Deebo Samuel

The fireworks between the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers began well before Sunday's kickoff.

The teams got into a shoving match on the field while they were preparing for the game.

Some, including Fox's Jimmy Johnson, thought Cleveland only worsened its odds of upsetting San Francisco after giving the Niners plenty in the way of added motivation. Not to mention, there isn't any good time to get into a physical confrontation with two-time All-Pro Trent Williams or 2021 Pro Bowler Deebo Samuel.

Sure enough, the 49ers went 84 yards in five plays on the opening drive to take a 7-0 lead. Christian McCaffrey hauled in a 13-yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy.

It might be a long day for the Browns.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel took a shot at the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday after Cowboys superstar linebacker Micah Parsons expressed his desire for a rematch in the playoffs.

Speaking on The Edge with Micah Parsons, the two-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro took issue with 49ers tight end George Kittle wearing a "F--k Dallas" shirt under his jersey on Sunday night, and Parsons also suggested that the game will go differently if the Cowboys and 49ers meet again:

"He said, 'Eff Dallas.' Yeah. I just feel like he's making it way more personal than it had to," Parsons said. "Kittle's my guy, but I'mma say this—laugh now, cry later. We've got something for that. Just trust. Just trust. If we see them again, just trust. Laugh now, cry later."

During an appearance on Up & Adams with Kay Adams on Tuesday, Samuel questioned why Parsons and the Cowboys would want to face the Niners again:

"It was already personal before the game started," Samuel said. "42-10, I don't think you want to see us again. It might be a little bit worse."

The 49ers dominated the Cowboys in a 42-10 win on Sunday night, marking the third time the Niners have beaten the Cowboys in the past three seasons across the regular season and playoffs.

Dallas never truly posed a threat to San Francisco on Sunday, as the Niners marched 75 yards on seven plays and scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, and led by 14 points at halftime before outscoring the Cowboys 21-3 in the second half.

The Niners out-gained the Cowboys 421-197, had 25 first downs to Dallas' eight, registered four sacks to Dallas' one, and forced four turnovers.

San Francisco's defense made life miserable for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, holding him to 153 yards on 14-of-24 passing and intercepting him three times.

Offensively, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was nearly perfect, going 17-of-24 for 252 yards with four touchdowns and no picks. Three of those touchdown passes were to Kittle.

Entering the game, Dallas had one of the best defenses in the NFL, but it was unable to generate consistent pressure and had no answers for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense.

The 49ers ended the Cowboys' season each of the past two campaigns, eliminating them from the 2021 NFC Wild Card Round of the playoffs by a 23-17 score and from last season's NFC Divisional Round of the playoffs in a 19-12 win.

At plus-99, the 49ers have the best point differential in the NFL by far this season, holding a 20-point advantage over the Buffalo Bills.

They are also one of only two remaining undefeated teams in the league at 5-0, along with the defending NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Even after getting blown out by San Francisco, Dallas has the NFC's second-best point differential at plus-51, but the Cowboys dropped to 3-2, putting them two games behind the Eagles for the NFC East lead.

Given that the Cowboys are trending toward being a wild-card team again and the 49ers may end up with the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NFC, a Dallas vs. San Francisco rematch in the postseason is undoubtedly possible.

The San Francisco 49ers have looked like arguably the best team in football over the first three weeks of the regular season, and opposing teams are apparently using them as a blueprint for future success.

Matt Miller of ESPN reported teams are "shifting their strategies at wide receiver to mirror the San Francisco 49ers ' philosophy on drafting physical pass-catchers."

Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk are among the most physical wide receivers in football, using their solid frames and quickness to excel as playmakers while also being willing blockers on run plays.

Of course, this is all much easier said than done. If there were a plethora of Deebos and Aiyuks hanging around, they would already be on the field. Both young wideouts are singular in their all-around abilities and situation; there may be no better offensive coach in football than Kyle Shanahan.

The odds of rivals replicating their 49ers' success is slim.

That said, the NFL has long been a copycat league, so it's no surprise teams are looking at the sport's most complete unit and trying to find their own version.

Miller noted Washington's Rome Odunz and South Carolina's Xavier Legette as two names that could rise up draft boards due to their physicality. Odunze, in particular, has the potential to be a first-round draft pick.

The San Francisco 49ers appear to have avoided a serious injury with wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that Samuel's ribs did not have any fractures following the team's Week 3 victory over the New York Giants on Thursday.

Samuel suffered the injury in the second half and was slow to get up before heading to the medical tent. He would return to the game and record a touchdown to go along with six catches and 129 yards.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed after the game that Samuel would undergo X-rays on Friday. While the results appear to be positive, Shanahan did say that Samuel was "pretty sore" and that he is "day-to-day."

Samuel is a dynamic playmaker for a potent 49ers offense. He has amassed 3,477 yards and 13 touchdowns in the passing game and has 830 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground in his career. His best season came in 2021 when he had 1,770 yards from scrimmage and 14 total touchdowns.

He had a down 2022 season but appears to be on the right track in 2023. He already has 295 yards from scrimmage and two total touchdowns.

San Francisco's other star wideout, Brandon Aiyuk, missed Thursday's game with a shoulder injury.

The 49ers have some extra time until their next game after the quick turnaround from Week 2 to Week 3. The hope will be that Samuel and Aiyuk will be recovered in time for Week 4 when the 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals.

