Mike Masala, Niners WireTue, November 25, 2025 at 3:45 PM UTC·2 min readThe San Francisco 49ers hosted the Carolina Panthers on Monday night at Levi's Stadium, and Kyle Shanahan's team earned a 20-9 win to improve to 8-4 on the season and brought them to within a half-game of second place in the NFC West.
San Francisco's offense wasn't great on Monday, as Brock Purdy, in his second game back from the toe injury that kept him out for eight weeks, threw three interceptions in the first half. Luckily, Carolina's offense wasn't much better, and the Robert Saleh's injury-riddled defense wasn't tested.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAt this point, the 49ers are the seventh seed in the NFC and have an 86% chance of making the playoffs, according to NFL.com.
On Tuesday, USA Today's Nate Davis released his newest weekly NFL power rankings and after having the 49ers at No. 15 for the last two weeks, he moved them up to No. 14 after their primetime win over Carolina.
"RB Christian McCaffrey is on track for his third season with 2,000 yards from scrimmage and second with both 1,000 yards rushing and receiving − a feat no player in NFL history has managed on multiple occasions," Davis wrote.
McCaffrey has the most yards from scrimmage this year (1,581), as he's also received the most touches (298) by a long shot. He has 61 more touches than the player with the next most (Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe 49ers can't play like they did on Monday and expect to win against better teams in the NFL, especially if they do make the postseason.
With a game against the Cleveland Browns (No. 24) on Sunday, San Francisco probably won't move up a lot with a win, but they could fall drastically with a loss.
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: NFL power rankings: Where are 49ers after Week 12 win vs. Panthers?
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