Getty Brock Purdy fell as starter for the first time in his NFL career.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy faced his kryptonite on Sunday, October 15, against the Cleveland Browns, the top defense in the NFL.
“We went against a very good defense to start with. That’s the way we expected it going in,” Shanahan told reporters on Sunday. “But it wasn’t just Brock. It was everybody.”
Purdy couldn’t do as many Purdy things as he did in his 10-0 career start as the 49ers fell 19-17 in Cleveland. Purdy completed 44.4% of his passes, threw for 125 yards, and he scored a touchdown but threw for an interception.
Emerson intercepts Purdy! Browns looking to take the lead
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The 49ers didn’t look like their high-scoring selves with their lowest offensive output of the season, which included a 21- yard second half until the final 1:40. San Francisco put up 30 or more points in each of the five previous games, and Purdy became a central figure of the team’s success.
His rise from Mr. Irrelevant at the last NFL draft pick in 2022 to a budding star captured the national fan base in the past year. It started after he filled in for an injured Jimmy Garropolo with a win over a Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad in December 2022.
Purdy capped that season by leading the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game before a season-ending elbow injury in Philadelphia. His hot start for 2023 only had his young legend grow bigger, but on Sunday, he couldn’t get the 49ers past a vaunted Browns defense and a team with P.J. Walker as the quarterback.
Brock Purdy Got a Lift from Brandon Aiyuk on Game-Winning Drive Attempt
Purdy faced his first chance to lead a game-winning drive in his NFL career when the 49ers trailed 19-17 and 1:40 left in the game. He had to do it without star wide receiver Deebo Samuel and star running back Christian McCaffrey due to injury.
Cleveland had its way on defense with one-on-one coverage, and Purdy couldn’t find his guys on the first two plays of the drive. It took a defensive pass interference call to keep the 49ers’ final drive going.
Brandon Aiyuk then gave Purdy a boost with a catch on a slant for a first down. After a missed throw to Jauan Jennings, Purdy and Aiyuk connected again to get 49ers kicker Jake Moody within the outer limit of his range.
Jennings then helped out Purdy by getting open to convert on third down and short. It put the 49ers in comfortable field goal range, and running back Jordan Mason made it a little closer on the following play.
Kyle Shanahan Addresses Missed Kick
Unfortunately for Moody and company, he couldn’t deliver on the kick, wide right.
Jake Moody’s kick is NO GOOD ❌
📺: FOX
“It’s always tough to miss that last kick, but that happens in football,” Shanahan said. “They played better than us today. That was the last play, but there was a lot more today than just that.”
Shanahan acknowledged “it would have felt really good initially … if we made that on the last play”, but he acknowledged with his team that there were issues well before that. He said that his “message to them was regardless of whether we hit that or not, there’s a lot of stuff from this game that we got to improve on”.