Niners' Jones beats odds, lets it fly in career night

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- In the hours earlier Thursday night's crippled against the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers manager Kyle Shanahan approached backmost Mac Jones and fto him cognize that the short-handed Niners were much than touchdown underdogs against their part rivals.

"I don't truly wage attraction excessively overmuch to it," Jones said, laughing. "Kyle came up to maine and helium was pissed astir it. He's like, 'Dude, I can't judge they moved america to underdogs again,' oregon similar much [of underdogs] oregon whatever. And I'm like, 'I don't cognize what that means really, [but] like, yeah, let's spell termination them.' He was pissed astir it. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm pissed, too.'"

Jones said helium doesn't wage overmuch attraction to societal media and has small cognition connected the interior workings of oddsmaking, but Shanahan's motivational ploy seemed to enactment arsenic the Niners' backup backmost delivered 1 of his champion vocation performances and the 49ers pulled disconnected a 26-23 triumph contempt missing galore of their biggest stars.

The Niners entered the crippled arsenic 8.5-point underdogs, according to ESPN BET, and Thursday night's triumph was their archetypal outright triumph with likelihood that large since a 2011 triumph against the Philadelphia Eagles, erstwhile they were 9.5-point underdogs. It was besides the largest upset of the 2025 play truthful far, surpassing the Cleveland Browns' triumph against the Green Bay Packers successful Week 3 erstwhile the Packers were favored by 7.5 points.

San Francisco improved to 4-1 connected the play and 3-0 successful the NFC West by earning a triumph against the Rams contempt missing starting backmost Brock Purdy; top-three wideouts Brandon Aiyuk (knee), Ricky Pearsall (knee) and Jauan Jennings (ribs/ankle); and prima choky extremity George Kittle. Star antiaircraft extremity Nick Bosa is besides retired for the play with a torn close ACL.

To unfastened the game, Jones was throwing to a postulation of receivers and choky ends that had mustered zero catches for the 49ers successful 2024, with Kendrick Bourne and Demarcus Robinson starting astatine receiver and Luke Farrell getting the motion astatine choky end.

Despite each the moving parts, Jones battled done a sprained near genu and a cramping forearm to decorativeness 33-of-49 for 342 yards with 2 touchdowns and nary interceptions for a passer standing of 100.9.

"He played his ass off," Shanahan said. "He was unbelievable successful the archetypal half. Got banged up a small spot determination successful the 2nd half...