Oops, Brock Purdy. Your opponents are lining up.
The community of Purdy Truthers smells confirmation. They have been praying for times like these. Their contention all along has been that you, the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, have been nothing but hype, that you do not belong in the company of the game’s elite. They have said that you are just, well, Youbecause of the superstars around you. They were happy to relegate you to a lower level, put you in the lineup, way behind Dak Prescott, Baker Mayfield and ’em.
Oh, you must know that they are watching and waiting. And hoping. For your downfall.
They’re sitting up in their seats, Brock. Rubbing their hands eagerly, drooling after you failed to beat your former backup on Sunday in Minnesota. Their eyes, full of excited anticipation, are on you, No. 13. Waiting to see how you respond to the mounting adversity of this season.
Christian McCaffrey is already on the injured list. Your offensive line has struggled in pass protection, even legend Trent Williams, who missed all of training camp due to a contract holdout. Brandon Aiyuk, who also missed all of camp, estimated he was at about 85 percent.
Now Deebo Samuel is out.
“Yeah, anytime you lose really good players, it’s always tough,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But it happens all over the league, and it’s a big part of this league and a big part of this game. We have to deal with it.”
Let’s face it, Purdy. You’re not the same without Samuel. The 49ers with you at quarterback are 0-3 in meaningful games where Deebo doesn’t take at least half the offensive snaps. Your offense is averaging 17 points per game in those games.
The Purdy Truthers haven’t let that go. A trip to the Super Bowl, MVP-level stats and consistent affirmation from the superstars around you — nothing has quelled the criticism.
They call you a trust-fund quarterback, a silver-spoon signal caller. They still say your football career started in field-goal range and you don’t know anything about the fight. They say you can’t do what people like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen can do: carry a team on your shoulders, be the reason your team wins and not just facilitate a loaded roster, bridge the gaps in the lineup.
This is about as close as you’ve come to that scenario. Even with the revelation that Jordan Mason was RB1, being without McCaffrey and Samuel definitely lowers the fear factor on defense. Which tends to boost their confidence and aggressiveness. Especially considering how vulnerable you’ve been to turnovers the first few weeks. You’ve only had two in the first two weeks, but enough near interceptions to make a defense hungry.
You can shut them up now, Brock. Okay, maybe not shut them up. Beating the 0-2 Los Angeles Rams and winning at home against the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals isn’t going to quiet the crowd. But losing either of those games is sure to raise the fever.
It doesn’t matter how many dimes you throw. Or how big your numbers get. They still see every time you make a questionable throw, or look a little lost, or miss a target. And the defense is getting better and better at figuring out how to give you trouble.
The Vikings, in the game we won’t talk about, seemed to pick up on some of the tendencies the Baltimore Ravens introduced last Christmas. Anticipate and jump on timing routes and apply pressure from random places — all designed to make you hurried and frantic, which is when you’re most prone to mistakes.
“No, I think that’s the point of the scheme,” Shanahan explained. “It’s having six guys on the line and coming from everywhere. … It’s just a lot of pressure on a quarterback throughout the game. That’s what their scheme is. They make you think about whether you’re hot every play, and if you’re not, you’ve got to find the open zones. There’s a lot of open zones, but it’s tough how they slow you down. … (Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores) does a really good job of mixing it up, and that’s the challenge for a quarterback. It makes it really tough to get into a rhythm.”
The Vikings’ aggressive defense contained Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense on Sunday. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
When you told Flores after the game that his “scheme is crazy,” the Purdy Truthers didn’t see it as a young QB appreciating being challenged. They didn’t see it as a game-recognizing game, a sign that you were going to dig into the film and learn from it. No, they saw it as some kind of admission that you were overwhelmed.
That’s why you can’t lay an egg in the coming weeks. Well, you can. Because the Super Bowls aren’t won in September. Sure, it would put the 49ers in a tough spot, maybe even cost you a home game in the NFC Championship, if you make it. But your team is perfectly capable of recovering late in the game and peaking at the right time.
So you can’t lay an egg because you can’t feed the opposition anymore. Honestly, you have a legion fighting for you on the internet. There are plenty of them rocking with you, Brock, and they need you to shut everyone up.
You still have George Kittle. You still have Mason and the power running game. You still have Aiyuk, who has a big game to play.
“There were a couple of times where he had a good chance to get the ball,” Shanahan said of Aiyuk, “and a couple times the protection broke on two of them. One time someone broke a route and just came in the same way, so they covered it. But he had a chance to get about four big passes and there were other factors going on. It’s a team sport. There’s 11 guys involved in getting the ball to someone. He had a couple of chances where he should have, but not everything went his way.”
You have enough to win. You have enough to get your team through this tough time. It was always going to happen. Getting back to the Super Bowl is a daunting task. And NFL teams are like crabs in a bucket. This was always going to be tough.
Necessary nonetheless. This is the hardship they said you couldn’t handle. This is the cape they think is too heavy for your shoulders. They don’t believe you’re one of them, Brock.
Show them.
GALLING DEEPER
Nothing easy for Brock Purdy as Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers offense try to find their feet
(Top photo of Brock Purdy during Sunday’s game against the Vikings: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
