Getty Brock Purdy took a hard hit on Sunday less than a week after sustaining a concussion.
Less than two days after clearing concussion protocol, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy hitting his head on the turf raised eyebrows.
Purdy put his hands on his head after the play with 1:59 left in a 31-17 Sunday, October 29, loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. He stayed in the game despite how the play ended, and Purdy claimed afterward there was nothing unusual about it.
“No. It was just the typical whiplash of a play like that, you know, head goes back, hits the ground,” Purdy told reporters on Sunday. “But it’s like any other body part, you get hit and shake it off a little bit. So, I’m good from that.”
49ers QB Brock Purdy grabbed his head after it and his neck snapped back hard on this play late in Sunday’s loss to the Bengals.
Purdy – who was in concussion protocol all week – stayed in the game for not only the rest of this possession, but also the last one.
He sustained a concussion in the Week 8 loss against the Minnesota Vikings though he finished that game, but the 49ers cleared him in time for Sunday’s game. In Minnesota, Purdy took a shot from Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks‘ crown, a play that was speculated to be the cause of Purdy’s concussion.
“Yeah, I felt 100-percent all week. My symptoms and stuff weren’t as bad compared to many other concussions that the team has had and I was doing fine and was doing great for each phase of the protocol,” Purdy told reporters. “And then when I got cleared, we all thought I was going to get cleared and sure enough I did. So, I felt 100-percent going into this game.”
Brock Purdy: ‘I Want to be Better for this Team’
Purdy didn’t look 100% amid two touchdowns and a strip sack fumble lost in the 49ers’ third-consecutive defeat. The offense sputtered with 17 points for a third-straight time, and Purdy couldn’t engineer a late comeback again despite 365 yards passing for two touchdowns and a 71% completion rate.
“Yeah, obviously I want to be better for this team, for this organization,” Purdy said. “Just taking care of the ball in some crucial parts of the games. That’s the NFL, man. When it comes down to it, you’re not going to just blow teams out every week. You take care of the ball and you have to play good team football and that’s where I’m at with that. But in terms of, yeah, you have three losses and as a quarterback you take a lot.”
49ers’ Fred Warner Sends Message on Brock Purdy
While the national narrative has turned to doubt about Purdy, 49ers linebacker Fred Warner still believes Purdy can lead the team to wins. Warner also quickly turned to the defense as a major concern.
“What do you want me to say, no? I mean come on now,” Warner told reporters on Sunday. “The thing is, the quarterback is always going to receive the brunt of the criticism. But Brock is, like, the least of my worries. Brock is made of the right stuff. Yeah, can he protect the ball better? Sure, but he’s the reason why we have a chance to win games, in every single game we’re in.”
The common denominator right now is that I haven’t been able to say in the last three losses that the defense had our best outing and we just happened to lose,” Warner added. “We’re not playing good football on our side. That’s the reason why we haven’t won the last three games. That’s got to get figured out and it will get figured out.”