Brock Purdy endured some bumps during his first start back at home since returning from a turf toe injury that had sidelined him for much of the season.
On Monday Night Football against the Panthers, Purdy threw three interceptions in the first half. While the 49ers had control of the game for much of the night, those interceptions gave the Panthers numerous chances to stay in the game and try to take the lead. Fortunately for Purdy and the 49ers, their defense stepped up and led them to victory.
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All three interceptions came as Purdy was trying to attack the intermediate or deep parts of the field. On his second interception in particular, Purdy had the opportunity to run for a first down or throw short to George Kittle, but decided to instead throw toward the end zone.
“The decisions of going to those spots, I was fine with,” Purdy told reporters after the game. “It’s just the execution of throwing a better ball. On all of them, I needed to drive the ball a little bit more. I kept it up in the air too long on multiple of them. That’s on me.”
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan echoed what Purdy said following the win. “He just had three throws he’d love to take back,” Shanahan said. “They were all three good decisions. Just a hair late on them, and when you’re a hair late on stuff, you can’t throw it behind them. He threw it behind them and all three guys made him pay.”
As Purdy and Shanahan expressed, execution was a bigger issue than decision-making on those plays. He did not put enough on the football on those three passes and needed to the place the ball more accurately. Since he didn’t, Panthers Pro Bowl corner Jaycee Horn was able to make a couple nice plays.
“It’s tough,” Purdy also said. “Mentally as a quarterback, you want to play aggressive, you want to take what the defense gives you, but when you turn the ball over three drives in a row, you feel it. You feel a little bit of pressure. This is why we are put in this position. I can handle this. As a quarterback, you can’t lose confidence in yourself. You can’t shrivel back and take a bunch of check-downs and stuff. You still have to read the play out and stay aggressive and be better. You’ve got to learn from your mistakes.”
Brock Purdy was asked if the interceptions affected his confidence:
“It’s tough. Mentality as a quarterback, you want to play aggressive, you want to take what the defense gives you, but when you turn the ball over three drives in a row, you feel the pressure. This is why we are… pic.twitter.com/eqMsTIWOhI
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The 49ers ended up turning to more conservative plays in the second half, primarily running the ball and throwing short passes to gain a 20-9 victory. While Purdy has previously excelled at throwing passes to the intermediate areas of the field, he has become much more turnover prone over the last two seasons.
Last year, Purdy threw 20 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. This season, he’s thrown multiple interceptions in three of the four games he’s started. On throws more than 15 yards downfield, he’s thrown just one touchdown to six interceptions. Even if he’s typically making the right decision, he’s got to execute those passes more consistently or they simply become too risky to be worth it unless the receiver is wide open.
“Obviously, I don’t want to have that kind of performance. I’m an NFL quarterback,” Purdy said. “You have games like this. It’s all about how you prepare and move onto the next.”
Purdy will look to perform better next week as the 49ers face a Browns team that is second in total defense and top-10 in takeaways.
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