2 weeks Ago By Nicholas McGee, A to Z Sports
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy led the NFL in passing yards prior to Thursday Night Football with 550, but he knows his performance in their Week 2 loss to the Minnesota Vikings was far from good enough. While the Niners moved the ball well in their 23-17 defeat to the Vikings , they found themselves failing in key situations far too often against an aggressive and diverse defense that does an excellent job of mixing up and disguising its coverages. The 49ers went two of 10 on third down and two of four in the red zone.
Purdy, in the second half especially, appeared severely unsettled, turning down some seemingly open receivers and eschewing checkdowns to hold the ball. He was often skittish in the pocket and guilty of running into pressure. He'll be expected to enjoy a bounce back performance this week against a Los Angeles Rams defense that ranks 30th in the NFL by dropback Expected Points Added per play.
But Purdy acknowledges that he must learn his lessons from the Vikings loss for that to happen. “I would say so," Purdy replied when asked if he wasn't processing as quickly as usual in Week 2. "There were a couple of plays where I dropped back and for me I just wasn’t on top of my progressions and getting off certain reads and holding onto the ball a little bit in certain situations and plays.
"That’s where I had to be better. It’s football, you’re not always going to be perfect. There’s some plays like that, that are going to happen.
But for me, I think it happened more than I wanted it to. And so, I had to learn from it and grow from it.” YPRR so far for the 49ers: Deebo: 2.
6 Jennings: 2.1 Kittle: 2.0 Juszczyk: 1.
8 Aiyuk 1.1 No Deebo now. Jennings and Kittle have been the top guys.
Aiyuk simply has to reclaim the top spot. He was at 3.2 YPRR last year to earn his contract https://t.
co/ua0DYivkiY Some have pointed to a lack of separation from receivers as part of the reason for Purdy's struggles in Week 2. Per NextGen Stats (h/t David Lombardi of The Athletic ), the 49ers had the lowest average yards of separation (2.9) heading into Week 3.
After averaging 3.2 yards per route run in his All-Pro year last season, Brandon Aiyuk is averaging just 1.1 following a second successive underwhelming performance in the wake of his four-year, $120 million extension.
Purdy, though, dismissed criticism of the performance of his receivers. "I have no idea what those metrics are or anything, but I think on film, our guys are doing a good job," said Purdy. "It comes down to execution between both of us.
Being where they need to be and then me trusting and laying the ball and throwing the ball accurately, time and time again. That’s just us being hard on ourselves. "But that’s also the standard that we have and that we’ve shown over the last couple years.
I think our guys are doing a great job. Whatever the metrics are showing, if they’re not getting open or stuff, I don’t really know if I believe any of that. I think it’s really about me being efficient, them doing their job and being on the same page.
" This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission..
