It was a nightmare on Christmas for Brock Purdy.
It started terribly well, as Purdy connected with George Kittle for a 58-yard run and catch ahead of a 13-yarder to put the San Francisco 49ers on the Baltimore Ravens' 15-yard line during their opening drive.
Then Purdy saw Deebo Samuel in the end zone and didn't see Kyle Hamilton.
Hamilton swooped in, tallying the first of his two interceptions and Purdy's four.
At evening's end, Purdy was on the sidelines, having suffered an aggravation of a stinger and thrown a quartet of INTs in the 49ers' 33-19 loss to the Ravens.
Despite the insult and the injury, head coach Kyle Shanahan expressed confidence that Purdy was rebound from the poor performance and the stinger.
"He stayed in there, kept battling," Shanahan said. "Our whole team struggled there in the second half, so it just wasn't him. I know he was disappointed not being able to finish it there, but given that stinger again, I just wanted to keep him out of there. Ready for him to bounce back next week."
Purdy finished his night going 18 of 32 for 255 yards, no touchdowns, the four picks and a dismal 42.6 rating. Midway through the fourth quarter, Purdy was sacked by Jadeveon Clowney, which aggravated a stinger injury he's been dealing with. He went to the blue medical tent and was cleared to return, but Shanahan erred on the side of caution and went with Sam Darnold for the last two drives of the game.
"Yeah, I played the whole game, fine not thinking about it or anything at all," Purdy said. "It wasn't even a thing. You know just the way I got tackled on that play, it sort of just lit up again just like last week. So, I had to go through the protocol, process in the tent and everything like that. It sort of just how it went down."
Purdy had a discussion on the sideline with Shanahan about returning with the Niners trailing by 14 late, but conventional wisdom played out with the head coach looking to preserve his QB1 to play another day.
"We had talked about the scenario of the game and where we were at," Purdy said. "I just got a stinger and my arm was coming back, feeling normal and whatnot. So, he was just like where we were at the game and Sam had gone in and scored. He goes 'for now we are just going to go with Sam with how things are going.' We didn't want anything else popping up with the stinger and all that kind of stuff. It was just where we were at situationally. Sam was doing good and we rolled with him."
Speaking with reporters following the game, Purdy seemed far more concerned about his play rather than his shoulder.
A leading candidate for most valuable player coming into the game, Purdy was likely kicked out of that conversation.
"I thought the first one was a big mistake and the other three was pretty unfortunate for him," Shanahan said of the interceptions.
Done in by deflections on two of his other INTs, Purdy was picked by Hamilton twice and Marlon Humphrey and Patrick Queen once.
"That starts it off," Purdy said of the initial INT. "Obviously, we were rolling, we had the momentum, had some really big plays on that drive. And then I throw the ball like that to end the momentum that we had. So, for me, that definitely hurt; wish I had it back."
Purdy proved to be harder on himself at the podium than his head coach was.
Still sitting atop the NFC, the 49ers remain in prime position for the conference's No. 1 seed. Their quarterback realizes he has to be better and he made that very clear after a nightmarish Week 16 outing.
"I have to look myself in the mirror and ask myself why or how that happened, and why I made those decisions," he said. "Our team came ready to play and, for me to make some decisions like that, it pains me and it's not fair to these guys. I have to realize that and understand that. I have to get better for my team."
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