The San Francisco 49ers didn't play the cleanest of games against the New York Giants on Thursday night and still came away with a decisive 30-12 win. Brock Purdy made some questionable decisions early, penalties were a constant problem, and San Francisco allowed the Saquon Barkley-less Giants to hang around until a 10-point fourth-quarter surge.

Thanks to star skill players Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, the 49ers proved to be far too much for the outmatched and injury-hampered Giants to handle.

The stat sheet will suggest that San Francisco dominated from start to finish. New York generated just 150 yards of offense, and the 49ers held the ball for more than 39 minutes of game time.

But it was not smooth sailing in the first two-and-a-half quarters.

Purdy threw several balls that could have been intercepted in the first half. One of them was a completion that didn't finish in the hands of his intended target.

Purdy did throw a first-half touchdown to rookie Ronnie Bell, but his stat line at intermission—14-of-23 for 147 yards—was more good than great. Yet he settled in during the second half by trusting Samuel and Kittle (150 combined receiving yards, 1 TD after halftime), which was perfectly logical.

Kittle remains one of the biggest mismatches at his position in the NFL. He can out-physical most defensive backs and outrun most linebackers.

Samuel is a yards-after-catch machine who will turn short- and medium-range passes into big gains more often than not.

And Samuel is perfectly capable of winning deep, as he did on Purdy's second touchdown pass of the evening.

San Francisco also got a strong performance from McCaffrey, a dark-horse MVP candidate who can play just about any role asked of him in Kyle Shanahan's multifaceted offense.

McCaffrey split time with backup Elijah Mitchell (14 total touches) but still finished with 85 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown, five receptions and 34 receiving yards.

Add in 1,000-yard receiver Brandon Aiyuk—who missed Thursday's game with a shoulder injury—and Mitchell, Bell, Jauan Jennings and Kyle Juszczyk, and it's clear San Francisco has the top overall skill group in the NFL.

On Thursday, that was enough to power San Francisco past the Giants despite six penalties, only one forced turnover and three red-zone trips that yielded field goals. Purdy didn't play his best, and yet he had the first 300-yard regular-season game of his career (310 yards, 2 TDs), thanks in part to the skill-position group's YAC abilities.

Moving forward, it means that Shanahan is only scratching the surface of what he can do offensively and that the 49ers can win with Purdy playing like the young game-manager that he occasionally reminds us he is.

"Other quarterbacks around the league are so jealous of Brock Purdy because he gets this innovative offense," Hall of Famer Steve Young told KNBR's Tolbert and Copes (h/t David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone). "He gets these guys to throw the ball to, and he gets Trent Williams to protect him, you know what I mean? That doesn't happen in the league. You don't get this kind of support."

It means that combined with Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Fred Warner and one of the NFL's toughest defenses, San Francisco has a roster that can compete with anyone.

Defenses may win championships, but teams that don't produce offensively simply do not reach championship games in today's NFL.

The 49ers can win in a variety of ways, and while they made it look relatively easy in the end against New York, they will be tested soon enough. The rudderless Arizona Cardinals are up next, but then they will play the Dallas Cowboys—perhaps the only other squad that can currently lay claim to being the NFL's best.

Against a legitimate contender like Dallas, the 49ers might not be able to lean entirely on their defense. They might get the shaky four-quarter performance from Purdy that they've yet to see.

Yet San Francisco is going to have a chance to win any contest it's in this season because it has too many great skill-position players to contain—and Shanahan knows how to get the most from each of them.

Defenses that key in on the run or bring heavy pressure can be burned by quick passes to the intermediate and deep passing areas, as evidenced by Purdy beating the blitz to deliver the fourth-quarter touchdown strike to Samuel.

Teams that defend the back end will get chewed up by McCaffrey and the running game.

If the 49ers are desperate for a big play, Shanahan is likely to find the mismatch by using Samuel as a runner, McCaffrey as a receiver, Juszczyk as a tight end or by getting Kittle one-on-one coverage.

As Young noted, it's a great luxury for Purdy to have, and it makes a 49ers team that forged a defensive identity in 2022 dangerous on the other side of the ball. San Francisco won't rack up 441 yards or reach 30 points in every game, but it can get the yards and points it needs in the games that matter most.

As long as this group can stay healthy—admittedly a big "if" with big injuries dominating the early 2023 headlines—the 49ers will have every chance to return to the NFC title game and make a push for the franchise's sixth Lombardi Trophy.

The San Francisco 49ers further solidified their status as a Super Bowl favorite with a dominant 30-12 victory over the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football.

Niners quarterback Brock Purdy played a clean game, completing 25 of his 37 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns as the team improved to 3-0. It was his first time reaching the 300-yard mark during the regular season, and he did so without wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk in the lineup.

Purdy's chemistry with Deebo Samuel was on full display, as the star wideout notched six catches for 129 yards and a score. It's the third straight game that San Francisco has reached the 30-point mark to open the 2023 season.

Samuel had a number of highlight plays, as it frequently took multiple Giants players to try to bring him down while he powered through tackles. His touchdown reception came on a beautiful back-shoulder throw by Purdy in the fourth quarter.

Purdy and Samuel were the talk of social media thanks to their potent connection on Thursday night:

In addition to Purdy and Samuel's big night, star running back Christian McCaffrey totaled 119 yards from scrimmage with a rushing touchdown. It's his 12th straight game reaching the end zone dating back to last season, tying Jerry Rice's franchise record.

The 49ers will look to keep the momentum going when they return to action in Week 4 in an NFC West matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.