The availability questions from the week got answered. Mike Evans played with his ribs and led San Francisco with 5 catches for 76 yards. Nick Bosa sat, and the 49ers still held Denver to 3 points through 3 quarters. The injuries that ended up mattering were Denver's. Pat Surtain II (ankle) and Riley Moss (ribs) were both ruled out of the game as it went on, and Pat Bryant (ankle) was questionable to return. On San Francisco's side, Kyle Juszczyk left with a knee injury. Upton Stout hurt his shoulder and came back.
Denver started the way the preview hoped. The Broncos took a 3-0 lead after 1 quarter, and the defense kept a 49ers offense that had scored 98 points in 3 games scoreless for the first 15 minutes. Then the Broncos' offense stopped. Denver didn't score again until the fourth, and by then San Francisco had worked out to a 10-3 lead on a field goal in the second quarter and a touchdown in the third.
Denver's run game didn't help. J.K. Dobbins carried 11 times for 40 yards, which is close to his 17-for-49 line against the Rams. RJ Harvey was the safety valve again, with 10 catches for only 68 yards. That is what dink-and-dunk football looks like when you're behind. Christian McCaffrey wasn't spectacular, with 52 yards on 15 carries, but his touchdown came in a game where Denver needed a long drive to answer every San Francisco score and kept settling for short completions.
The fourth quarter was busy: 25 combined points. Denver got 11 of them, but San Francisco scored 14 against a secondary with both starting corners gone. The Broncos had already won 2 close games this season by rallying late, and the preview treated that as their way to win this one. This time the deficit was too big, and the 2 scores came too late.
So San Francisco is 4-0, without Bosa and with Evans playing hurt, and this was the first game of the 4 where the defense carried more of the load than Purdy. Denver falls to 2-2, and the bigger worry than the loss is Surtain's ankle and Moss's ribs going into next week.