SEATTLE — The coffee was pumping through Seattle, but it was Mike Evans who brewed up the magic on Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers wide receiver really introduced himself to the Seahawks rivalry in style, and his teammates didn’t hold back on the praise afterward. Fred Warner called him a “walking aura.” Christian McCaffrey said he is “everything we want in a receiver.” Brandin Cooks slapped a “first-ballot Hall of Famer” label on him. Center Jake Brendel kept it simple, calling him an “official grown man.” But head coach Kyle Shanahan summed it up best: “That’s exactly why he’s here.”
Evans put on a show, catching seven passes for 113 yards and a touchdown. He did it while playing through a nasty rib injury for the second straight week. The Niners were stuck in mud for three quarters, trailing 26-21 with barely 159 yards of offense. Everything they had scored came from turnovers or defensive plays. They needed a real drive, and Brock Purdy turned to his big target.
The connection clicked right away. A 15-yard gain over the middle, then a 9-yarder. On third-and-10 from the Seattle 49-yard line, Purdy went back to Evans for 23 yards. Even after Purdy took a silly intentional grounding penalty, he trusted Evans, lofting a 28-yard pass down the sideline on second-and-21. That set up a touchdown for Brandin Cooks, and Evans grabbed the 2-point conversion to put San Francisco ahead 29-26.
“I’m on the sideline watching him do crazy stuff,” Warner said. “I’m like, we have Mike Evans. I can’t believe it. And he’s unreal. He really doesn’t say anything. He just shows up every week and just works and then goes out there on Sunday and just dominates you.”
There was even some spice on the field. Evans got into a back-and-forth with Seahawks cornerback Trevon Diggs. Evans admitted after the game he didn’t even know Diggs was a Seahawk yet, having joined the team in August. They were talking trash, and Evans pushed him, then looked at his helmet to see who it was. “Oh, it’s f—ing Diggs,” Evans recalled. Diggs responded by mushing him, but no penalty flag flew. “It is what it is,” Evans said with a smile.
What it is for the 49ers is their third 5-0 start under Shanahan, and history shows those usually end well in San Francisco. They became just the second team ever to start 5-0 with three wins against teams that had 12 or more wins the year before. Evans also pushed his career touchdown count to 112, tying Shaun Alexander for 19th on the all-time list. Through five games, he has 24 catches, 326 yards, and three touchdowns, matching his entire output from eight injury-hit games last year in Tampa.
Asked if he signed up for moments like Sunday, Evans kept it real. “It’s just what I’m here for,” he said. “Nothing is really promised in this game, and if you’re available to play and go out there for your team and try to do your best to help get a win, that’s what I’m going to do.”
