Purdy's 3 TD passes lead 49ers to 37-24 win over Titans

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers know their high-powered offense will need to carry the load if they are going to make a deep playoff run.

The performance in their first game back from the bye week was just the kind of game the Niners will need.

Brock Purdy threw three touchdown passes and the 49ers started the stretch run of their season with a 37-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

“For us every single game, with the guys that we have on the field, that’s our standard is to go out to move the ball, put up points, regardless of who we’re playing," Purdy said. "We know that we’re talented and we have guys across the board — receiver, tight end, running back. For us, that’s always going to be our standard.”

The 49ers (10-4) came back from their bye week and looked extremely sharp on offense against the overmatched Titans (2-12) by scoring on their first five possessions of a game for the first time since the 2021 season.

Purdy threw two touchdown passes to Jauan Jennings, another on a 1-yard jump pass to George Kittle that coach Kyle Shanahan said he usually gives his quarterback a hard time for trying.

“But when it works, we call him Michael Jordan,” Shanahan said. “We like cleats and being able to drive the ball like that. But sometimes he’s got to use another club and it’s cool that he’s got that.”

Purdy finished 23 for 30 for 295 yards and converted four first downs with his legs, including a 26-yard scramble that was the longest run of the season for the Niners.

“Brock was awesome today,” said Christian McCaffrey, who scored on a 1-yard TD run. “He did a great job commanding the huddle, made some plays with his feet, which were great. He threw the ball downfield well and guys made plays. Brock was Brock.”

Rookie Cam Ward threw a touchdown pass to Gunnar Helm in the second quarter and another in the fourth to defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons. Ward finished with 170 yards passing as the Titans were unable to build on the momentum from a win over Cleveland last week and remained in a three-way tie for the worst record in the NFL. Tennessee hasn't won back-to-back games since November 2022.

The Titans blew a good opportunity late in the first half when Ward missed a wide-open Van Jefferson on a deep shot and then Joey Slye missed a 50-yard field goal on the final play of the half to keep San Francisco's lead at 17-10.

The Niners extended the lead to 14 points when Purdy connected with Jennings for the second time on the opening possession. Tennessee went three-and-out on its first two drives of the half and never had a chance at a comeback with the Niners controlling the ball by converting 9 of 15 third downs.

“You’ve got to be able to get off the field,” interim coach Mike McCoy said. “When you convert at that high rate, that percentage, it’s tough. That’s when you give up all the points. So you’ve got to be able to get off the field on third down.”

Simmons put together an impressive stat line in a losing effort.

He recorded a strip sack against Purdy early in the fourth quarter and then caught a 1-yard TD pass on the ensuing possession for his second career touchdown reception.

This marked just the sixth time since sacks became official in 1982 that a player had a sack, a forced fumble and a TD catch in the same game with J.J. Watt doing it twice in 2014 for Houston, with Mike Vrabel (2007), Jared Allen (2017) and Barry Krauss (1982) the others to do it.

Titans: Three safeties left with injuries in the first half and didn't return: Xavier Woods (hamstring), Mike Brown (ankle) and Kevin Winston (hamstring). ... G Kevin Zeitler (groin), WR Van Jefferson (back) and LB Cedric Gray (concussion) all left in the second half.

49ers: DT Jordan Elliott was scratched after injuring his knee before the game. ... WR Ricky Pearsall hurt his ankle on the first play from scrimmage, but returned to catch six passes for 96 yards. He left the game late with a knee injury that the team is hopeful is just minor. ... OL Spencer Burford hurt his ankle, but returned.

Titans: Host Kansas City on Sunday.

49ers: Visit Indianapolis on Dec. 22.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) celebrates his touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) escapes pressure from San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Kalia Davis, right, during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons (98) makes a touchdown catch in the end zone during the second half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) celebrates his touchdown with running back Christian McCaffrey, left, during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”

The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the U.S.-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.

Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.

“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.

Trump's comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran.

Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”

“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”

The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.

Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the U.S. increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.

After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.

The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.

Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized Britain and Spain for their reluctance to aid the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump fumed about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.

Trump also said he was going to "cut off all trade with Spain,” the day after Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said his country would not allow the U.S. to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the United Nations’ charter.

The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”

“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.

But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”

Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.

He said Berlin wants to work with the U.S. on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.

“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”

Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.

The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.

“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.

AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Fatima Hussein and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump, right, talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)