The San Francisco 49ers beat probably the worst team in the NFL Sunday with a 37-24 win over the Tennessee Titans, maintaining some good-but-not-great playoff positioning.

Your San Francisco 49ers had their bye last week, and yesterday they had the next best thing — a home game against arguably the league’s worst team. And that game ended up a 37-24 win over the Tennessee Titans, though that game ends the monthlong easy cakewalk phase of their schedule, and mostly very difficult games remain now on the Niners’ regular season horizon.

This game was only competitive for the first few minutes. The 49ers scored on their very first drive and never looked back, with the above four-yard touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings. Tennessee would drive within the 49ers’ 10-yard line on their first drive, but would only be able to score a field goal to make it 7-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Brock Purdy showed off his wild improvisational skills throughout the game, like with this fun completion to DeMarcus Robinson, which resulted in the standard one-yard Christian McCaffrey TD run. Another Niners Eddy Pineiro field goal made for a 17-10 halftime score, along with a corresponding missed Titans field goal by placekicker Joey Slye. (Remember him? He was briefly the Niners’ replacement kicker when Robbie Gould was injured in 2021.)

49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall bounced back from his recent post-injury slump (six catches for 96 yards), which set up another third-quarter touchdown. Next thing you know, the Titans punt, the 49ers scored on yet another touchdown on a drive that took more than nine minutes off the clock, and it was a 31-10 blowout by the fourth quarter.

Yet the Titans would put up some fight! They scored a ‘fat guy touchdown’ on a gadget play to 305-pound defensive end Jeffery Simmons, and ‘fat guy touchdown’ is one of the best plays in all of football. Another garbage time Titans touchdown and an additional 49ers field goal would put this thing out of its misery with a 37-24 final score.

But bigger picture, the division rival Rams and Seahawks also won their game, and both sit with gaudy 11-3 records. And the Rams are the No 1 seed in the NFC? They are. But it also feels like these 49ers, Rams, and Seahawks all feel like teams that could all each beat any one of the other on any given day, and no team is clearly the best in the division.

Meanwhile, the 49ers maintain a somewhat firm-ish grip on an NFC Wild Card slot. But their schedule is about to get much harder.

Next up is next week's Monday Night Football game against the suddenly good Indianapolis Colts. But the Colts have been relegated to playing 44-year-old literal grandfather Philip Rivers at quarterback. And yet these very Colts damn near came back and beat the Seahawks yesterday! So there are probably no more sprinkled Christmas cookies on the schedule as the 49ers head into the final three weeks of the regular season.

Related: 49ers Make Mincemeat Out of an Inept Cleveland Browns Team In 26-8 Win [SFist]

Image: SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 14: Christian McCaffrey #23 of the San Francisco 49ers runs with the ball during the third quarter against the Tennessee Titans at Levi's Stadium on December 14, 2025 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)