Brock Purdy produced another solid performance for the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday as they improved to 2-0 in the new season. The Niners quarterback logged 17-of-25 completed passes for 206 yards, while also adding a rushing touchdown via a QB sneak in the second quarter.
That’s now two straight strong outings for the 23-year-old following his eye-opening Week 1 performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy Speaks Out on Missed Passes
In spite of his inspired play against the Rams, however, Purdy himself admits that he could have had an even better game. He missed three key passes throughout the contest, with all of them being overthrown. Purdy had his receivers open on all three occasions, but unfortunately, he failed to hit the mark.
“Yeah, in my eyes, there’s a couple opportunities obviously out there that I missed in in terms of the deep ball and whatnot,” Purdy said, via Kirk Larrabee of 49ers Webzone. “But (we) found a way to win.
“… I just overthrew them — the one to [Brandon Aiyuk], the one to [Deebo Samuel], and then [Jauan Jennings] on that third down. Those are on me. I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to hit them in stride and not overthrow them. Simple as that.”
At this point, it seems that Purdy is still trying to figure out his arm strength on these deep balls, especially considering how he suffered a season-ending elbow injury in his rookie campaign last term. For his part, however, the former seventh-round pick is adamant that he has been making excellent progress in practice:
“We fit those deep balls and whatnot at practice and everything,” Purdy said. “It just comes down when the bullets are flying, being able to make an accurate throw and not overthrow them. Don’t underthrow them, but just be on point. And so that’s what you got to do as an NFL quarterback, and I take that on myself.”
Kyle Shanahan Reacts to Brock Purdy’s Performance
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was also asked to comment on Purdy’s performance against the Rams. Shanahan went into detail as he described all three of Purdy’s overthrows:
“I thought they were all tough ones,” Shanahan said. “I think the Aiyuk one was probably his toughest one because it was just his number one read and it just sailed a little bit. The one with Deebo, he went all the way across the board in a really tough read and yeah, you’d love him to hit it, but he did miss it. And the one to Jennings, that one didn’t bother me much. We were a little surprised the ball was going there, and everyone else was covered and he just tried to make a play.
“… The main thing he did today was protect the ball. Besides those three misses, which none of them were easy, but he took care of the football, didn’t give them a chance to touch it. And when he was under duress, he was smart.”
As always, Shanahan would much rather look at the silver lining here. The Niners coach took the opportunity to heap praise on his young quarterback in spite of his errors in the game. Thankfully, none of them were costly. Shanahan probably would have had a different tone if the Niners lost to the Rams.
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