#mac-jones

#mac-jones

It's not like tight end George Kittle has been missing in action since returning a little more than a month ago from a torn hamstring. He's been as relentlessly positive as ever, cracking up teammates while at the same time inspiring them to do greater things. It's no accident the 49ers' two best rushing games against Atlanta and the New York Giants came with Kittle delivering key blocks and setting a physical tone.

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.'"