Niners’ nuggets: Turning point from 49ers’ wild win over Seahawks, plus Evans’ viral moment with Diggs

The 49ers and Seahawks played one of the more thrilling regular-season games you’ll ever see on Sunday, and the Niners left Seattle with a 32-29 win.

The score would suggest an offensive showcase, but really it was a battle of defenses for most of the game as the seven combined turnovers created plenty of short fields. Neither team reached 200 yards passing or 100 rushing.

These NFC West rivals played it tight all along: Neither team led by more than a single score. The 49ers just engineered two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, and Seattle came up a yard short of keeping its final drive alive to tie or win the game.

Here are a few nuggets from the 49ers’ victory, which avenged season-finale and playoff losses to the Seahawks last season.

Turning point: How to pick just one from this twisty-turny game? The 49ers took the lead in the fourth-quarter when Brock Purdy hit Brandin Cooks for a short touchdown pass with 11:02 left in the game. With Deebo Samuel out injured, Cooks saw more snaps and had two penalties (one declined) on the drive, but he made a shoestring catch in the end zone and the 49ers never trailed again. Mike Evans was huge on that drive, with catches of 15, 23 and 28 yards to move the ball down the field.

Stat that tells the story: The teams combined for 35 points off those seven turnovers. None of those takeaways came in the final 20 minutes of the game, though, as the back-and-forth affair straightened out. The 49ers had 21 points from the Seahawks’ four turnovers, three of which came inside Seattle’s own 20-yard line.

Zebra report: Dre Greenlaw was ejected from the game for headbutting Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV on the Seattle sideline just after bumping Sam Darnold as he went out of bounds on a scramble. His personal foul on the play was one of eight penalties for the 49ers. The game’s final play came down to the officials, too: Cooper Kupp was ruled short of the first-down marker when he went out of bounds on fourth down, and the call stood after video review.

Mike Evans and Trevon Diggs talking after the play 👀

(📺 FOX) pic.twitter.com/6pI64V6qBW

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 11, 2026

They said it: “I was blocking him until the whistle and then he said something like I’m doing extra or something like that. I didn’t know that was him at first because I’ve played against him a few times and we’ve always been cool; he’s a good player. I honestly didn’t know it was him, because in the helmet it’s hard to tell sometimes. We were talking trash. I think I pushed him and I was like ‘Who are you?’ and I looked to make sure. Oh, it’s (expletive) Diggs. And then he mushed me. It should have been a penalty.”

– Mike Evans on his viral moment turning Trevon Diggs around to read his jersey

Wait, what?: The 49ers’ third touchdown was a gift from the Seahawks with just a few seconds left in the first half. George Holani never quite gathered a handoff from Darnold in the Seattle end zone, had his arm grabbed by 49ers defensive tackle Gracen Halton and fumbled. The ball went up in the air and bounced off Holani’s helmet, then Halton gathered it in the end zone. It was the 49ers’ first defensive touchdown of the season, and the first forced and recovered fumble of rookie Halton’s pro career.

Medical tent: Samuel went down in the third quarter on a run, fumbling as he fell to the ground after suffering a hamstring injury. He was ruled out for the game. Jacob Cowing injured his ankle soon after but returned to the game. Khalid Kareem was injured early in the fourth quarter.

What’s next: The Niners return home for a national TV game as they’ll host the Washington Commanders next Monday night at Levi’s Stadium. Washington is 1-3-1 after a bizarre overtime finish Sunday against the Giants, as Jayden Daniels scrambled in field-goal range as the clock ticked down below 10 seconds and went down rather than throwing the ball away. With no timeouts, the Commanders saw the clock run out for the tie.