The 49ers have relied on their defense to close out games in a 2-0 start

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — With a game on the line, the San Francisco defense delivered once again, providing a refreshing turnaround from last season's late-game struggles.

Offseason acquisition Bryce Huff delivered a game-sealing strip-sack with less than a minute to play to close out a 26-21 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Huff delivered a week after Nick Bosa's strip-sack in the red zone sealed a 17-13 win over Seattle in Week 1, and the Niners (2-0) are off to a strong start after tying for the league high with three blown leads in the final three minutes during last season's 6-11 campaign.

“Just feels a lot better,” Bosa said. “In the past, seems like we would find a way to lose. Two games like this, dogfights to start the year, and just closing it on defense, there’s no better feeling.”

The 49ers have opened the season with back-to-back wins for the fourth time in the last six seasons, with the other three leading to long playoff runs.

They have managed to do that despite a string of injuries, including a toe injury that sidelined quarterback Brock Purdy on Sunday. Mac Jones threw three TD passes in his place and San Francisco became the first team since Minnesota in 2016 to open a season 2-0 with two starting quarterbacks.

San Francisco also lost star tight end George Kittle in the opener to a hamstring injury and is playing at least the first four games of the season without No. 1 receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who is recovering from knee surgery.

Despite all of that, the Niners have still been able to bank two wins that could prove crucial later in the season.

“Obviously, we were down a lot of guys and had some adversity come up," running back Christian McCaffrey said. “To close that game out the way that we did was awesome. There’s always room for improvement. Overall, the win column, being 2-0 right now is awesome.”

Passing offense. The San Francisco passing game was sharp even without the injured Purdy, Kittle and Aiyuk. Jones looked like the player he was as a rookie in New England in 2021, completing 26 of 39 passes for 279 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. The one glaring mistake came when he held onto the ball too long on a strip-sack in the third quarter.

Pass defense. Spencer Rattler was able to carve up the 49ers' young secondary at times, completing 25 of 34 passes for 207 yards and 3 TDs. The situation could have been even worse except for two dropped passes by Juwan Johnson and a miscommunication between Rattler and Chris Olave that turned a sure touchdown on the Saints' first drive into an incompletion.

Fred Warner and Dee Winters. The 49ers linebackers have fueled the defense, with Winters doing a great job replacing the energy that was missing when Dre Greenlaw missed most of last season. Warner forced a fumble by Alvin Kamara and recovered it to thwart a second-half drive and finished with 11 tackles and a pass defensed. Winters had eight tackles and allowed only 21 yards receiving on five targets, according to Pro Football Focus.

Depth receivers. The Niners added three receivers since the final week of training camp but haven't gotten major contributions from any of them. Kendrick Bourne had three catches for 32 yards on Sunday in his first game, Marquez Valdes-Scantling has no catches and one target this season, and Skyy Moore has played only five offensive snaps and hasn't gotten a target.

LG Ben Bartch has a high ankle sprain and will be out for a while. ... FB Kyle Juszcyzk and DB Siran Neal are both in the concussion protocol with coach Kyle Shanahan saying Neal had symptoms on Monday. ... WR Jauan Jennings (ankle) and OL Spencer Burford (knee) will be evaluated this week.

3 — Jones threw all three of his TD passes on third down, going 7 for 10 for 121 yards. He's the first San Francisco QB to throw at least three TD passes on third down since Jimmy Garoppolo did it on Oct. 31, 2019, at Arizona.

The 49ers will take on Arizona in their home opener on Sunday in search of their ninth 3-0 start in the Super Bowl era.

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