Purdy, 49ers' offense continue to counter defensive adjustments

SANTA CLARA -- The pass protection was good, but 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy often held the ball and eventually had to escape the pocket.

Why?

Oftentimes, Purdy had nowhere to throw it because the New England Patriots were well-prepared and took away some of the 49ers’ usually-simple pitch and catches.

“I felt early on New England did a good job just with scheming us up with our plays and stuff,” Purdy said following San Francisco's 30-13 victory Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.

Purdy said the Patriots’ safeties correctly anticipated the 49ers’ routes and had the receivers and tight ends covered. Therefore, Purdy had to scramble more than usual.

Later, the 49ers made adjustments and aired it out down the field, as the Patriots’ defensive backfield took away a lot of the short and intermediate routes.

“I feel like in the past couple seasons that's been something that we're sort of known for, but people scheme us up and they do a good job with just leverage and taking away certain routes,” Purdy said. “For us, that's a good opportunity for us to be able to adapt and work on different things as well.”

Clearly, teams on the San Francisco's schedule spent considerable time in the offseason trying to devise schemes to limit the effectiveness of the 49ers’ offense.

On Sunday, Purdy made his 25th career regular-season start. He also has six starts in the postseason. There is a book on Purdy. But he is still finding ways to adapt and have success.

Purdy completed 15 of 27 pass attempts against the Patriots for 288 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

He has the highest passer rating in NFL history through 25 career starts. Purdy's rating of 112.6 barely edges Patrick Mahomes (112.5) for the top spot.

Through four games, Purdy leads the NFL with 1,130 passing yards and average yards per pass attempt (9.3). He ranks sixth in the NFL with a 104.9 passer rating.

But it just seems more difficult thus far this season.

After all, Christian McCaffrey has not played, and Deebo Samuel and George Kittle missed one game apiece.

Purdy has found other ways to make it work.

Jauan Jennings, the 49ers’ No. 3 wide receiver, is third in the NFL with 364 receiving yards on 21 receptions with three touchdowns.

Brandon Aiyuk, who signed a five-year, $134.1 million contract just before the start of the regular season, has only 13 catches for 167 yards in four games.

He said defenses are playing him differently than in the past.

“They just know what we want to do, what we like to do, me and Purdy, especially,” Aiyuk said.

So that is one reason Purdy aired it out a little more than usual on Sunday. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Purdy did not change his approach. What changed were the opportunities the Patriots gave him to push the ball down the field.

“I think he's the same,” Shanahan said. “I thought we had some better looks today on a couple of them. But, no, Brock has done a real good job with that.”

The big offensive play of the game for the 49ers came after the Patriots scored their only touchdown of the game early in the third quarter to pull within 20-10.

On the 49ers’ first play of the next series, Purdy took a shot deep for Samuel who hauled in a 53-yard pass. Three plays later, Jordan Mason scored on a 4-yard touchdown to extend the lead back to 17 points.

In the fourth quarter after New England cut San Francisco's lead to 14, Purdy hooked up with Jennings on a 45-yarder to set up a field goal.

Purdy is capable of making every throw, so now the onus falls on the 49ers’ offense to continue to adapt.

Mason has taken over for McCaffrey, and he is second in the NFL (behind Baltimore Ravens' Derrick Henry) with 447 yards rushing. And, now, Purdy has shown that if defenses play their safeties up to take away the underneath routes, he will try to make them pay with the deep ball.

“A hundred percent,” said All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams when asked if he likes it when Purdy airs it out.

“We’ve got all those weapons out there, why wouldn't you? It's always good when Brock's unleashing the ball and then we got (Mason) running the ball how he’s run the ball. That really makes the offense go.”

Trent Williams enjoys the 49ers' deep-ball success but recognizes the need to mitigate mistakes pic.twitter.com/iUc02ftWXD

— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) September 30, 2024

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