The San Francisco 49ers 35-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a coming-out party for Brock Purdy, the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Purdy was spectacular and finished the game with a passer rating of 134.0.
He threw the ball 21 times for 185 yards and two touchdowns – 8.81 yards per attempt and 10.71 adjusted net yards per attempt, the highest mark through the late afternoon games in Week 14.
How Brock Purdy Stole the Spotlight from Tom Brady
Incredibly, it meant that Mr. Irrelevant took down the Greatest of All Time in his first career start.
This game featured the largest age gap between starting quarterbacks in NFL history going back to 1950. Just two weeks shy of his 23rd birthday, Purdy was able to watch his career take off while 45-year-old Tom Brady seemingly saw the end of his career materialize in front of him.
The 49ers’ star receiver, Deebo Samuel, had to leave partway through the game. But that didn’t stop Purdy, who was able to find players like Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk on high-difficulty throws that put the 49ers in scoring position.
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Brady and the Buccaneers entered the second half down 28 points. And unlike his 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl LI, Brady didn’t have elite talent around him. 28-0 progressed to 35-0 after a long McCaffrey run.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was very aware of the quarterback he had on the roster. While Purdy played lights-out, he was enabled by smart play design that took advantage of what he could do well. The offense at Iowa State that Purdy played in was full of shotgun plays, with much of the play-action coming while the quarterback could view the defense.
Receivers were spread wide and not often bunched up, and the reads were quick. Many of the passes were in RPOs, and he had the ability to get rid of the ball quickly. San Francisco didn’t give Purdy as many receivers as he was used to at Iowa State but replicated many of the features.
How Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers Enabled Brock Purdy
Shanahan even found ways to make the running backs more comfortable with downhill runs in “pistol” formation that allowed Purdy the ability to read the defense at the handoff but gave the running back a head of steam running towards the line of scrimmage as if it was an under-center run.
This hybrid of shotgun and under-center football has been around in the NFL since Colin Kaepernick took it to the 49ers from Nevada, but it hasn’t been common. This time, again in San Francisco, an NFL offense found another use for it.
In the second half, the 49ers switched to their traditional downhill running game to bleed out the clock and control the game, but Purdy still played with a level of comfort and familiarity that should be surprising for a player who started off the offseason third on the depth chart (ahead of Jimmy Garoppolo, of course) and spent most of his time during the season on the practice squad.
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Purdy and the 49ers climbed out to such a tremendous lead that they took Purdy out of the game to get backup quarterback Josh Johnson some more time with the offense. Johnson, 36 years old, has spent more time on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster than Brady has, having been on the team from 2009 to 2011.
But it wasn’t just the passing game that helped the 49ers put together this incredible win – McCaffrey rushed for 119 yards on 8.5 yards per attempt, and the skill players altogether rushed for 203 yards on 32 attempts, or 3.64 yards per carry.
The defense was spectacular. Not only did we see linebackers Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw put together high-level performances (even for their high standards), but Jimmie Ward and Tashaun Gipson were fantastic in coverage, while Nick Bosa, Kerry Hyder, Arik Armstead, and others put an incredible amount of pressure on Brady.
Though the 49ers didn’t finish with a sack, their seven combined quarterback hits contributed to Brady’s uneven play -– he finished with a passer rating of 63.7, throwing one touchdown to two interceptions to go with his 253 yards in the air on 55 attempts. Brady finished with the second-worst adjusted net yards per attempt of passers in Week 14 at just 3.33. The gap in their play seemed to match the gap in their age.
Brady missed open players, seemingly lost chemistry with his top receivers, and couldn’t remain consistently accurate. He looked nothing like the quarterback we saw for the majority of his career or even a season ago.
How Brock Purdy Could Keep the 49ers In the Playoff Race
How this will change the picture for the NFC West is difficult to forecast. Of course, in the short term, the Seahawks’ loss and the 49ers’ win means they’re ahead in the NFC West Standings, 9-4 to 7-6.
The Seahawks have already lost their first matchup against San Francisco and will be playing them next week. If the Seahawks don’t win that game, it will be impossible for them to catch up in the final three weeks of the season. Instead, they will be forced to fight for a Wild Card spot.
But how Purdy plays will be a big part of that equation. With both Trey Lance and Garoppolo out for the remainder of the season, it’s not unlikely that the third-string quarterback will have problems sustaining wins. Should the 49ers lose out, they could lose their divisional lead.
But for now, what we’ve seen from Purdy has been excellent. It seems unlikely that he’ll continue this level of play, but it seems equally unlikely that he’ll turn into a pumpkin. After all, the Buccaneers’ defense is excellent — they entered the game ranked eighth in DVOA and sixth in points allowed per drive.
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The NFC South is difficult to figure out as well. If Brady continues to struggle, we could see Sam Darnold’s Carolina Panthers – the ones who beat the Seahawks this week – advance instead of Tampa Bay. The Panthers already have a win against the Buccaneers and could solidify their tiebreaker in Week 17.
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If not, the Atlanta Falcons are nearly as dangerous. They have the same record as the Panthers, which is just a game behind the Buccaneers. They play Tampa Bay in Week 18, and if they win out before they get there, they could resolve the tiebreaker and win out on other tiebreakers like conference record or point differential.
Brady cannot continue to play like this if he wants to continue his record of playoff appearances. But after the last several weeks, it’s hard to say he has it in him.