Brock Purdy wiped his hands on his towel, licked his fingers, and scanned the field in front of him.
And when he looked to his right, he muttered something that was anything but positive and likely not printable.
Amid a surprisingly tight game against the Cardinals in Arizona, the heavily favored Niners faced third-and-11 from deep inside their own territory on the first drive of the second half.
And unbeknownst to anyone but Purdy — and perhaps unbeknownst to the Niners’ quarterback too — he was about to make back-to-back plays that perfectly explain why the 49ers are the NFL’s team to beat and why the second-year quarterback who was once the last pick in the NFL Draft is the favorite to win NFL MVP.
Purdy was muttering because the Cardinals had put seven defenders on the line of scrimmage for the play. Arizona was coming for the Niners’ 6-foot-1 quarterback with a blitz, and there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.
It turns out that it was the Cardinals who were in trouble.
Arizona, indeed, blitzed at the snap, and linebacker BJ Ojulari ran into the backfield unblocked. This is what Purdy saw coming.
But Purdy also knew that his tight end, George Kittle, would be wide open because of that blitz.
Not at first, though. Purdy needed to let Kittle run his entire route so he could reach the area vacated by the defense.
So Purdy stood in the pocket and let the play develop. He let Ojulari run right into him, even after the Niners’ quarterback had been hit in the head and left the game for a few snaps in the second quarter.
With a 240-pound defender inches away from his face, Purdy saw Kittle make his cut. He hit the All-Pro tight end with a pinpoint pass past the first-down marker.
And because the throw was perfectly placed and weighted, Kittle never had to break stride. So he kept running. The pass went nearly 25 yards in the air. Kittle ran for another 25 yards after that.
You can’t teach that kind of poise, that kind of accuracy, that kind of understanding to a quarterback. You either have it or you don’t.
And you certainly can’t teach what Purdy did on the next play.
Before the last play could be fully digested, the Niners snapped the ball again. And again, a defender was running unblocked at Purdy. This time, it was big Roy Lopez — all 300-and-something pounds of him — coming right down the middle of the field.
With Lopez barreling down on him, Purdy spun around and rolled to his left while keeping his eyes up and looking downfield.
As the Arizona defense turned their attention to the Niners’ scrambling quarterback like wolves seeing a rabbit, Purdy turned his shoulders and hopped. At the apex, he flipped the ball 30 yards down the field.
Niners wide receiver Christian McCaffrey was so open that he stumbled making the catch. He was so open that he was able to stand up and run in for his second touchdown of the day.
The Niners were facing third-and-long. The momentum of the game, then 21-13, was in the balance.
Two plays later, the Niners were in the end zone.
I’m not sure the throws seemed all that remarkable to most in the moment.
After all, Purdy and the 49ers’ offense ended up making five visits to the end zone on Sunday, beating Arizona 45-29 win and claiming another NFC West title in the process. Purdy’s entire game was a clinic in quarterbacking excellence.
And the throws might not seem that special amid Purdy’s season. He’s made plays like that in other games, after all. He made another elite throw to Deebo Samuel for the Niners’ final touchdown of the game
But those two plays were not “game management” or being “being a byproduct of the Niners’ system.”
They encapsulated quarterback play at the absolute highest level.
Yes, the fact that those back-to-back plays can be lost amid so many other highlights in the game and so many other high-level throws this season tells us how exceptional Purdy has been in 2023.
I hear there’s an award for that kind of excellence.
And while the only award the Niners and their quarterback care about is the one given to the winner of the season’s final game, it’s worth pausing to comprehend the absurdity of Purdy and the 49ers’ journey over the last 12 months.
Purdy entered training camp last season as the Niners’ fourth-string quarterback. He was supposed to be a practice squad player.
Then, on Dec. 4, 2022, he was thrust into the No. 1 role because of injury.
No matter what happens from this point onwards, that will go down as a date that 49ers history changed.
Perhaps the entire league’s history changed, too.
A little more than a year after he fatefully took over as the 49ers’ QB1, Purdy sits on the precipice of history, and the Niners stand as the NFL’s best team — a title they’ll put on the line against the Ravens on Christmas at Levi’s Stadium and again in the NFC playoffs.
As with all good things in this day and age, countless people want to deride his play. They call Purdy a system quarterback — a competent player but a byproduct of a great team and nothing more.
How anyone could make such a claim at this point is beyond me. All you need to do is watch those two plays from Sunday to understand that we’re watching greatness.
The 49ers’ offense can now claim to be the NFL’s best. Give Purdy one elite offensive lineman, left tackle Trent Williams, and the Niners will win — they’re 19-0 over the last two seasons when both Purdy and Williams finish the game.
Of course, the Niners’ offense is more than just two players. Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey give the Niners’ offense two inimitable offensive weapons. Brandon Aiyuk and Kittle provide reliable excellence. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan is the NFL’s best offensive coordinator and the forefather of any threat to the throne.
But Purdy brings all of it together in a way that no one else has in Shanahan’s seven years in San Francisco.
Here’s another way of looking at Purdy’s excellence:
When Purdy was injured the second quarter Sunday after a cheap helmet-to-helmet hit, thousands (millions?) of Niners fans saw the team’s season flash before their eyes.
Backup quarterback Sam Darnold entered the game as Purdy was evaluated for a concussion and a shoulder injury.
If it was all the system, why did Darnold — a former blue-chip prospect with nothing but time to throw — look so bad?
Yes, it was two pass attempts, and perhaps there were some just-getting-into-the-game jitters, but it was a reminder that you can’t put anyone behind the wheel of the Formula 1 car that is the 49ers’ offense.
This finely tuned machine needs the right driver to win.
And Purdy is that driver.
It doesn’t matter where he came from or how he first landed the job. He’s here now, and when it comes to playing the quarterback position — with all of its responsibilities that go far beyond just throwing the ball — no one is better.
You only need to have seen two plays from Sunday to understand that, but you can take the whole of his work, if you want.
And so long as Purdy is under center for San Francisco, beating the defense before the ball is snapped and making big plays from nothing, it’s hard to make the case that any team is better than the 49ers.
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