Battling through a sprained knee and cramping forearm, Mac Jones threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Niners past the Rams 26-23 in overtime on Thursday night.
— In the hours before Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan approached quarterback Mac Jones and let him know that the short-handed Niners were more than touchdown underdogs against their division rivals.
« I don’t really pay attention to much to it », Jones said, laughing. « Kyle 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.' »
Jones said he doesn’t pay much attention to social media and has little knowledge on the inner workings of odds making, but Shanahan’s motivational ploy seemed to work as the Niners’ backup quarterback delivered one of his best career performances and the 49ers pulled off a 26-23 victory despite missing many of their biggest stars.
The Niners entered the game as 8.5-point underdogs, according to ESPN BET, and Thursday night’s win was their first outright victory with odds that big since 2011 against the Philadelphia Eagles, when they were 9.5-point underdogs. It was also the largest upset of the 2025 season so far, surpassing the Cleveland Browns’ win against the Green Bay Packers in Week 3 as 7.5-point underdogs.
San Francisco improved to 4-1 on the season and 3-0 in the NFC West despite missing starting quarterback Brock Purdy, top-three wideouts Brandon Aiyuk (knee), Ricky Pearsall (knee) and Jauan Jennings (ribs/ankle), and star tight end George Kittle.
