The San Francisco 49ers staved off disaster against the Seahawks on Thursday night in Seattle. After blowing two double-digit leads this season, San Francisco was ahead 23-3 early in the third quarter after a touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to George Kittle.

My wheels almost fell off. The not-so-special teams 49ers scored a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Seahawks wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. It happened. Kyle Shanahan’s team was on the verge of blowing another double-digit lead.

Seattle would drive 94 yards down the field for a touchdown on its next possession after the 49ers made a three-pointer, making it a one-score game. It was about to happen again.

Luckily for the 49ers, they were able to pull away and leave Seattle with a 36-24 win. Key plays to maintain their lead included rookie cornerback Renardo Green’s interception of Geno Smith, which ultimately led to the 49ers scoring a touchdown on their next possession. Fellow rookie running back Isaac Guerendo ran recklessly through the Seahawks defense on a 76-yard run late in the fourth quarter and parried that attempt.

Broader strokes here. San Francisco needed this win. After a short week, things began to falter after a 10-point lead was blown in the fourth quarter at home against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

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With games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys looming, San Francisco couldn’t afford to fall to 3-4 on the season. A loss on Thursday would also have left the 49ers 0-4 in the NFC and 0-3 in their division. Needless to say, winning was a must.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that San Francisco still has a lot of work to do if it wants to come out of the upcoming two-game stretch looking good.

Areas where the San Francisco 49ers need to struggle before the Chiefs game

Overall, San Francisco’s defense played its best against the Seahawks. Sure, Geno Smith threw for 312 yards. But that happened on 52 pass attempts and Seattle trailed by several points most of the time. In fact, Smith was under constant pressure every time he fell behind.

Nick Bosa finished the game with two quarterback hits and zero sacks. That’s not nearly enough to tell the whole story. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, he pressured Smith a whopping 14 times throughout the game.

Brock Purdy also played flawless football, completing 18 of 28 passes for 255 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions. That included a 76-yard touchdown strike to Deebo Samuel.

These are some of the positives to take away from San Francisco’s 12-point win over Seattle on Thursday night. Here I’ll look at some things the 49ers need to improve as a crucial two-game stretch looms.

49ers special teams have to be special

San Francisco took a 23-3 lead early in the third quarter on Thursday night after Purdy led the team down the field with a 70-yard touchdown drive. At that point, it seemed like the 49ers were going to run with it.

Not so fast.

The league’s worst special teams completely collapsed on the ensuing kickoff, scoring a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the aforementioned Shenault Jr.

That is simply unacceptable in today’s NFL. Such mishaps cannot occur on special teams. Unfortunately, it has been an issue for the 49ers this season.

“I thought we didn’t have a great kickoff and what I saw live was we had an unblocked player miss a tackle and then they went into the lane,” Shanahan told reporters after the game.

The head coach apparently decided to also bat for his special teams.

“I thought the special teams made some plays today,” Shanahan told reporters. “They recovered a fumble for us, a huge comeback that I can’t remember if it led to a field goal or a touchdown. Last week they scored a touchdown on a blocked kick that was returned for a touchdown.”

Talk about putting a positive spin on things. Certainly the 49ers have had some great success on special teams. But that one Shenault return would have changed the game in an instant on Thursday night. It cannot continue to be an issue for San Francisco.

Better pass protection for Brock Purdy

Purdy wasn’t sacked once against Seattle on Thursday night. He was hit four times on 32 dropbacks. That’s not bad either.

These are also basic statistics. The tape tells us a different story. Purdy was once again forced to maneuver through the pocket to avoid pressure. He was flushed to the outside several times throughout the game.

As we’ve seen all season, Purdy came out smelling like roses. He is now one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL when it comes to recognizing pressure and looking to make plays. That was obvious on Thursday evening.

At some point, San Francisco needs to get better pass protection from offensive linemen not named Trent Williams. It starts inside with the guards. But right tackle Colton McKivitz has to turn things around. Against Seattle, he only allowed one pressure. This is a start.

San Francisco 49ers red zone battles

The 49ers were much better in the red zone on Thursday than they were last Sunday. They turned five trips to the red zone into three touchdowns.

However, there is still much more room for improvement in this regard. San Francisco drove 90 yards down the field on its first possession of the game. Then it came to a standstill at the seven-yard line and a field goal. From then on everything improved.

“I just try to keep it simple and obviously control the ball when I need to and hit my No. 1 or No. 2 as efficiently as possible on my pass and I kept it simple,” Brock said Purdy after the game on Thursday night’s game, via NBC Sports Bay Area.

He did just that, throwing two touchdowns in the red zone on Thursday while also hitting Samuel for a 76-yard score. It’s baby steps for the 49ers. But after scoring a touchdown in six red zone opportunities against the Cardinals, San Francisco improved in that regard in Seattle.

Things obviously won’t be easy as San Francisco hosts Kansas City and Dallas in the next two weeks. If the 49ers can continue to fix the issues mentioned above, they have a chance to make it through this rose-scented two-game slate. If not, a 3-5 record could be on the horizon.