Steve Young sees some positives in Brock Purdy's recent mistakes
The San Francisco 49ers' three-game skid before their bye week was defined in part by Brock Purdy enduring some struggles taking care of the football. Having not thrown a single interception across the 49ers' five-game winning run to start the year, Purdy has thrown six over the course of their recent string of defeats. He […]
The San Francisco 49ers' three-game skid before their bye week was defined in part by Brock Purdy enduring some struggles taking care of the football.
Having not thrown a single interception across the 49ers' five-game winning run to start the year, Purdy has thrown six over the course of their recent string of defeats.
He threw two, though it has since been revealed both came after he suffered an apparent concussion on a quarterback sneak, on successive drives with a chance to take the lead in the Week 7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. In last Sunday's defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals, Purdy followed a bizarre red zone interception with a pick on his next pass attempt that set up the Bengals to take a two-touchdown lead.
Purdy's turnovers have understandably overshadowed two otherwise impressive performances as he has bounced back well from the worst game of his career in the Week 6 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
They have raised questions about the 49ers quarterback, playing his first full season as starter after his remarkable emergence last season, but Hall of Famer Steve Young sees some positives in the recent mistakes made by Purdy.
Young told KNBR: "A lot of guys throw picks at the end of games, they're like, 'What happened?' Well, if you don't know what happened, then we're in deep trouble, bro, because you're the one with the ball in your hands. But I'm telling you, a lot of quarterbacks come to the sidelines after making mistakes, and Coach will say, 'What did you see?' They're making it up. Literally like, 'Whoa, I thought the linebacker went deep.' Like their mind went blank.
"That's not Brock. Brock is going to come to the sidelines and going to go, 'Oh, crap. I thought he was going to break earlier. I saw every bit of it.' Nothing ever happens, [in] my mind, that Brock doesn't see. And so those mistakes at the end of the game, he is an aspirational thrower. The ball's going to come out. I think he's unafraid, especially in that range that he's really good at."
"So there's a lot of positives, but I don't think we should say, 'Oh, he's young,' because, in a way, we can't have it both ways. He actually came to us pretty fully formed, and so his presence and the things that we say for young quarterbacks making dumb mistakes, I don't think he makes dumb mistakes, even at his age.
"I think he makes mistakes, which everyone makes, but I don't think they're dumb ones. I think that he might have been fooled, he might have overthought it, but it wasn't what is normal for young quarterbacks, which is, 'I have no idea what just happened.'"
Purdy did articulate his errors against both the Vikings and the Bengals very well, giving detailed explanations, particularly of the first pick versus Cincinnati when he made an uncharacteristic error of throwing the ball after a botched handoff with linemen blocking downfield.
As, in Young's words, "an aspirational thrower", Purdy is going to continue to be aggressive and put the ball in positions where it might be picked off. For as much as this season is about the 49ers trying to get to the Super Bowl, it's also about their quarterback learning what he can and cannot get away with, his second interception against the Bengals a prime example of the latter.
With a week to reset and put those mistakes behind him, Purdy will hope to prove he has learned from his errors as the Niners aim to get back to winning ways by beating the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10.
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