Brock Purdy’s perfect throw and the feeling of instant 49ers history

SEATTLE — It was the perfect pass, and yes, it was shocking. Perfectly shocking. Shockingly perfect?

“I couldn’t believe he threw it,” Kyle Shanahan said later with a small and slightly pained smile.

It was the best pass of Brock Purdy’s NFL career – truly breathtaking to see in person – it silenced Lumen Field, it sealed this crucial 31-13 victory for the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday, and it was the surest sign until now that Purdy can do whatever it takes to get this team to the biggest games and win them.

But it also came not long after Purdy threw one of the worst passes of his life, bringing the Seattle Seahawks back into this game and starting all the drama. It felt like a little piece of history was happening at that moment, something that will be told in documentaries and long books.

You knew it when you saw it. All of Purdy’s teammates knew it for sure. Shanahan’s giddy reaction was proof that he felt the magnitude of this too. But of course, Purdy is the last person who would ever engage in that kind of rhetoric, which is probably why he can do things like this in the first place, how he was able to follow his ruthless, deviated pick six early in the competition. third quarter with that majestic 28-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk a few series later.

“It’s not like, OK, I messed up and I have to prove to myself or to my team that I can make a big play to get us back in,” Purdy said. “It’s not like that. We actually ran the ball really well on that drive. For myself it was okay, be smart with the ball, take what the defense gives me.

“So we kind of had a rollout, setup play and I just went through my progression. I felt the safety come down just enough on the right side for BA to get behind him and I ripped him. Looking back, there’s obviously a guy open under the cash register that was also open, that would have been a big win and if we ate the clock and all that. But I went through the progression, trusted that BA was there and just let it go.”

Brock 🎯BA @brockpurdy13 | @THE2ERA#SFvsSEA on @SNFonNBC
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— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 24, 2023

Aiyuk had a slightly more succinct description: “That’s what you call it a point.”

But as Shanahan noted, Purdy wasn’t supposed to throw it to Aiyuk, against the Seahawks’ reporting. Safety Quandre Diggs was in the middle of the field and went deeper. The window would be too narrow. George Kittle was wide open on a shorter route. Purdy had to throw hard to beat Devon Witherspoon on one side and also float him over Diggs. It was almost impossible. One degree difference and it would have been taken off.

And the last thing Purdy should be doing after throwing that earlier interception was throwing another one while the 49ers were already in position to make a field goal, right?

Right?????

“He does that pretty consistently — he’s always trying to get that one in,” Shanahan said. “Very rarely does he check it and you tell him he missed the deep one. He looks at it this way.

“Basically, with the ball in the air, he proved to us that this was the right decision.”

But while the ball was in the air…

“Oh yeah, we’re all holding our breath as soon as he lets it go because (Diggs) was so deep,” Shanahan said. “But Brock has some contact and he was able to throw it over himself. We took the security out of there with a route so he knew if he could get over him, there was no one else there. He made the throw.”

Purdy, like almost every day of his starting career with the 49ers, isn’t known for his arm strength, yet that pitch was a 95 mph fastball anyway. He’s been portrayed as a “system quarterback,” but that decision fell completely outside of what Shanahan wanted from him. He’s a quiet, thoughtful man, but that game was pure guts and adrenaline. He’d be a safe and sound game manager, but he’s also the guy who threw a TD over his body two weeks ago (also for Aiyuk, there’s a theme here).

Purdy has criticized and analyzed every part of his life, but where on earth did Thursday’s throw come from?

That was an All-Pro throw. That was, dare I say it, the kind of throw that could win an NFC Championship Game or Super Bowl. It’s the kind of pitch that could have defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2020. That was a throw no 49ers QB since Steve Young or Joe Montana could have made. Point.

That’s why one of his quieter statistical games (in which he completed 21 of his 30 attempts for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception for an 86.7 passer rating) still seemed like another Purdy moment on the horizon . While all the back-and-forth about his ranking and his status is beyond tiring at this point, that kind of pitch — and the 49ers’ 8-3 record and retention of first place in the NFC West — puts everything on the table . .

“I’m certainly not going to say the wrong words…not your question, but the talk about that is so ridiculous,” Shanahan said when I asked him if Purdy is now a Super Bowl-level QB. “The words ‘elite,’ ‘Super Bowl quarterback.’ I mean, this is the NFL, you have to have a really good football team to even talk about a chance to get there. If you have a really good football team, you better have a really good quarterback. If you do that, you better have luck with injuries, you still have to defend well. You have to do everything.

“There have also been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls. And for those who do, they don’t win alone. They have to be on a good team and have a good defense. There’s so much to it, so I always hate that conversation.”

There was also that earlier throw, which is also part of the full Purdy picture. Shanahan partially blamed himself for giving Purdy a “double call” from their own 4-yard line early in the third quarter – two plays that Purdy could choose from depending on the coverage the defense showed at the line of scrimmage. But the Seahawks disguised what they were doing, putting Purdy in a bad game as Seattle disappeared from view. The result was poor, but Shanahan giving Purdy that option deep in their own territory was a sign of confidence.

“That was an unfortunate move,” Shanahan said. ‘But he didn’t care at all. He came right back and made a great move to seal it.

Jordyn Brooks’ 12-yard pick six brought the Lumen crowd back into the game. It closed the score at 24-10 after the 49ers had completely dominated the first half. It could have completely shaken Purdy, who after all is still in his first full season as an NFL starting QB. But no, not this man.

“Ice in his veins,” said Christian McCaffrey.

After the 49ers defense held the Seahawks to just a field goal over their next two possessions, Purdy and the offense got the ball back. They knew the defense was playing well. The 49ers just had to eat some time and get another score. It didn’t have to be dramatic. It shouldn’t have been dramatic.

And yet …

“Obviously it sucked going through it, I’ve got to learn from it,” Purdy said of the interception. “But when it comes to who I play in this position, that can’t change. That’s what I had to keep telling myself.”

Or he could just keep making perfect, shocking, stunning, game-defining passes. Purdy’s made many excellent throws in his short career. He has great teammates. But he put himself in this place. On Thursday he put himself in a bad spot, only to rise to a higher spot fifteen minutes later. How much higher can he go? How far can he take the 49ers? We see. Purdy just keeps going up.

(Photo: Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)