SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy is no braggart.
But following Sunday’s 30-13 win over the New England Patriots, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback did state that his 10-yard split coming out of college was faster than Deebo Samuel’s and Christian McCaffrey’s.
“I think,” he stressed. “You guys will have to fact-check me. I think I have just enough (speed) to get out of the pocket and make a play and pick up five, seven yards here or there. I’m not Lamar Jackson by any means.”
A more accurate statement might be that his time was comparable to his teammates. Purdy’s 10-yard split of 1.55 seconds in 2022 was actually a few fractions of a second slower than Samuel’s (1.48) and McCaffrey’s (1.52) when they were entering the draft.
Still, everyone understands his point, especially his recent opponents.
For the second straight game, Purdy resorted to his legs when the passing game was sputtering. He gained 7 yards on the 49ers’ first third down of the opening possession. He picked up another 5 — and a first down — on the second on a drive that stretched 15 plays and ended with a Jake Moody 22-yard field goal. There were also a few nifty throws in which Purdy looked like Fran Tarkenton in ducking out of trouble, scrambling toward the sideline and completing improbable passes before getting hit. He finished 15 of 27 for 288 yards.
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It was far from a perfect game for Purdy. San Francisco had a chance to put the Patriots away for good early in the fourth quarter when Purdy’s pass, intended for Brandon Aiyuk in the end zone, instead was intercepted by safety Jabrill Peppers. Kyle Shanahan said afterward he thought Purdy should have thrown the pass earlier while Purdy said he initially didn’t see Peppers.
“It’s something that I’ve got to move on in my progressions and not be greedy,” he said. “I think I hitched to him two or three times, which just isn’t good as a quarterback. You go through your progressions based off of your hitches and you read with your feet and on that one I got greedy.”
After four games, the passing game isn’t as smooth and automatic as it was at the beginning of last season when the 49ers jumped out to a 5-0 start. For one, teams are focused on taking away Purdy’s bread-and-butter throws, including the intermediate and deep crossing routes to Aiyuk that were so reliable last season.
Last week, for example, the Los Angeles Rams sometimes dropped eight players into coverage and rushed only three, leading to one play on which Purdy held the ball for more than 12 seconds. Purdy noted that on another play they dropped nine and rushed just two.
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On Sunday, he said the Patriots’ safeties did a good job of anticipating the 49ers’ favorite routes and taking them away. But as the game went on, Purdy and the passing attack started taking advantage of those adjustments. When New England’s safeties kept stepping forward to clog up the middle, he started going deep. His three longest throws:
• A 53-yarder over the top to Deebo Samuel Sr. in the third quarter. Samuel, who lined up as a tailback to start the game, had three catches for 58 yards after missing last week’s outing with a calf injury.
Deebo’s got us movin’ 55yds down the field.
📺 #NEvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4oaLh pic.twitter.com/u3vZTNGkcJ— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 29, 2024
• A 45-yard strike to Jauan Jennings early in the fourth quarter. Jennings led the team in receiving yards for the second straight week, finishing with three catches for 88 yards.
JJ’s down there somewhere
📺 #NEvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4oaLh pic.twitter.com/aqUyQBiGov— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 29, 2024
• A 38-yard pass to Aiyuk on Purdy’s first throw of the game. Aiyuk finished with modest receiving numbers — two catches for 48 yards — for the fourth straight game, but his second reception, a diving, fingertip grab on third down, was the sort of high-degree-of-difficulty snag he wasn’t making earlier in the season.
Even one of Purdy’s shorter throws, a 12-yard touchdown to George Kittle in the second quarter, traveled a long way through the air.
That’s our TE @gkittle46
📺 #NEvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/2KnvF7QeFz— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 29, 2024
Kittle said the play called for him to run an out and up and that it’s supposed to be run from farther back, say around the 40-yard line. He thought that particular play was “a little aggressive” that close to the goal line.
“I wasn’t really confident in the play call,” he admitted afterward. “Because that was something we’d called originally from way farther out. And when we called it from the (12-yard line) I had to double-check with Brock to make sure we called the right play. And I was like, ‘All right, man, just throw it.’”
Purdy did and put the ball where only Kittle could catch it, and the 6-foot-4 tight end hauled in the pass among a trio of sub-6-foot Patriots defensive backs.
That touchdown put the 49ers ahead 20-0, and they led by at least two scores the rest of the way,
Still, it was a muddy victory against a Patriots team devoid of offensive talent and battered by injuries. The 49ers suffered a number of injuries of their own — including to defensive starters Fred Warner (ankle) and Jordan Elliott (knee) — and had another costly special teams bungle, a kick-return fumble in the third quarter by Isaac Guerendo that led to New England’s only touchdown.
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The 49ers also continued to struggle in the red zone. They had six trips inside the Patriots 25-yard line on Sunday but only two touchdowns, Kittle’s and a 4-yard run by Jordan Mason in the third quarter. Otherwise, they settled for three Moody field goals and threw one interception. Last season, they led the league in red zone efficiency, scoring touchdowns 67 percent of the time.
“We need to clean that up, especially when we’re playing very dominant teams that have really good offenses,” said Kittle, who seemed to acknowledge the Patriots were a decidedly forgiving opponent before catching himself. “Not to say the Patriots don’t, but our defense was playing very good against them.”
(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)