What Brock Purdy Learned from the 49ers' Loss to the Ravens

Every quarterback melts down eventually. How Purdy responds to his poor performance will determine whether it makes him better or worse.

SANTA CLARA -- Brock Purdy just had the worst start of his career.

He threw three interceptions in the 49ers' first four possessions against the Ravens, then played even worse as the game went on. He melted down, then he left the game with a stinger.

Every quarterback melts down eventually. How Purdy responds to his poor performance will determine whether it makes him better or worse.

On Wednesday, I asked Kyle Shanahan what Purdy learned from the game. Shanahan's answer was fascinating.

"I thought he struggled the most was after the four picks," Shanahan said. "I thought his first pick was a bad mistake. I thought the next three were unfortunate ones that you don’t make excuses for, there's just tough football plays and they made some good football plays. But it's tough to play a lot of football after you have four picks and stuff, especially when you're down versus that type of defense. I think that was the best experience for him. How to feel that, to know what's happened, to know why it's happened, and still have to go out there and sling it around and play. I think that's the best experience you can get from that game.” 

TRANSLATION: Purdy let bad luck affect his performance in the second half. Three of his interceptions were deflected -- Shanahan did not blame Purdy for them. But Purdy let those unfortunate events affect his confidence and his performance during a critical game. That's a useful experience for Purdy, because he hasn't experienced much bad luck in his career, and now he knows how NOT to handle it. Maybe next time he'll do better.