The 49ers weren’t pretty on Monday Night Football against the Panthers, but for once, they were effective. A 20-9 win won’t light up the scoreboards nor provide many viral Twitter or ESPN highlights, but at this stage of the season–and especially with the 49ers playing catchup following some recent bizarre defeats–winning is all that matters. If anything, it’s how they did it that’s most surprising.

Today’s Hottest Take: Welcome to upside-down world

A week ago, I pontificated on Brock Purdy’s comeback, and said the team would likely need him and all its other offensive playmakers in order to get to, and then make a dent in, the playoffs, if only because the defensive unit was so young and inconsistent. Arguably, Robert Saleh’s charges had barely produced a good performance since the stirring win over the Atlanta Falcons back in mid-October.

So, naturally, they all decided to make me look like idiots.

While Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle were excellent, Brock Purdy’s "erratic" (pronounced like Patrick Bateman) performance grounded the team’s offense into something of a quagmire through most of the first half. He did improve in the second, but some bad decision-making and a lack of patience put a ceiling on the offensive output.

Personally, I’m not sure it will happen again, and no, Mac Jones isn’t a better option, but it was definitely there, and you can understand the questions. Whether good or bad, with a Browns defense looming over the horizon that’s actually quite good, we’ll get some answers pretty quickly.

Where the team did win on Monday night was in its defensive play, with a number of players excelling. A couple of turnovers for Ji’Ayir Brown (more on him shortly) and general excellent play from the team’s younger starters like Malik Mustapha, Upton Stout, and Renardo Green led the way to absolutely squashing a Carolina offense that had looked dangerous in weeks past.

I have been critical of Robert Saleh at times this year, but to his credit, he has consistently said the defense is growing and improving, and it looks like he might be right, too.

What You Need to Know: Safety first is the way for the 49ers defense

Perhaps the biggest reason for the 49ers improvement is the increasingly good play of their safeties. I’ve been critical, both here and elsewhere, of Saleh’s decision to pair two seemingly-similar safeties in Malik Mustapha and Ji’Ayir Brown together, but there are signs that some chemistry might be developing.

Brown had probably the best game of his professional career on Monday night, logging two vital interceptions to kill off promising Carolina drives, while Mustapha remained his usual active self against the run.

Couple this with Saleh’s continual deployment of the "big nickel" defense (essentially putting three safeties on the field at all times, with Jason Pinnock usually in the third safety role, although Marques Sigle has seen some time there too), and it’s pretty clear that this team relies on its safeties having competent games to elevate the team’s level.

Saleh has always talked of the deep safety being an "eraser" in his scheme, but he also now seems to have added further coverage responsibilities to their docket. I suspect this is in large part because of the loss of Fred Warner, who could hit like the linebacker he was, but was also fast and sharp enough in coverage to essentially play as a safety.

Losing Warner was the biggest blow this team has faced, far bigger than Nick Bosa, because of the sheer amount of space and ground he could cover, while also being the team’s best asset against the run. The "big nickel" and 4-4 looks that Saleh has used for the last few weeks show an attempt to mitigate that loss. If the safeties play like this, it might just work.

Before You Go: This run has echoes of a prior season

The 49ers handled business on Monday night, and broke a bizarre win-loss pattern that’s existed since Week 3 to boot. The key now is to press the accelerator pedal down until the end of the season. Their next two games come against the Browns and Titans, two of the worst teams by record in the entire league, although the Browns’ defense at least offers something of a challenge to Brock Purdy and company.

Really, though, the 49ers are likely to need to follow through with this high-octane push until the end of the season, as both the Rams and the Seahawks look capable of denying them a playoff spot, while the Bears, their Week 17 opponent, could be an issue in the wildcard. It’s hard to see the team going 5-0 in the remaining weeks of the season, but it feels very necessary, and each game will have stakes even higher than the last.

That’s similar to 2021, when a 3-5 49ers team found themselves staring down the barrel of playoff elimination almost every week, yet still managed to win seven out of their last nine to book a spot in the playoffs. That year ended in the NFC Championship game, but we’ll not talk about how painful that was.

However, 2025 is setting up much the same way. The 49ers will absolutely need to go on a run to make the playoffs, but if they can get themselves into knockout football in this very strange year, who’s to say they can’t go all the way? With no team outside of the Rams standing out in the NFC (and they’re a team a depleted 49ers roster beat, let’s not forget), anything feels open if the team can just get to January.

But the team must take care of business first, starting by dispatching both Cleveland and Tennessee. From 10-4, the possibilities could be endless.