For Brock Purdy, Christmas was a nightmare.
The San Francisco 49ers had a terrible start, as Purdy found George Kittle for a 58-yard run and catch that beat a 13-yard field goal to put the team on the Baltimore Ravens’ 15-yard line.
Then Purdy failed to spot Kyle Hamilton in the end zone and instead saw Deebo Samuel.
With a swift move, Hamilton made his first of two interceptions and Purdy’s fourth.
Purdy was out before the end of the evening after throwing four interceptions in the 49ers’ 33-19 loss to the Ravens, aggravating his stinger.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan showed faith in Purdy’s ability to recover from the stinger and bad performance, despite the insult and injury.
“He stayed in there, kept battling,” Shanahan said. “Our whole team struggled there in the second half, so it just wasn’t him. I know he was disappointed not being able to finish it there, but given that stinger again, I just wanted to keep him out of there. Ready for him to bounce back next week.”
Purdy completed the game with a miserable 42.6 rating, 18 of 32 for 255 yards, no touchdowns, and four picks. Purdy’s stinger injury worsened when he was benched by Jadeveon Clowney halfway through the fourth quarter. After visiting the blue medical tent, he was given the all-clear to go back, but Shanahan chose to play Sam Darnold on the final two drives of the game out of caution.
“Yeah, I played the whole game, fine not thinking about it or anything at all,” Purdy said. “It wasn’t even a thing. You know just the way I got tackled on that play, it sort of just lit up again just like last week. So, I had to go through the protocol, process in the tent and everything like that. It sort of just how it went down.”
Purdy and Shanahan had a conversation on the sidelines regarding Purdy coming back when the Niners were down by 14 points late in the game, but the head coach decided to hold onto his quarterback so he could play another day.
“We had talked about the scenario of the game and where we were at,” Purdy said. “I just got a stinger and my arm was coming back, feeling normal and whatnot. So, he was just like where we were at the game and Sam had gone in and scored. He goes ‘for now we are just going to go with Sam with how things are going.’ We didn’t want anything else popping up with the stinger and all that kind of stuff. It was just where we were at situationally. Sam was doing good and we rolled with him.”
After the game, Purdy spoke with media and appeared to be considerably more worried about his play than his shoulder.
Purdy, who entered the game as a strong contender for most valuable player, was probably cut out of that discussion.
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Regarding the interceptions, Shanahan stated, “I thought the first one was a big mistake and the other three was pretty unfortunate for him.”
Purdy was selected twice by Hamilton and once by Patrick Queen and Marlon Humphrey after being caught off guard by deflections on two of his previous INTs.
“That starts it off,” Purdy said of the initial INT. “Obviously, we were rolling, we had the momentum, had some really big plays on that drive. And then I throw the ball like that to end the momentum that we had. So, for me, that definitely hurt; wish I had it back.”
At the podium, Purdy showed himself to be more critical of himself than his head coach.
The 49ers are still in a strong position to finish as the conference’s top seed as they lead the NFC. Their quarterback, who had a nightmare performance in Week 16, is aware that he needs to improve.
“I have to look myself in the mirror and ask myself why or how that happened, and why I made those decisions,” he said. “Our team came ready to play and, for me to make some decisions like that, it pains me and it’s not fair to these guys. I have to realize that and understand that. I have to get better for my team.”