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At some point, you have to look at the number and ask the obvious question.
Are you kidding me?
Four games. Four victories. And not a single sack allowed by the 49ers.
Not one.
How in the name of Bill Walsh is that even possible?
In a league where defensive coordinators spend their waking hours figuring out how to wreck quarterbacks’ afternoons, the 49ers have gone an entire month without letting an opponent finish the job.
Enjoy this while it lasts. History suggests you might wait a very long time to see it again.
The 49ers are the first team since Peyton Manning’s 2005 Colts to open a season with four consecutive games without surrendering a sack. They are just the fifth to do it since team sacks began being tracked in 1963.
Twenty-one years between occurrences.
“It starts with the O-Line, but collectively it’s been a huge deal and definitely wasn’t expecting to do that all the way up until now,” coach Kyle Shanahan said.
When the man designing the offense is surprised, that tells you something.
Nobody should expect that zero to survive an entire season. But the combination responsible for it should have the 49ers feeling awfully good about what comes next.
Start with left tackle Trent Williams, left guard Connor Colby, center Jake Brendel, right guard Dominick Puni and right tackle Colton McKivitz.
They are giving Brock Purdy time to operate and Shanahan room to work.
General manager John Lynch sees the benefits of familiarity.
“And all these guys have played a lot of football, but they got to play a lot of football together,” Lynch said Thursday during his weekly appearance on KNBR.
That matters when five men must recognize and respond to trouble together.
“I will acknowledge I think they’ve elevated their game and I think they’ll have to,” Lynch said.
Purdy sees the work behind the improvement.
“Yeah, they’re awesome. Just how they come to work every single day, attacking meetings and practice and it just translates on Sundays,” he said.
Williams has never needed convincing about the potential.
“I’ve always thought we had the talent to be one of the best O-lines in the league,” he said.
Through four games, they have supplied plenty of supporting evidence.
But this goes beyond five men winning their blocks. Shanahan’s offense helps create favorable situations. Receivers must be where Purdy expects them. And the quarterback must recognize when to deliver the ball or escape.
“It’s how you’re running the ball on first and second down so that we’re in advantageous third downs,” Lynch said.
That is how an offense can help its protection before the pass rush even begins.
When trouble does arrive, Purdy has shown an instinct for handling it.
“There’s certain times you’ve got to hang in there and really let something develop and take a hit as you throw,” Shanahan said. “And there’s times you’ve got to give up on something and make the play.”
Leave too early, and a completion might disappear. Stay too long, and the offense loses ground.
Purdy keeps finding the balance.
That partnership should encourage the 49ers most. The streak will end. The qualities sustaining it can last.
“I think we see that as kind of a collective stat,” Lynch said. “But those guys, there’s no doubt about it, they’re playing at a very high level. It’s a big reason our record is what it is.”
Seattle presents the next test, with a defensive front capable of ending the streak and reminding everyone just how unusual this month was.
Eventually, somebody will get there. The zero will become a one.
Until then, appreciate what is happening.
Four opponents have taken their shot. Four have walked away without a sack.
Are you kidding me?
The 49ers are making something extraordinarily difficult look almost routine.
Just don’t confuse the two.
