Kyle Shahanah’s elevation of Brock Purdy shown in 3 plays vs. Raiders

If Purdy had any nerves about leading the 49ers down the field on a potential game-winning drive, they will likely have been calmed right off the bat, with Shanahan using the vast amount of talent at his disposal to manipulate the Raiders’ zone defense.

Shanahan sends Jennings in motion and then on a downfield route to stretch the defense horizontally and vertically, with Jennings becoming the responsibility of Nate Hobbs as the boundary corner drops to his deep quarter of the field. 

Safety to the weak side of the formation put in conflict here by the motion and route up the sideline from Jennings and the threat of CMC underneath, creates big hole in the zone for Aiyuk. pic.twitter.com/JkY9VSdygx

— Nicholas McGee (@nicholasmcgee24) January 6, 2023

Teamer, reading the backfield the entire way as he drops into zone, is the nearest defender to Aiyuk running an eight-yard in-breaking route, but he hesitates to close the hole in zone because of the pass pattern of McCaffrey, whose status as the best pass-catching running back in the NFL has been firmly re-established since his trade to the 49ers.

Purdy never moves his eyes off Aiyuk but he does not need to. The influence of McCaffrey has held the defense enough for him to fit the throw into Aiyuk for an easy 12-yard gain.

It was a play in which the 49ers attacked one side of the field at all three levels, with the underneath route drawing the most respect and — as Shanahan so often does — putting a key second-level defender in conflict.

From there, the 49ers’ final drive in regulation never lost steam and should have been the one that sealed the game.

The Niners had to wait a little longer to do that but the offense eventually got the reward of a win for a gameplan in which Shanahan both empowered his quarterback and took the strain off him with well-designed and well-executed calls that got the ball in the hands of dynamic playmakers and allowed the attack to produce efficiently in key situations in a tight game.

Perhaps even more impressive was that Shanahan had success calling plays that have long since been the domain of Samuel for Aiyuk and McCloud, the fourth wide receiver on the depth chart.

With Samuel and Elijah Mitchell set to return from injury in time for the 49ers’ postseason campaign, Shanahan will have the full complement of weapons with which to attack much better defenses than that of the Raiders in the playoffs.

The game in Vegas…