Of all the San Francisco 49ers to blame for their epic collapse against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3, Brock Purdy is very far down the list.

The 49ers quarterback was hugely impressive in their 27-24 defeat, which came after they surrendered a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in a game they had essentially led throughout.

Failings on defense and special teams ultimately cost the 49ers as they dropped to 1-2. The offense was not blameless, though, with eight drops contributing to their defeat, the most crucial of which was committed by wide receiver Ronnie Bell in a chaotic end to the fourth quarter.

Bell had the chance to set the 49ers up in ideal field goal range for Jake Moody on a well-thrown deep ball from Purdy, only to allow it to bounce off his hands. The 49ers failed to convert the subsequent third down and were forced to punt, with a huge return to midfield putting the Rams in prime position to kick the game-winning field goal.

The 2023 seventh-round pick out of Michigan immediately came in for huge criticism for the missed opportunity, however, Purdy quickly sprung to his defense in his post-game press conference.

"He had a double move, and that was the look we wanted and he got his guy," Purdy said. "And by the time I got to him, I think I was just trying to give him a chance and I don't know if I had had enough juice on it just from where I was at in the pocket. So just (trying) to give him a chance and obviously, I think I could still give him a better ball and everything.

"He's a young guy. I love him, man. And we all got Ronnie's back, so we're going to continue to need him and build him up and we're all in this together, man. It's a team sport, man. So it's not one player, one play here. It's all of them all put together."

It was a classy response from Purdy, one befitting of the kind of teammate he is. Purdy is never going to publicly put the blame on his teammate, but the reality is the ball he threw for Bell was near perfect.

Purdy was excellent as he threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns, posting a quarterback rating of 137.1, his ninth career rating of at least 130 marking the most by any signal-caller in their first three seasons. That feat was made all the more impressive by the fact Purdy achieved it without Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle.

While his performance was not without fault, Purdy was simply not in any way to blame for Bell's drop.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan, for his part, had a more accurate assessment of the play.

"Anybody (needs to make that catch)," Shanahan said. "There's other catches in the game that you want people to make and you hope it doesn't have to come down to that. But, you know, Ronnie will say the same thing. He needs to make that catch, but if he doesn't, then you'd like to be able to overcome it and you can overcome it in other ways. But we didn't."

49ers have status that seems difficult to justify following their remarkable Week 3 collapse

They still command a lot of belief.