Maybe it was Brock Purdy’s worst game, but context is important

Saying Brock Purdy played a bad game is a lazy take. As KP has pointed out, Brock Purdy was dealing with blitzes all night and eventually made the Giants pay for it. The 49ers aren’t always going to find explosive plays, but Purdy recognized cover 0, distributed the football and lived to fight another day. And after the Giants game it was made apparent he has some pretty incredible stats since he last threw an interception. Said interception was on January 1st 2023 (regular season).

His stats since per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco:

125 for 190
1636 Yards
10 Touchdowns
Passer Rating of 110.3

That includes postseason play. The last pick was just an underthrown ball to George Kittle. Oops. Just for the curious, his night against the Giants was 25 for 37 (67.6%), 310 yards and two touchdowns. And yes, YAC is your friend. So maybe he played a bad first half if we want to get technical, but he also had five and six man fronts trying to make him get the ball out quick. Bad idea, Giants. Since that’s kind of what he’s good at.

There’s always that sinking point of a QB. That point where teams have figured a signal caller out and the regression starts. I’m even someone who thought it was starting in the Rams game (it wasn’t). Purdy has had some close calls with balls that should maybe have been picked, but they weren’t. Just like any other quarterback in this league.

At this point, if anyone is worried about Purdy getting rattled by the NFL game or the lights getting too bright, you can put that logic to rest. To say the Giants game was his “worst” game might be correct, but context is important, and it was far from bad else that passer rating would probably plummet with a few picks and no TDs.

Somewhat how people might call Bleach the worst Nirvana album. Just because it’s the worst from them doesn’t make it a bad album. Or, video game reference here: people think Ys V is the worst Ys game but not bad because...oh you get the idea.

If you look at the above numbers, Purdy has yet to turn in a “stinker.” He’s had plenty of time to do it too. And while we are all waiting for him to face some huge adversity in a game and mount a comeback from a massive deficit (he kinda did that against the Raiders), saying that he’s “managing” games isn’t a very accurate description either. If the Giants are any indication, he’s closing games. Games where he’s had six guys in his face all night.

Purdy has had plenty of time to turtle it and call it a day. Maybe he’s shown us he’s human the last few weeks, but he’s definitely still not played a “bad” game.