Fred Warner on Brock Purdy: “He’s the reason why we have a chance to win games”

When it comes to the last three loses, the San Francisco 49ers defense isn’t pointing any fingers.

There is plenty of blame to go around in the San Francisco 49ers’ sloppy, clunky, loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Many are looking at the defense and the 400+ yards allowed to the Bengals offense. Many others are looking at Brock Purdy’s struggles and if he is unable to win the game when the defense is in a bad slump.

When asked about Brock Purdy’s recent struggles in his postgame press conference, 49ers linebacker Fred Warner indicated the defense had Purdy’s back.

“The thing is, the quarterback is always going to receive the brunt of the criticism. Brock is the least of my worries. Brock is made of the right stuff. Yeah, can he protect the ball better? Sure, but he’s the reason we have the chance to win games. Every single game we are in. The common denominator right now is that I haven’t been able to say in the last three losses that ‘man the defense had our best outing, we just happened to lose.’ We’re not playing good football on our side and that’s the reason why we haven’t won the last three games and that’s gotta get figured out. And it will get figured out. “

The offense hasn’t done the defense many favors, sometimes turning the ball over in inadequate field position like on Sunday. The defense isn’t pointing the finger. There are a lot of issues happening to the 49ers and a single trade isn’t going to rectify them. Starting Sam Darnold isn’t going to fix the defensive issues either.

It would be a different conversation if the defense was feeling they had been playing some of their better games. While they’ve had a stop or two, they’ve been very uncharacteristic for a 49ers defense as of late. The run defense in particular had Bengals running back Joe Mixon averaging 5.4 yards per carry to finish the day.

The defense has Purdy’s back, they always have. While it’s admirable they are shouldering the blame, it’s important to remember there are too many issues with the 49ers to point at one player or side of the ball.