the NFC, and takes a 9-7 lead in the all-time series; Las Vegas falls to 4-5. The 49ers go to Dallas next Sunday.
