Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons is disappointing for the San Francisco 49ers for countless reasons, and quarterback Brock Purdy’s struggles were hard to ignore. He didn’t cost the Niners the game on his own, but he had a golden chance to make a statement in the MVP race, and he blew it.
Purdy played a pretty sloppy game, which can be said about the entire team as well. He completed 27 of 40 passes for 288 yards, one touchdown pass, and two interceptions. Both of his picks were pretty bad, as one came on a ball he should’ve just thrown away but threw seemingly to nobody, except a Falcons defender on the sideline. The other one came when San Francisco had a chance to drive down and potentially take the lead in the fourth quarter.
Yes, it is worth noting key players like Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel, and others were missing. Christian McCaffrey was clearly not fully healthy and missed most of the first half due to a thigh issue. Yet, it was those injuries that gave Purdy such a good chance to prove he could win without some key weapons.
Instead, when it mattered most, he did not come up with the goods.
Brock Purdy's outing vs. Falcons severly humbles his MVP chances
Narratives take a long time to shift in the NFL. For years, Purdy’s detractors said he could not win without his key weapons, and while a lot of that chatter has subsided so far this season, the loss to the Falcons gives those critics a chance to bring that talking point up yet again.
This also doesn’t look great for Purdy in terms of coming back from a deficit. This narrative has dogged his head coach Kyle Shanahan more than him, but it is a little bit troubling that Purdy is tied with Mitchell Trubusky and Zach Wilson when it comes to active fourth-quarter comeback leaders among quarterbacks.
Now, part of that is because Purdy and the 49ers usually play from ahead, but we’ve seen before that when the Niners are down late, he tries to take chances that he doesn’t necessarily have to take or just makes mistakes at inopportune times. He doesn’t have a reputation as a choker, but Purdy is certainly not seen as clutch either.
The loss to the Falcons doesn’t completely end his MVP chances, but it’s going to be tough for him to overcome someone like Josh Allen if he ends up putting up similar numbers on the season, but then when one looks to those tiebreakers (i.e. how do they perform in clutch situations or when they’re down their top options), they might end up giving the edge to Allen, especially since he’s already won an MVP.
Maybe this will wake Purdy up, though, and he will come back after the bye, clean up some mistakes, and put up such great numbers that he wins the MVP easily based off his regular-season stats.
That would be great, but there will still be lingering thoughts about whether he can win during clutch time and whether he can win without his top options unless he's able to do that at some point this season.
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