Shanahan called Jones into his office before Thursday's practice session to give his backup quarterback news which had already become apparent during the week of practice. Brock Purdy was good to go. Purdy worked with the first team during the brief media window Friday and wasn't included on a remarkably clean final injury report. The only player listed was Deommodore Lenoir, who had a calf strain during warmups Thursday. If Lenoir can't play, the likely starter at cornerback is Darrell Luter Jr.
Jones is playing with a heavy knee brace and is dealing with an oblique injury that happened late in a 26-21 win over the Los Angeles Rams a week earlier. It turns out Jones wound up not throwing at all. He wasn't able (to throw) today so he just focused on handoffs and stuff like that, coach Kyle Shanahan said on KNBR-680. Really tried to rest it up. Should be able to go on Sunday, but definitely wasn't good enough to go today. Hopefully that'll continue to improve. He was listed as a limited participant.
"I think Mac was one of those guys who was in bad situations in New England relative to coaching and all that type of stuff, and who was the offensive coordinator, and how did he get developed when he came into the league. He hasn't been in great circumstances. I think, right now, he is in a really good circumstance with Shanahan and their offense."
I was told he was cramping too hard and Adrian (Martinez) was going in, Shanahan said Friday during a conference call with local media. And then I looked up and Mac was in the huddle, so he just sprinted out therer and kept it going. I was like, `all right, let's see how long this lasts.' And it lasted the whole game.
Starting in place of injured QB Brock Purdy once again, Jones completed 33-of-49 for 342 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 100.9. "I don't really pay attention to much to it," Jones told ESPN's Nick Wagoner of San Francisco entering the game as 8.5-point underdogs. "[San Francisco coach] Kyle [Shanahan] came up to me, and he was pissed about it. "He's like, 'Dude, I can't believe they moved us to underdogs again,' or like more [extreme underdogs] or whatever. And I'm like, 'I don't know what that means really, [but] like, yeah, let's go kill them.' He was pissed about it. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm pissed, too.'"
