How 49ers QB Brock Purdy Has Adjusted his Game the Past Two Weeks

Brock Purdy played one of the worst games of his career in Week 2 against the Vikings.

Grant Cohn | Oct 1, 2024

Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) runs away from New England Patriots defensive end Keion White (99) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

SANTA CLARA -- Brock Purdy played one of the worst games of his career in Week 2 against the Vikings.

He passed for 319 yards and 1 touchdown, but he also threw an interception, and he fumbled, and he took six sacks, and most of them were his fault because he just stood there frozen in the pocket. He scrambled only two times in the entire game even though he was under heavy pressure. He looked like Jimmy Garoppolo.

Since that game, Purdy has rushed 15 times in two weeks. Suddenly, he has become an aggressive scrambler. As a result, he has gotten sacked just twice in the past two games.

On Monday, Kyle Shanahan was asked about this recent trend from Purdy. Here's what Shanahan said.

"We had a lot of three-man rushes I felt more than usual versus Minnesota and the Rams especially. People play soft Tampa 2 and he got a couple times in the game. One time he checked it down to Kittle for an 11-yard gain. Other times they had a five technique in that didn't allow Kittle to get out on a check-down. So, when the guy sunk under everybody, he just broke out of the pocket and tried to buy time for the zone to break down. And if they don't, he just scrambles for yards. But just the typical reasons. Zoning coverages, people deep under your eligible. Brock's got a knack on when to check it down and when to escape the pocket and make some plays. Sometimes he does it on his own. Sometimes a D-Lineman flashes color and so he doesn't wait on something and makes a play and gets out of there a little faster than usual. But there's not any one particular answer.”

Purdy's scrambles are the most unpredictable aspect of Shanahan's offense. The more he uses his legs, the better the team will be.

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Published Oct 1, 2024

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.