For the second year in a row, the San Francisco 49ers are NFC West Champions! With Brock Purdy under center, they will be the favorite to do it again next year. It is fitting that the 49ers win the Division in Arizona. Brock Purdy is from Arizona. Today was the first time he played in Arizona as a professional. As a high school senior standout, he was honored in the Cardinals stadium as the Arizona high school player of the year of the year. Now, he has his sights set on a Super Bowl title.
Brock Purdy doesn’t care about the MVP talk. He doesn’t care if you call him a game manager. All he wants to do is play quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and help them go win a Super Bowl. Isn’t that what any team wants their quarterback to do? Brock Purdy’s value to the 49ers was instantly seen on the Niners third offensive possession. Four plays in, a defensive lineman took Purdy down hard and gave him a stinger after Purdy delivered the ball to Kyle Juszczyk. The score was 14 to 13. Sam Darnold came in and threw two incomplete passes. One of those incomplete passes won’t show up in the stat line as there was a defensive penalty that gave the 49ers a first down. Out three plays, Purdy came back in and eventually found Christian McCaffrey for a touchdown. Darnold may have needed to warm up, however he missed two wide open receivers on both of his incomplete passes.
The 49ers run defense had a bad day at the office as they allowed the Arizona Cardinals to run for 234 yards and two rushing touchdowns. The 49ers defense felt the difference without Arik Armstead and Javon Hargrave. Additionally, the 49ers uncharacteristically missed a lot of backfield tackles today. The Arizona players should get some credit though. They have a bunch of slippery quick players who force you to miss tackles.
The 49ers pass defense was outstanding. Kyler Murray was sacked three times and threw two interceptions. Charvarius Ward collected both interceptions, taking one all the way to the end-zone for a touchdown. Nick Bosa, Javon Kinlaw, Fred Warner and Chase Young all obtained a piece of Kyler Murray, combining efforts to collect three sacks. The one area where the 49ers pass defense suffered was covering Trey McBride. Every time we turned around, he was catching a first down. He had a knack for keeping Cardinal drives alive while collecting ten receptions for 102 yards.
Brock Purdy threw dots all night long. His end of the day statistics would have looked better if Brandon Aiyuk hadn’t dropped two receptions. George Kittle dropped one from Sam Darnold and another from Purdy. Still, Purdy found Deebo Samuel twice for touchdowns. He also found Christian McCaffrey in the endzone for two more touchdowns while McCaffrey ran for a third touchdown.
Brock Purdy is very comfortable in the offense. Coach Kyle Shanahan’s play calling underscores that confidence. Purdy is confident in his throws. He reads the field well. He identifies blitzers and hits his hot routes. He is very patient in the pocket, releasing the ball when its most advantageous. He also navigates the pocket well. Purdy rarely forces a ball into a bad situation. He consistently finds a way to win the down.
All in all, this was a good test. The defense managed a scrambling quarterback. They figured out how to stop a team hell bent on rushing the ball on their beleaguered defensive line. It didn’t help that the Cardinals held on to the ball the majority of the first quarter. Yet, the 49ers found a way to win dirty, even though the score looked like things were out of hand. The first half was close, but the 49ers pulled away in the second half.
It was clear that the Cardinals were not scared of the 49ers. They kept swinging and the Niners had to find ways to stay ahead and win. They scored six out of ten drives. One of the non-scoring drives ended the half. The last non-scoring drive was a kneel-down to end the game. The other two non-scoring drives were three and outs.
The difference in this game is that the 49ers managed a pick six and scored touchdowns on four of their five scoring drives. The last difference in this game is that the 49ers are simply more physical on the football field than the Cardinals. Watch the running plays. Wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings are blocking 20, 30 and in some cases 50 yards down field. The defense hits with an attitude. Even the 49ers second team defense punished the Cardinals starters. This game had the makings of a trap game and the 49ers showed enough focus to finish off the Cardinals and win the West. On to Baltimore.
