By Matt Barrows, Vic Tafur and Amos Morale
Mac Jones threw three touchdown passes to lead a short-handed San Francisco 49ers team to a 26-21 victory against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.
Jones started at quarterback for the 49ers in place of Brock Purdy, who was ruled out with a shoulder and toe injury. San Francisco was also without star tight end George Kittle, who was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury he sustained in Week 1.
Jones, a veteran backup who’s in his first season with San Francisco, completed scoring throws to Jauan Jennings, Luke Farrell and Christian McCaffrey to move the 49ers to 2-0 on the season and drop the Saints to 0-2.
Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler threw three touchdown passes himself and, for the second week in a row, had a chance to lead a game-winning drive. But the 49ers defense held, sacking Rattler on a fourth-and-1 to seal the win.
Jones finds his rhythm
Jones started the game 0 for 4 with some of his early passes soaring over his receivers’ heads. When he calmed down, however, he found his groove, finishing 26-of-39 for 279 yards and a passer rating of 113.1, which would have been higher had Jennings collected a couple of tough, late-game passes that glanced off his hands.
Jones’ most impressive stretch came just before the half when, with 1:10 remaining, he directed a nine-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown strike to McCaffrey, the tailback’s first score since the 2023 season.
Jones had just two incompletions — one of them a spike to stop the clock — on the drive while spreading the ball around to McCaffrey, Jennings, Kendrick Bourne and Jake Tonges. Bourne, who only signed with the 49ers five days earlier, seemed to be confused regarding where to line up, leading to a timeout and a delay-of-game penalty for the 49ers. But a week after backup receivers Russell Gage, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore had zero targets, Bourne caught all three passes to him for 32 yards. — Matt Barrows, 49ers beat writer
Injury report
The injury bug continues to bite the 49ers. On Sunday, left guard Ben Bartch, who was already dealing with elbow and knee injuries, left the game in the first quarter with an ankle issue and did not return. He was replaced with rookie Connor Colby, a seventh-rounder out of Iowa. Just as problematic: Fullback Kyle Juszczyk sustained a first-half concussion and missed the rest of the contest.
Juszczyk, who took a number of snaps at tight end last week in Seattle, promised to be a big part of the game plan with Kittle out. The 49ers responded with more snaps at fullback for tight end Tonges, more snaps overall for tight end Brayden Willis, who was elevated from the practice squad Sunday, and a lot of three-receiver sets featuring newcomer Bourne. The 49ers also lost nickel cornerback Upton Stout late in the game. — Barrows
This week on special teams
Eddy Pineiro brought calm to what had been an anxiety-filled field goal kicking situation, booting attempts from 44 and 46 yards that went right down the middle. Pineiro, who entered the game with the fourth-best field goal percentage ever, 88.1 percent, nudged that up to 88.3 percent. Extra points and kickoffs? Well, that was a different story. Pineiro’s first extra point attempt sailed wide right, his 11th such miss on 127 career attempts. All of his kickoffs, meanwhile, went into the end zone with the Saints returning one. That appeared to be by design. — Barrows
Kamara on the block?
Someone has to trade for Alvin Kamara, right? The Saints running back glided around the field for 99 yards rushing and 21 receiving to open things up for Rattler to throw three touchdown passes (two were a career high). But his fumble led to a 49ers touchdown in the third quarter as the Saints fell to 0-8 with Rattler at quarterback. — Vic Tafur, 49ers beat writer
(Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
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