Even on his biggest plays, Brock Purdy wasn’t at his best Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback had 41-yard completions to tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Jacob Cowing, but they could have been game-altering touchdowns of 74 and 51 yards, respectively, if Purdy’s passes weren’t underthrown in a 28-18 loss to the Chiefs. In the fourth quarter, Cowing roasted safety Nazeeh Johnson with a double move, but had to slam on the brakes to make the grab. In the second quarter, Kittle blew by safety Justin Reid before decelerating for the catch near the left sideline. “A little underthrown by Purdy,” Fox analyst Tom Brady said. “A very average throw.” The biggest problem for the 49ers on Sunday was that Purdy also had some very awful throws.
In the first quarter, he threw a slant that hit wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk in the ankle. In the second quarter, his pass clanked off the back of right guard Dominick Puni’s helmet. Nine minutes later, Purdy airmailed a pass intended for wideout Ricky Pearsall, who wasn’t looking for the ball. It’s possible that Pearsall, a rookie making his NFL debut, ran the wrong route. However, that wasn’t the case when there was more miscommunication between Purdy and a raw wideout in the third quarter on another overthrown pass.
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Ronnie Bell, whose two-year career has been defined by mistakes, looked puzzled after Purdy’s sideline throw was picked by cornerback Chris Roland-Wallace. And the temptation was to assume Bell messed up. But both head coach Kyle Shanahan and Purdy said the QB was at fault. “Ronnie did his job,” Purdy said. “It was on me.” It’s possible Purdy has never done a worse job during his 28-start career. He had three interceptions, second most of his career, had a career-low passer rating (36.7) and had completed 44% of his passes (11 of 25) before he went 6 for 6 on a garbage-time touchdown drive. What happened to the QB who threw just four interceptions in his first six starts? Well, Purdy was playing against the NFL’s ninth-ranked defense, which is overseen by Steve Spagnuolo, a legendary coordinator whose blitz packages once flummoxed Brady in a Super Bowl. But Purdy faced the Chiefs and Spagnuolo in a Super Bowl in February and acquitted himself well.
It’s also worth noting that Purdy played the second half with four healthy wide receivers – all of them backups – who had combined for two catches in the first six games. However, it’s possible Purdy made his worst throw – a first-quarter interception by Reid – when starting wideouts Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel were still in the game. More evidence that it wasn’t all about his second-string supporting cast: Purdy had a 45.0 passer rating when Aiyuk suffered his season-ending knee injury late in the second quarter. In rewatching Purdy’s uncharacteristic performance, I kept thinking about his only other start that rivaled Sunday’s: his four-interception game in a loss to the Ravens on Christmas at Levi’s Stadium.
Purdy admitted in the aftermath of that 33-19 loss that he’d been affected by the pregame hype – the Ravens were 11-3 and Purdy and Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson were MVP candidates – and he’d tried to do too much. On Sunday, Purdy was playing in a heavily hyped Super Bowl rematch against the unbeaten Chiefs and QB Patrick Mahomes, a two-time NFL MVP. “It was a big game,” Purdy said in December after the loss to Baltimore. “So, for me, it’s a great learning experience just in terms of not buying into what’s going on around and what’s being said. Instead, executing in the moment. Making the right reads. Being consistent. Protecting the ball.” Against the Ravens, Purdy’s first interception came in the opening quarter when he tried to fit in a downfield pass and failed to see a lurking safety, Baltimore’s Kyle Hamilton, resulting in an easy pick. On Sunday, Purdy ended the 49ers’ second possession when he tried to squeeze in a downfield pass to tight end George Kittle and never saw Reid, who made the routine interception in front of Kittle.
All of Purdy’s picks were head-scratchers – and backbreakers: They were thrown with the 49ers at the Chiefs’ 45-, 34- and 5-yard lines. His final interception, on 3rd-and-goal with 49ers trailing 21-12 with about nine minutes left, occurred when he was hit in mid-throw by defensive end George Karlaftis. Still, it might have been picked even if Purdy wasn’t hit: He was targeting wide receiver Chris Conley, who was bracketed by two defenders. “It’s Purdy throwing into double coverage,” Brady said. “I’m not sure where he’s trying to force that ball.” – The Chiefs took advantage of a linebacker lined up at defensive end on two successful jet sweeps by Mecole Hardman. The wide receiver gained 20 yards in the second quarter to set up a touchdown three plays later before he had an 18-yard score that gave the Chiefs a 28-12 lead in the fourth quarter. On Hardman’s first run, linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was at left defensive end, where his primary responsibility presumably was to contain the edge. However, he didn’t see Mahomes hand the ball to Hardman, drifted inside and didn’t realize Hardman was the ballcarrier until he was turning the corner on a run on which he wasn’t touched until he was 19 yards downfield. In the fourth quarter, linebacker Dee Winters was at right defensive end, and he also failed to stay outside as Hardman was untouched until he was 14 yards downfield. The 49ers clearly still need tutorials on that play: Hardman scored on jet sweeps of 25 and 3 yards in a 44-23 win over the 49ers in 2022. – The 49ers’ porous special teams started well – stuffing a fake punt on 4th-and-2 to end the Chiefs’ first drive – and then, well, it was back to being porous: They allowed a 55-yard punt return to Hardman, had a holding penalty by George Odum on a punt return and finished, fittingly, with punter Mitch Wishnowsky nearly whiffing on an onside kick that traveled 4 yards. On his long return, Hardman fielded the punt a few yards outside the hash mark closest to the 49ers’ sideline and had an easy decision to make: The 49ers had eight defenders on that side of the field with just two defenders, linebackers Tatum Bethune and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, on the opposite side. Hardman broke to his left, away from all the congestion, and had clear sailing down the sideline because both Bethune and Flannigan-Fowles fell down. The 49ers are allowing 18.4 yards per punt return, last in the NFL. They are allowing 33.2 yards per kickoff return, which ranks 29th. “They’re getting too much,” Shanahan said. “And we just have to continue to work at it and not ignore it, which we’re not.”
