Nick WagonerESPN Staff Writer9. Oct 2023 2:21am ET5 minutes read
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – As San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy prepared for Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, he spent a lot of time looking back at the NFC divisional round playoff game between the teams from January.
What Purdy saw in that film was a rookie quarterback making his second postseason start who was a little off compared to his performance after becoming the Niners’ starter in Week 14. It wasn’t that Purdy played poorly in this postseason win – it just wasn’t up to the high standard he had already set.
That’s why Purdy turned to fullback Kyle Juszczyk at some point last week and told him he wanted to “get out this week” to show what he could do against a ranked playoff-caliber opponent.
Mission accomplished.
Purdy and the Niners defeated the Cowboys 42-10 on Sunday night at Levi’s Stadium as Purdy went 17 of 24 for 252 yards and four touchdowns, the most of his career, for a passer rating of 144.2, before scoring early in the fourth Taken off the sidelines in the quarter, San Francisco was that much ahead.
“The [playoff game] “It was probably his worst game,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Not to be confused with bad, but just compared to everyone else.” …And just watching it today, I’ll see the movie later tonight, but I didn’t feel that at all. He was extremely poised when we got there. He hit all the stuff right away and didn’t turn it over, which is most important.
After a win against the Arizona Cardinals last week in which Purdy had just a single incompletion, a comparable encore might be difficult. But Shanahan sensed early in the game that Purdy was on his way to a big night.
So Shanahan created numerous opportunities for Purdy to push the ball down the field, even calling a Flea-Flicker, who had been in storage for about two years, to give Purdy an open look at tight end George Kittle for the second touchdown of the game To provide .
When he finished, Purdy became the fourth Niners quarterback, joining Jim Plunkett, Joe Montana and Jeff Garcia, to score four touchdowns (three for Kittle) against the Cowboys in the teams’ long-standing rivalry.
Purdy also became the 10th quarterback in league history to score 20 passing touchdowns in his first 10 career regular-season starts and has the fewest interceptions (two) of any signal-caller during that span.
Despite all of this success, many Niners believe Purdy still has too many skeptics, instead attributing his success to Shanahan, the scheme and the talent around him.
“He’s just so consistent and he keeps going out and proving people wrong,” Juszczyk said. “I’m glad he can go out here and play a four-touchdown game on national television because it doesn’t matter what people on the outside say about him, but he deserves more respect than what he does, in my opinion receives.” . I hope he gets a little bit out of it.”
For the season, Purdy is up to nine passing touchdowns with no interceptions. That’s the second-most passing touchdowns before an interception in a season in Niners history, behind only Steve Young, who managed 10 touchdowns without a pick.
Purdy was also in control of his 10th straight regular season win, tying him with Mike Tomczak and Mike Livingston for the second-most consecutive regular season wins for a quarterback to start his career.
“He’s just so consistent and keeps going out and proving people wrong,” Kyle Juszczyk said of his 49ers teammate Brock Purdy. “I’m glad he can go out here and play a four-touchdown game on national television.”Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Despite the many early accolades, Purdy didn’t seem fazed by the attention, although he admitted that behind Sunday’s performance came after the playoff win in January, in which he was a modest 19 of 29 for 214 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions There was a little extra for a passer rating of 87.4.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Purdy called this one of the “toughest” games of his young career as he felt he let the Dallas defense rush him too much, which resulted in some missed opportunities.
“When I saw last year’s film, I thought, ‘Yeah, I want to get better,'” Purdy said. “It’s every game really, but looking back at last year I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to be playing a lot of the same people on defense, a lot of the same scheme, so that’s another challenge for me.’ With this scheme I want to be better than last time.
“I knew the game would come to me in time. I just had to get into a rhythm, hit the open guys, do my part as a quarterback, not try to force things and be a superhero, and that was it. I learned from last year’s game, moved on and just played this week.
Sunday night’s game puts Purdy at or near the top of the league in many key categories. He leads the NFL in QBR (83.7) and passer rating (115.1), is second in yards per attempt (9.3) and completion percentage (72.1%), and is tied for seventh in touchdown passes (9) and eighth in passing yards (1,271). .
The 49ers have set a franchise record with 15 consecutive wins and have never lost in the regular season or playoffs when Purdy started and finished the game.
A week after running back Christian McCaffrey had teammates praising his candidacy for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award, Purdy had some of them pondering that McCaffrey’s biggest competition might be his own teammate.
“Brock Purdy is playing at an MVP level,” safety Tashaun Gipson said. “He protects the ball and makes plays. He’s not just a game manager. He plays. I just don’t think he gets enough credit when you talk about the MVPs and things like that that he does week in and week out at a high level. … We have two MVP-caliber players on offense, so that’s always a good thing when you have problems like that.”