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So this was new for Brock Purdy, as an NFL quarterback. He was down in a game for the first time since the first quarter he played in—back against Miami on Dec. 4. He trailed by double digits for the first time. He was behind in the second half for the first time. He trailed on the road for the first time.
Because of all of that, it’s fair to ask the rookie quarterback just what was running through his head, and what was said to him, as the Raiders opened that 24–14 lead Sunday.
If only he could even remember.
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“I’m just trying to think,” Purdy told me from the locker room postgame. “I don’t think a guy on the team really told me anything. I mean, we just all knew that we were down, and their offense was rolling. It’s just expected for all of us to get our minds right, in terms of, it’s gonna be a kind of game where we have to put up points on the board. It wasn’t like, Oh shoot, we have to start doing this or that.
“We have enough veterans on the team and leadership where guys like [Christian] McCaffrey and Juice [Kyle Juszczyk] and [George] Kittle and guys up front with [Mike McGlinchey and Trent [Williams], like, All right, we gotta put up points, and that’s it. So that’s sort of just where we were at with it, and we didn’t make it anything more than it was.”
Evidently, just like having to hand the reins of a championship roster to a rookie quarterback in the first place, coming back with Purdy in the saddle, under the aforementioned deficit, is no big deal for the 49ers. Nor does it seem to be any big deal for Purdy himself.
And the results showed Sunday in San Francisco’s ninth consecutive win, which kept Purdy perfect as a starter at 4–0 and featured the seventh-round rookie bringing the Niners back from a 24–14 third-quarter deficit.
“I mean, for me, I’ve been in a lot of situations in college where we gotta go on a two-minute drill and move the ball, and the defense is trying to do certain things where I have to be alert to what they’re doing,” he says. “And, honestly, when I got out there, I was like, I got a lot of good playmakers around me, and I want to go out and just use the experience I have in terms of getting my feet set, ripping the ball to the guy that’s open, and not make it anything more than that.”
Of course, for a lot of quarterbacks, there would be more to it than that.
Purdy didn’t let it come to that Sunday.
But first, he, and the offense, had to keep San Francisco close in the first half. And while he threw for only 38 yards on 7-of-10 passing before the break, two of those throws were for touchdowns in the red zone.
The first was over the middle to Brandon Aiyuk in the first quarter. “We just set up a run, and for me, I knew that he was one-on-one backside and just play-faked to Christian and then set up for him coming across the middle,” he says. “So it was a well-designed play from Kyle [Shanahan], and I just did my part with that.”
And the second came with nine minutes left in the half, the ball snapped at the 2-yard line and Purdy reduced to a scramble situation. “I just went through my read on that,” he says. “It wasn’t the most ideal coverage for what we had drawn up, but I knew if I just could make a play with my legs and see George on the scramble drill, we’d have a chance. And sure enough, he popped open, and he does a great job with if the play’s not there in rhythm, he knows that I can get outside the pocket or just move around a little longer and find space.”
The problem was Jarrett Stidham—Derek Carr’s replacement—was doing more than keeping pace. He was ripping the Niners’ proud defense a new one.
On the second drive of the second half, Purdy was 4-of-4 for 45 yards on a run-game-fueled, eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. After a pick on the Niners’ next possession (Purdy threw one up for Kittle, and it went the wrong way), the teams traded field goals to get it to a 27–27 tie, and that’s when the Niners took command, first in jailbreaking a screen to McCaffrey for 38 yards, which set up a 14-yard touchdown run for Jordan Mason to give San Francisco the lead.
“We had a guy come up the middle untouched, and so instead of [McCaffrey] taking his time, trying to sell the screen and then get around, he saw the guy come up the middle and he turned around quick—which was awesome, because I’ve had some times where we’re running a screen and I got pressure and the backs are sorta taking their time,” Purdy says. “A great heads-up play for him, something people might not notice, but he saw the blitz, he turned around quick, got the ball to him and he made a great play.
“That was all him right there.”
After that, the Raiders answered with a touchdown, and Purdy came back with four consecutive completions to Aiyuk to set up a 41-yard field goal attempt to win the game at the gun.
“Honestly, I was going through my reads, man, and BA’s there,” Purdy says. “But I also know in crunch time when they’re playing man, BA is awesome in terms of creating separation and being where he needs to be. So I think it was a culmination of all those kinds of things. I mean with Deebo [Samuel] out and everything, like, BA’s definitely a guy that I trust outside at receiver. Yeah, just had to get the ball to him in space, so he did a great job of getting open.”
