Missing a plethora of key starters, back-up quarterback Mac Jones led the depleted San Francsico 49ers to a thrilling 26-23 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football.

Jones – starting in place of Brock Purdy who missed the game with a toe injury – threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns and lead a game-winning, field-goal drive in OT in SoFi Stadium to lift the short-handed Niners over their division rivals.

It was a gutsy performance by San Francisco as a whole, but in particular from Jones who appeared to be bothered by a knee injury and hobbled to the sidelines on numerous occasions after getting hit by Los Angeles defenders.

But despite being without most of the 49ers’ receiving core – Brandon Aiyuk, Rick Pearsall, Jauan Jennings and George Kittle all missed Thursday’s game with injuries – Jones was able to will San Francisco to an impressive road victory to lift them to 4-1 on the year and earn the praise of his head coach afterwards.

“He played his ass off, man,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Jones afterwards. “He was unbelievable in the first half. He got banged up there in the second half and battled through it.

“He protected the ball and, going against that defense and throwing the ball that many times, not having a turnover and protecting the ball like he did, I can’t say enough good things about Mac.”

Although the injury report was extensive for San Francisco, Thursday’s game couldn’t have started better for the Niners.

They led 14-0 early in the second quarter after Jones led two long touchdown drives, with the fifth-year QB throwing scoring passes to Jake Tonges and Christian McCaffrey.

The Rams did rally though and by midway through the fourth quarter, the score was tied at 20-20; Los Angeles would’ve had a one-point lead had the 49ers not blocked Joshua Karty’s extra point on their third touchdown.

With the scores level, the 49ers drained over five minutes in a drive which ended in a field goal, leaving the Rams just over 40 seconds to respond.

LA did so, however, with Karty hitting a 48-yard field goal to take it to overtime. The 49ers made a field goal on their opening drive of OT meaning the Rams needed to make their own to continue the game or score a touchdown to win.

But just when the team needed it most, the 49ers defense stepped up and forced a turnover on downs to clinch a memorable victory.

Jones’ 342 passing yards is the second-highest, single-game tally so far in his career, only trailing the 382 he had in Week 12 of the 2022 season for the New England Patriots in a loss against the Minnesota Vikings.

The victory means that Jones has now gone 3-0 stepping up for Purdy this season, throwing for 905 yards and six touchdowns in that span. But after the game, he wasn’t entertaining questions of a quarterback competition in the Bay Area with Purdy looking set for a spell on the sidelines.

“I think they brought me here to play as a backup and that’s my job,” Jones told reporters. “Brock’s the starter of this team and right now he’s dealing with something. For him to go out there last week and play when he probably wasn’t at full health, like – he cares about this team.

“So, I’m just trying to get some wins for him, so it helps us down the line. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I’ve been in his position. I’ve been a starter and you want your backup to go in there and win because, at the end of the season, that could be the hit or miss between a playoff or not.”

For the Rams, it was a disappointing loss as they slip to 3-2 in a season in which they aim to have a deep playoff run.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 389 yards and three touchdowns, two to Kyren Williams and one to Puka Nacua, but some key mistakes – including a fumble from Williams on the goal line in the fourth quarter and the blocked extra point – hampered their chances at a victory.

The only bright spot for the Rams was the continued excellence of third-year receiver Nacua.

Nacua, who leads the NFL in total receiving yards by a margin of 186 yards as of Friday, finished Thursday’s game with 10 receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown.

With his 10 catches against San Francisco, Nacua becomes the fourth player in NFL history to have seven or more receptions in at least nine consecutive games and now has 52 catches, the most in league history over a player’s first five games in a season, per NFL Research.