Brock Purdy’s near-perfect recreation vs. Brady, Bucs worthy of hype

SANTA CLARA — It’s OK to imagine in 49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy.

It’s justifiable to assume the lofty goals of this Niners’ season are nonetheless alive, even with the third-string QB on the helm.

And it’s comprehensible if you wish to assume method additional out than the ultimate video games of the 2022 season, too.

As a result of Purdy wasn’t simply good in his first NFL begin Sunday. He was spectacular.

It’s Purdy Time within the Bay, and I don’t know when the celebration will cease.

Purdy, the rookie seventh-round decide — the final decide within the 2022 draft — confronted a wily Tampa Bay protection that threw each trick it knew at him on Sunday.

He carved the Buccaneers up in a 35-7 win.

And the Niners round Purdy weren’t simply good. They had been marvelous.

San Francisco’s run recreation carried a severe wallop and the NFL’s greatest protection made the best quarterback within the historical past of the sport, Tom Brady, appear to be he simply ate a bunch of nightshades.

Purdy and San Francisco led Sunday’s recreation 35-0 after 31 minutes and finally received by 4 touchdowns.

But in line with oddsmakers, the Niners had been solely favored to win Sunday’s recreation by the prescribed 3-point home-field benefit.

Hope you took the Niners.

And in the event you didn’t, that needs to be the final time you make that mistake.

Sunday was San Francisco’s greatest efficiency of the season. That’s not presupposed to occur with the latest Mr. Irrelevant at quarterback.

But it did.

And it must be famous, performances like Sunday’s don’t occur by chance.

Quarterbacks don’t luck into video games like that towards Tampa Bay’s protection. And no protection flummoxes Brady like that.

The Niners have been looking for stability and consistency all season. Even in latest weeks, amid a six-game win streak, it has eluded them. The offense and protection can’t appear to each play effectively in back-to-back video games.

However with Purdy on the helm, they did it.

Once more, that is no accident.

The reality concerning the younger quarterback will probably be decided within the mixture. The story remains to be being written. However he’s the person for the 4 extra regular-season video games after which the playoffs, and the early returns have been phenomenal.

San Francisco has received its final two video games — each towards playoff groups — by a mixed margin of 44 factors.

If that retains up for the remainder of the season, the Niners will clinch the NFC West on Thursday evening with three video games to play. They’ll take the No. 2 seed within the NFC playoffs after that.

It’s simply two video games, however Purdy has been so good that it’s unattainable for 49ers followers, gamers, coaches, and media to assume that is an aberration.

He won’t stay this good, however for him to be dangerous could be an enormous fall from grace.

Purdy ended Sunday’s recreation 16-of-21 for 185 yards and three touchdowns (two passing, one speeding). The superior numbers higher inform the story, although.

Purdy was good for 0.44 factors per play, 11.8 factors, in complete. He accomplished 8.5 p.c extra passes than NFL Subsequent Gen Stats anticipated.

I’ll translate: These numbers aren’t simply good — they’re elite.

In all, Purdy posted a QBR — quarterback score — of 92.8 within the recreation. (QBR is an ESPN stat that’s graded out of 100.)

In 62 profession begins over six years for the 49ers, Garoppolo has 4 video games with a greater score.

Much more spectacular, Purdy is making performs that Garoppolo wouldn’t dare attempt to Trey Lance won’t be capable of make.

Sunday, that jaw-dropping throw got here initially of the second quarter.

Purdy feigned a handoff to Christian McCaffrey and rolled to the proper. It was a unadorned bootleg — a staple of Shanahan’s offense — but it surely, because the identify prompt, left Purdy uncovered, one-on-one with Bucs defensive finish Joe Tryon-Shoyinka within the backfield.

As a substitute of taking the sack or attempting to throw the ball away, Purdy juked proper and pulled himself left, leaving Tryon-Shoyinka grabbing at air. He then ran ahead and, mid-stride, discovered Deebo Samuel 20 yards down the sector, feathering his cross over the outstretched arms of Bucs defensive again Dee Delaney and in entrance of security Keanu Neal.

That’s not a traditional throw for anybody, a lot much less a rookie seventh-round decide making his first NFL begin.

Who is that this man?

He would possibly simply be the quarterback head coach Kyle Shanahan has all the time wished.

Give it some thought: He’s a clear, efficient operator on first and second down, studying defenses and checking into the proper performs (besides on the primary play of the day, when he failed to alter his safety in an audible and was hit so laborious the officers assessed a 15-yard penalty). He’s a system man who hasn’t wanted a restricted playbook for his begins — the “on-field offensive coordinator” Shanahan has lengthy craved.

However Purdy additionally has some third-down magic in him. “I’m gritty and artful once I play,” he stated after being drafted.

He wasn’t kidding.

Purdy’s capability to run adjustments the paradigm for the Niners on the cash down and within the crimson zone.

His unbridled confidence and improvisational abilities flip nothing into one thing and hold drives alive.

“He’s performed quite a lot of soccer in faculty … he reacts and runs round and makes some performs,” Shanahan stated. “If you do this, it’s what number of good performs are you able to make with out making the dangerous ones. He’s carried out that basically effectively up to now.”