And that’s where the twist came. Robbie Gould came on and missed the kick, and Purdy would run one more play—a kneeldown to set up another Gould field goal try, following a play in which Nick Bosa forced a pick by walking left tackle Kolton Miller back into Stidham, knocking Stidham off-balance and his throw into safety Tashaun Gipson’s waiting arms.
“Nick, to pass-rush like he does and create the ball to go up into the air, it may not be the flashiest thing in terms of getting a sack or anything like that, but the dude does his job and he comes up clutch for this team time and time again,” Purdy says. “We definitely owe it to him. He’s awesome.”
Slowly but surely, it seems like Purdy’s proving himself to be just that, too.
In the second half Sunday, take away the one mistake (the aforementioned interception), and Purdy was 15-of-19 for 246 yards. He spread the ball around. He excelled in the biggest moments. And most of all, none of it was too big for him, and maybe that’s because, while you may be surprised with how all this is playing out, he just isn’t overwhelmed.
“I mean, I’ve always believed in myself from college to this point, preseason, all that kind of stuff,” he says. “I’ve always believed that I was good enough to play at this level, and all I needed was a shot and an opportunity. And so, for me, I don’t make it anything more than that, but I have guys around me, too. It’s not all Brock Purdy coming in and saving the day. I have a lot of leaders on this team, so I just gotta give them the ball, and they do the rest.
“That’s how I look at it.”
Few quarterbacks in his position, as a rookie, would.
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Speaking of things that aren’t a big deal … beating the Jets for Geno Smith? No big deal, evidently. Or at least that’s what he told me after his Seahawks dispatched his old team, 23–6, to stay alive in the NFC wild-card race.
Speaking of things that aren’t a big deal … beating the Jets for Geno Smith? No big deal, evidently. Or at least that’s what he told me after his Seahawks dispatched his old team, 23–6, to stay alive in the NFC wild-card race.
“Nah, man, I wish it did [mean more], honestly,” Smith says. “It really doesn’t. Like, it really doesn’t. I got drafted in New York so long ago. I played there so long ago. I was telling people, I got so many people in that organization—the few that are still there—who I hold dear to my heart, that were good to me. I got so many great friends in the city of New York, long-standing relationships. So I never look at it that way. And I know some people might, but I never look at it as something that was bitter. I really enjoyed my time in New York.
“I enjoyed playing for the Jets and the Giants, and it’s just another team. The importance of this game is that we give ourselves a shot for the playoffs.”
With the win, Smith and the Seahawks moved to 8–8 on the season. And if the Packers lose to the Lions on Sunday, and the Seahawks beat the Rams, Pete Carroll’s crew will be back in the playoffs again after falling short in Russell Wilson’s last year in Seattle.
As for how they got there, and whether Smith considered it redemption, the suddenly steady vet certainly got the best of his old team—throwing for a tidy, efficient 183 yards, two touchdowns and a 103.1 rating on 18-of-29 passing. He got there, too, in every which way.
There was …
• A 12-yard touchdown on a corner route to Colby Parkinson to open the scoring.
“It’s so funny, because we threw the same touchdown in practice maybe two days before,” Smith says. “Same exact way. So we had already gotten that rep. We knew how it was gonna be if it was man coverage, which we got, and he did a great job at winning his route and then going up in the sky and then getting the ball and scoring.”
• An improvisational shovel pass to DeeJay Dallas that went for 41 yards on the last play of the first quarter.
“Really, I just was getting up in the pocket, getting ready to get up and out and maybe get some yards, and DeeJay kinda flashed right there,” Smith says. “He was too close for me to throw it to him, so the flip was necessary. I guess everyone was like, That’s a cool play,’ but it’s just one of those spur-of-the-moment things where you’re just playing ball. My favorite player of all time is Brett Favre. He used to do that all the time. So, hopefully, I made him proud with that.”
• A seven-yard dart over the middle to late practice-squad call-up Tyler Mabry two plays later to push the Seahawks’ edge to 17–3.
“There’s a bunch of guys that we have, and they all do a great job of stepping up. I think I’m one of those guys, right? I mean, no one expected me to step into this role and to play the way that I’m playing,” Smith says. “But it’s all because of the guys that I’m playing around with, the coaches having belief in us as players, and no one bats an eye when someone else gets in. It’s next man up, truly. We all have confidence in one another. No matter what happens, we’re gonna play together, stick together and when Mabry’s in there?
“He got open, caught the ball, scored, and, everyone was happy.”
And no one, it seems, is happier than Smith. Maybe the Seahawks make the playoffs. Maybe they don’t.
Either way, the world’s now gotten to know about Smith and what he swears he’s known since the Jets got rid of him—that he belongs as a starting quarterback in the league. It took seven years before his next real shot to prove it. But once he got it, he nailed it.
