Brock Purdy flexes his mastery of 49ers’ playbook in romp over Cardinals

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As “Electric Feel” by MGMT blared in the boisterous San Francisco 49ers’ locker room early Sunday evening, quarterback Brock Purdy, in a far corner, had a quiet moment that went largely unnoticed.

Before Purdy slipped on his socks and cowboy boots, he placed a plastic spacer between his right big toe and adjacent digit. The purpose of the device is to align the toe joint, reduce pain and promote healing. This counted as the only evidence that Purdy was compromised on a day on which he carved up the Cardinals in a 41-22 romp.

In his first game following a six-game, 49-day layoff filled with discomfort, Purdy played with a still-not-healed case of turf toe and inflicted agony all over Arizona. Purdy completed 19 of 26 passes for 200 yards and tossed three touchdowns (133.5 passer rating) while rolling out, eluding pressure and rising from his only sack without a sign that he wasn’t quite right.

Purdy had convinced head coach Kyle Shanahan that he could play without aggravating his injury for the second time this season. So far, so great.

“This is the reason why I told Kyle, ‘It’s time,’” Purdy said. “It’s great, because I feel great.”

Purdy’s insertion into the starting lineup didn’t appear to be a great move to high-profile media members such as Tom Brady and Richard Sherman, who had advocated for Purdy’s brilliant backup, Mac Jones, to keep the franchise’s single-season leader in passing yards, QB rating and yards per attempt on the bench.

What they might have missed in arguing for Jones, seemingly the hot hand? Purdy’s firm grip on Shanahan’s offense in his fourth NFL season helps explain what happened Sunday. The 49ers, who had scored more than 26 points in one of their first previous six games under Jones, scored a season-high total of 35 with more than two minutes left in the third quarter.

“It’s not to take anything away from what Mac’s done — we’ve got full confidence with both of them,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “But having Brock out there is just so awesome, man. I mean, that’s how we envision this offense — Brock at the head of it.”

Purdy’s first touchdown pass, a 30-yarder to tight end George Kittle that provided a 13-0 first-quarter lead, was an example of his comfort in the system, which helped him flourish as he played following the longest in-season break of his football career.

On first down, Purdy began under center before he recognized an incoming blitz. In response, he yelled “Can” and tapped his helmet, signaling to his teammates that he was changing the play call, and backpedaled into shotgun formation. Purdy knew that the extra pass rusher meant that both running back Christian McCaffrey — who ran a deep choice route out of the backfield — and Kittle would face man-to-man coverage. Kittle easily beat linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither down the right sideline and Purdy floated a butterfly that hit him in stride in the shallow corner of the end zone.

“With Brock being here four years, being in the system, he’s gonna have an edge,” right tackle Colton McKivitz said when asked about Purdy’s return. “I mean, that’s what he is. He understands the offense. So it’s like, ‘I’m gonna be able to come in and just pick up right where (I) left off.”

Asked if another QB besides Purdy had more of a mastery of his offense, Shanahan declined to make a comparison. But he referenced stats such as this: On Sunday, Purdy had his 11th career game with a passer rating of at least 130.0, the most by any QB in his first four seasons since at least 1970.

“You just have to look at his numbers,” Shanahan said. “Not many people have done it better than him. He’s been as efficient as anyone. He’s made as many big plays as anyone.”

Interestingly, the pass that looked like Purdy’s easiest of the afternoon — a 9-yard score to an all-by-himself McCaffrey in the second quarter — highlighted his smarts and instincts. As McCaffrey ran to the sideline he pointed to Purdy and then pointed his right index finger at the side of the helmet. The message: That took brains.

“That wasn’t the play,” McCaffrey explained.

McCaffrey was supposed to run a different route on a play on which he was what Juszczyk termed him a “last-ditch outlet.” But he changed course mid-play when he recognized that he’d been dropped in coverage. As McCaffrey broke outside, freelancing, he raised both hands and Purdy moved off his primary reads. McCaffrey caught the pass at the 3-yard line and jogged into the end zone.

“For him to notice that — that was big,” McCaffrey said. “That’s an off-script play. That’s just Brock’s instincts — playing ball.”

Juszczyk acknowledged that it looked like a pass Joe Fan could complete. But it was an illustration of how Purdy has remained a paint-outside-the-lines artist while becoming a master student.

“It seems easy from the outside when it’s like, ‘Oh, the guy’s wide open. Just hit him,’” Juszczyk said. “But when you’ve gone through the entire week and every time you run this play, ‘It’s here (this read) to here to here’ — you’re not even thinking about that. Because you don’t expect an NFL defense just let a guy run free, especially when it’s Christian. So for him to recognize that and take advantage is big-time.”

The 49ers’ big point total was their most since a 45-29 win against the Cardinals on Dec. 17, 2023, when Purdy threw four touchdown passes in his first game in his home state of Arizona. And their 25 first-half points were their most since Dec. 11, 2022, when Purdy outplayed Brady in his first career start, a 35-7 win over Tampa Bay.

Their latest Purdy-led offensive blitz Sunday was why McKivitz was stumped when he was asked about the specifics of the play Purdy changed before lobbing his first touchdown to Kittle.

“Um,” McKivitz said, smiling, “we scored a lot of touchdowns.”