SAN FRANCISCO – About 21,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco were still without power Sunday morning, a day after a massive outage darkened much of the city during one of the busiest shopping weekends before Christmas, according to PG&E.

What we know:

The utility said the outage began shortly after noon Saturday in the western part of the city before spreading to several neighborhoods, including most of downtown. 

At one point, PG&E estimated that roughly one-third of all San Francisco customers were without electricity.

Investigators are now working to determine whether the outage is connected to a fire Saturday at a PG&E substation near Eighth and Mission streets.

What they’re saying:

“We do not know exactly which happened first, meaning if the fire caused the outage or not,” said San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias. “It’s too early to tell at this time, but in order for us to work there in a safe operation, we need the power off.”

The outage created widespread transportation disruptions throughout the city. With traffic signals dark at major intersections, drivers faced significant congestion in multiple neighborhoods. BART also temporarily closed its Powell Street and Civic Center stations due to the power failure.

The blackout also affected autonomous vehicle service in San Francisco. Waymo temporarily suspended its robotaxi operations, citing safety concerns. Video recorded during the outage showed several of the company’s vehicles stalled in intersections, at times blocking traffic and nearly causing collisions.

In a statement, Waymo said it was “focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work,” adding that it plans to resume service in San Francisco “soon” but did not give a specific time. 

The Denver Broncos won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half to bring out Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars offense to start the game. Interestingly, the Jaguars only sent out former-Broncos wide receiver Tim Patrick as their lone team captain on the coin toss.

Jonathon Cooper almost got a sack on the first play, but Lawrence was able to dump it off for an incompletion instead. Two plays later on third and four, Riley Moss chased Lawrence down for a sack to force a quick three-and-out. Denver wouldn’t do anything with their possession due to a dropped pass by RJ Harvey and a false start on Garett Bolles, so the Jaguars would get the ball right back.

The Broncos defense wasn’t playing to start the game. Talanoa Hufanga and Jonah Elliss made create open field tackles for minimal gains, then John Franklin-Myers broke through inside to sack Lawrence to force another three-and-out early in the first quarter.

On the first play of their next drive, Jaleel McLaughlin nearly broke one for an 80+ yarder but was caught by a shoestring tackle for just a 16-yard gain instead.

Two plays later, McLaughlin ripped off another nice gain of nine, then on third and one, Nix was stuffed on a quarterback keeper. They decided to go for it on fourth and inches where Harvey just barely dove forward to pick up the first down. The Jaguars would challenge the spot, but the call stood for the critical first down on their own side of the field.

Bo Nix then fired a sideline pass to Courtland Sutton who toe-tapped for a 17-yard gain into Jaguars territory. Nix went right back to Sutton for another quick pass for a 14-yard gain into field goal range.

They’d stall out from there, however, and had to settle for a 44-yard field goal attempt by Wil Lutz that doinked off the right upright to keep the game scoreless.

The defense seemed to keep the pressure going with Lawrence a bit skittish in the pocket and quickly found themselves in a third and nine. But he settled in on third down with a last second throw after having all day to find Parker Washington for a first down and a 21-yard gain.

After a nice pass breakup by Riley Moss on first down and a stuffed run, Lawrence was again in a third and long. The Broncos got another sack and fumble, but the play was blown dead. P.J. Locke was charged with a penalty because he didn’t hear the dead ball whistle to give the Jaguars another first down.

The crowd noise hurt the Broncos on that play to put Jacksonville into field goal range.

The first quarter wound down with the Jaguars scoring a touchdown on a Lawrence third down throw to Washington for 12 yards.

It got somewhat lost amid all the late-game drama, but Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III just had one of the best games of his four-year career.

The anatomy of a comeback: How Seahawks stunned the Rams

Highlighted by a pair of explosive plays, Walker totaled 164 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown in Seattle’s wild 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. It was the second-most scrimmage yards of Walker’s career, just shy of his 167 scrimmage yards against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 7 of his 2022 rookie campaign.

Walker rushed for 100 yards on 11 carries against the Rams’ stout defense, including a 55-yard TD run early in the third quarter where he burst through a crease and hit a top speed of 21.07 mph while racing downfield, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. He also added three catches for 64 yards, including a 46-yard gain on a throwback screen pass that set up a first-quarter TD.

KENNETH WALKER III 55-YARD TD RUN 🚨

LARvsSEA on Prime Video
Also streaming on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/4ezXS8hbok

— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2025

In doing so, Walker became the first NFL running back since five-time Pro Bowler Derrick Henry in 2020 to have both a 45-plus-yard run and a 45-plus-yard catch in the same game, according to NFL Media senior researcher Dante Koplowitz-Fleming.

Walker’s two big plays against the Rams were also among the six longest plays of his career. He had five gains of 40-plus yards over his first two NFL seasons, but none over the past two seasons until Thursday night.

During Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Friday, Mike Salk praised both Walker and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

“Best and hardest I’ve seen him run in forever,” Salk said. “Most decisive, most he’s hit holes hard, picked up extra yards. Credit to Kubiak for getting him the ball in space and allowing him to really do the things that he does well.”

Kenneth Walker III all the way down inside the 10!

LARvsSEA on Prime Video
Also streaming on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/YjVCQMxByg

— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2025

Led by Walker’s performance, the Seahawks finished with 171 rushing yards and a season-high 6.8 yards per carry on Thursday night. Even more encouraging was that it came against a strong Rams run defense, which entered the game ranked eighth in the NFL at just 3.9 yards allowed per carry.

The Seahawks have struggled for much of the season to get their run game untracked – including this past Sunday, when they mustered just 50 rushing yards and 2.3 yards per carry in a low-scoring Week 15 win over Indianapolis Colts.

But prior to that, Seattle had made some strides on the ground, averaging 140.2 rushing yards per game and 4.4 yards per carry from Weeks 10-14.

Walker’s showing on Thursday night was another positive step.

“He was a major factor,” Salk said. “Ran for 100 yards in the game. They ran for over 170 as a team, which kind of gets lost in a lot of the other storylines of the game. A huge credit to Ken Walker. … That’s the best I’ve seen him play in forever.”

Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation at this link or in the video player at the top of this story. Tune into Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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• Brock Huard: The reason Darnold was able to lead Seahawks over Rams
• Macdonald explains Seattle Seahawks’ game-winning 2-point decision

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