On the year now, he’s thrown for 4,069 yards, 29 touchdowns, nine picks, a 102.9 passer rating, and he’s completed 70.2% of his throws. Along those lines, as he saw it, Sunday against his former team, was not really a culmination of anything. Instead, it was just a continuation of where he’s been headed for quite some time, which made the Jets game, again, simply the next one for him.
“The satisfaction for me is the ability to compete with my teammates,” he says. “I think people might not even listen when I say this, but I’ve already known who I was for a long time. Known what I can do. My last game as a Jet starting was a perfect passer rating, and so not many people in the league have ever done that, and that’s hard to do. So as far as what I can do, it’s already been on tape. I think I just never got the opportunity again, and so now that I’m getting that, it’s eye-opening for others.
“But all these plays, I made them in practice over and over and over the course of the years. I know who I am. This doesn’t satisfy me. But playing with my teammates and being around the guys, being able to go out there and compete, that’s the satisfaction I get.”
Which is probably a pretty healthy attitude … that few of us (I’ll raise my hand) would have.
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You could hear Marvin Jones laughing through the phone, when he was asked to compare where he, and the Jaguars, are right now versus where they were at this time last year.
“It’s well documented, last year, everything that happened and the vibe and everything,” the 11-year veteran says. “But it’s just as simple as having a coach that knows the players and that knows how to win, that has won on all levels as a coach and a player, just that. Having the respect of the team and of your peers and treating everybody the same, that’s pretty much all you need to do to start a change and shift the culture. And I think you’re starting to see that right now.
“You see a shift in the culture, because everybody is here and everybody sees things through the same lens. When you have that, there’s no way you can lose. So, I mean, we’re blessed to be in this opportunity, to be together as one, and to have coaches that understand players and vice versa, players that understand the coaches. We’re all one and we all see things through the same eyes. So there’s no surprises.”
Maybe these aren’t surprises for the players and coaches in Jacksonville.
But few people outside there saw this coming—in just two months’ time, the Jaguars have evolved from 3–7 also-ran, to a fun, rallying playoff dark horse and, now, to bully of the AFC South (which may be a little like wielding the deadliest squirt gun, but follow me here).
Sunday, we got more proof of it. Doug Pederson’s Jaguars went up 28–0 in Houston midway through the third quarter before cruising to a 31–3 beatdown of a Texans team that had been plenty frisky over the past few weeks in hanging with the Cowboys and Chiefs, then upending the Titans.
And as for those Titans? They’ve lost six straight to fall to 7–9.
On Thanksgiving, they had a four-and-a-half-game lead on Jacksonville.
Five weeks later, the Jaguars are now alone in first, up a game on Tennessee, with the teams set to square off for the division title Saturday in Jacksonville. Which, Jones swore to me, is way more of a stunner to the rest of us than it is to the Jaguars.
“Definitely, we did [think it was possible] … because of how we were losing those games, I don’t think there was any game where we were really out of it,” he says. “Fighting until the end, scoring when we needed to score, and a lot of those early on, they didn’t go our way. But we never wavered because we were saying to ourselves, Hey, we are a good team. We can’t let anybody say that we aren’t because we are in these games.”
“And, eventually, it’s going to turn.”
Jones’s best explanation for it? “In this league,” he says, “it’s hard to win.” And, Jones continued, a young Jaguars team simply had to learn how. It meant, for Pederson and his staff’s part, drilling have-to-have-it situations in practice, and then going through trial and error in games.
“Once we started getting in those close games and then we started winning, there was a lot of belief, like, Hey, we are a great team and we can do this. And continue to do this,” Jones says. “There was definitely a shift once we started stringing those games along against really, really good teams.”
There was, first, the rally from a 17–0 deficit to beat the Raiders 27–20. Then, the way they hung with the Chiefs, and, finally, a convincing 36–22 win over the Titans that got the Jags really rolling.
And Sunday, they showed themselves capable of quickly dispatching an underdog—rushing for 169 yards, scoring on defense and allowing for Trevor Lawrence to have a nice, relaxing tune-up for Week 18. The hope from the coaching staff was, in going this route, that playing guys rather than resting them, as Tennessee did against Dallas, would allow the players to build on the momentum of the past month and a half.
“Because what we had going and what we’ve done these past seven weeks or so, it’s been special,” Jones says. “We want to keep that going and keep that energy up, and the team that has that energy and the flow and is healthy and is on the uptick, those are the teams that make it. So, yeah, that was important.”
We’ll see how important it is five days from now.
