Purdy is Purdy, Purdy good
Young QB outplays Brady as 49ers roll
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy’s day started with a botched audible that led to a crushing hit and ended with an emotional hug with his family and congratulations from Tom Brady. In between came a stretch of nearly flawless play that made Purdy’s first start a successful one.
Purdy threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and San Francisco’s vaunted defense spoiled Brady’s Bay Area homecoming with a 35-7 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Purdy — the final pick in this year’s draft — became the first quarterback to best Brady in his first start, earning the postgame congratulations from the NFL’S most accomplished quarterback.
“It was surreal just standing there like, man, that’s Tom Brady talking to guys and dapping guys up. For him to have respect for what I did, it was pretty cool. I’m not going to lie,” Purdy said.
Purdy’s day got off to a painful start when he was flattened on a blitz by safety Keanu Neal on the first play. Neal was flagged for roughing the passer.
Purdy said the hit woke him up, and he responded by leading the 49ers (9-4) to one of their five touchdowns on their first seven possessions when wide receiver Deebo Samuel scored on a 13-yard run.
“We’ve got a quarterback,” defensive end Nick Bosa said. “I always had a lot of confidence in him, but obviously it’s the NFL and you’ve got to go perform, and he did that pretty darn good.”
About the only thing that didn’t go right for the 49ers was an ankle injury to Samuel in the second quarter. Samuel was taken away on a cart in tears. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Samuel likely sustained a high ankle sprain.
San Francisco led 21-0 at that point thanks to Purdy’s 2-yard touchdown run and his 27-yard TD pass to running back Christian Mccaffrey.
He capped a near-perfect first half with a 32-yard TD pass to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, joining Don Strock (1975) as the only players to throw at least two TD passes and run for another in the first half of their first start, according to Sportradar.
“I’m really not shocked,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “I know everybody else kind of was wondering how Brock Purdy was going to play. … When you see that ball flying in the air, scoring touchdowns, 28 points at the half, that’s big-time football.”
Mccaffrey, who ran for 119 yards, added a TD on the ground with a 38yard run after Brady was intercepted by safety Tashaun Gipson on the first drive of the third quarter.
Brady, playing his second road game against the team he rooted for while growing up in nearby San Mateo, was intercepted again on the next possession by linebacker Dre Greenlaw and didn’t lead the Bucs to a score until a deflected TD pass to wide receiver Russell Gage late in the third quarter.
Brady finished 34 for 55 for 253 yards with one TD and the two interceptions.
“It’s easy to say everyone’s got to play better, but we’re just not playing,” Brady said. “We have just not played consistently well very often. We haven’t played it for four quarters.”