Brock Purdy fails to rise to the moment as 49ers lose second straight
The San Francisco 49ers spent much of the first five weeks of the season hearing about they were the best team in the NFL. They are unlikely to be the recipients of such praise after dropping to a second successive upset loss, this time at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings in a 22-17 primetime […]
The San Francisco 49ers spent much of the first five weeks of the season hearing about they were the best team in the NFL. They are unlikely to be the recipients of such praise after dropping to a second successive upset loss, this time at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings in a 22-17 primetime defeat.
Questions were raised after the Niners suffered their first defeat of the season to the Cleveland Browns last week.
Brock Purdy, who endured the worst game of his career against a much-vaunted Browns defense, responded to most of the doubts about his play with a largely faultless effort. Faultless until the two most important drives of the game for the 49er offense.
Purdy falls short
Purdy had produced an impressive bounce-back effort against a Vikings defense that stayed true to its dependency on the blitz, but that performance was washed away on two throws.
Twice Purdy had the chance to lead the 49ers to a game-winning score, twice he sailed mystifying throws straight into the arms of Vikings defensive back Camryn Bynum.
After being picked on the previous drive with an opportunity to take the lead, Purdy scrambled away from pressure and launched a ball deep for Ray-Ray McCloud with 34 seconds left in a baffling decision that extinguished his chance to write a memorable paragraph in his career on his Monday Night Football debut.
Purdy's inability to come through when the 49ers had the chance to win the game will attract a lot of attention in the coming days, but the blame for San Francisco's latest stumble should be shared around a lot of people.
Defense fails to deliver
It was a tale of missed opportunities, most notably a Christian McCaffrey fumble in the red zone after a Kirk Cousins interception on the first series, for the 49ers' offense in the first half, but more worrying was the dismal defensive showing that followed that pick from Charvarius Ward.
San Francisco gave up 452 yards of offense and did not sack Cousins once, a defensive line supposed to one of the best and deepest in football missing in action as the Vikings continually converted on third down.
Minnesota went eight for 13 on third down, though perhaps no defensive error was more costly than coordinator Steve Wilks' baffling decision to send a six-man pressure in the waning seconds of the first half, a call that backfired spectacularly as Jordan Addison took the ball away from Ward and strolled in for a score that gave the Vikings a nine-point lead at the half.
That decision looks even more questionable with the game ultimately decided by five points, and stern questions will be asked of Wilks and a defense that looked like the best in football two weeks ago after the shellacking of the Dallas Cowboys.
San Francisco's dominant performance in that primetime encounter now feels like a distant memory. The shine has come off a player in Purdy who was an MVP frontrunner after dishing out that drubbing and the defense is looking anything but polished.
Heading into an extremely difficult matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 8, the pressure on a team many regard as a Super Bowl contender to find a response to two successive clunkers is growing considerably more intense.
49ers’ Fred Warner might have found a way to stop the tush push
A gift for the rest of the NFL.
