SANTA CLARA – Brock Purdy’s first-career, four-interception fiasco no doubt triggered the 49ers’ Christmas night flop against the Baltimore Ravens.
But now what? Will there be long-term ramifications of Monday night’s 33-19 defeat at Levi’s Stadium, the same field where the 49ers figured to host playoff games next month en route to the Super Bowl?
Purdy left in the fourth quarter after sustaining his second nerve-related stinger in two games. Also, the 49ers lost All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams to a groin injury three minutes after halftime, after he chased down linebacker Patrick Queen on the Ravens’ fourth interception of Purdy.
Both Purdy and Williams downplayed their injuries, although Purdy did note that his left (non-throwing) arm “lit up again, just like last week,” causing a temporary burning sensation that “over time” dissipated. It does not concern him entering Sunday’s game at Washington.
“Brock will bounce back,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “He will be in there tomorrow looking at film. Hopefully the stinger will clear up, which I expect it to. And hopefully the whole team will bounce back.”
The 49ers (11-4) remain in position for the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, and they still can lock that up by winning their final two regular-season games – Sunday at the Commanders (4-11), and Week 18 against the Los Angeles Rams (8-7). The 49ers currently own the tiebreaker advantage over the NFC’s other two teams with 11-4 records, the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We’re still in control,” said defensive end Nick Bosa, who commended how fans cheering to the bitter end was “unbelievable, and we’ll need that” in the playoffs.
“It’s not like the building is on fire,” tight end George Kittle said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. There were a lot of tips, and crazy stuff happened. I’m not incredibly angry right now. I’m disappointed, but feel we still have a really good football team.”
Purdy, if healthy, and the 49ers have time to recapture momentum. The NFC West champs just won’t be rolling into the postseason like a year ago, when they owned a 10-game win streak.
The 49ers came into this gamer with a six-game winning streak, and the Ravens (12-3) promptly showed why they are in position for the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Purdy’s worst outing of his 23-start career – excluding his elbow-ligament tear in last season’s NFC Championship Game loss in Philadelphia – saw three of his passes intercepted before halftime.
“The fact he’s played this long and hadn’t had a game like this is pretty unusual,” Shanahan said.
“It’s unbelievable how he’s played for the past two years,” Bosa added. “Just being a young rookie last year, it seems like he’s immortal out there. But no one is immortal. He’s responded from not his best performance before and I think he will do that again.”
With eight minutes remaining, the Purdy jogged off to the 49ers’ sideline medical tent for an injury evaluation, after getting sacked by Jadeveon Clowney and landing on his back and head. Trailing 33-12, the 49ers already were without Williams (groin) and his backup Jaylon Moore (concussion). Left guard Aaron Banks also left after apparently aggravating a toe injury that caused him to miss two games last month.
“Getting that stinger again, I wanted to keep him out of there and I’m ready for him to bounce back next week,” Shanahan added of Purdy. “I knew he had a bad stinger and we had three offensive linemen out.”
Sam Darnold finished off that series with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ronnie Bell to cut the deficit to 33-19 with 6:19 remaining. Darnold stayed in the game, and threatened to deliver another score, until the Ravens recorded their fifth interception with a minute remaining.
Only briefly did the 49ers’ offense look like the high-voltage machine that scored touchdowns in six straight possessions in a triumphant rout at Philadelphia three weeks ago.
Christian McCaffrey temporarily stopped the 49ers’ bleeding, after Purdy’s three interceptions. McCaffrey, the NFL’s leading rusher, scored on a 9-yard touchdown run to pull the 49ers within 13-12, with 3:23 until halftime. McCaffrey accounted for 65 of the 67 yards on that six-play touchdown drive, and Purdy got the other 2 yards on a third-and-1 conversion run.
It was McCaffrey’s 14th rushing touchdown this season, and his 21st overall score, two shy of Jerry Rice’s single-season franchise record.
The Ravens had piled up enough points, however, to thwart any fourth-quarter comeback, perhaps channeling memories of their 2012 season’s Super Bowl win over the 49ers, who fell behind 28-6, rallied within 31-29, but lost 34-31.
“In order to score, you can’t give (the ball) back to them,” Shanahan said in regards to a season-high five turnovers.
This meeting was billed as a showdown between the NFL’s two leading MVP candidates – Purdy and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, the latter of whom threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 46 yards.
Meanwhile, Purdy’s 42.6 passer rating was his worst as the 49ers’ starter. In addition to four interceptions, he finished 18-of-32 for 255 yards. “The first (interception) was a big mistake, and the other three were pretty unfortunate,” Shanahan said.
Interception No. 1: Purdy said he was late throwing to Deebo Samuel in the end zone for a potential 15-yard touchdown pass, only to have safety Kyle Hamilton snag the ball and ruin the 49ers’ opening possession. It was just the eighth interception in 389 passes by Purdy this season, and two more were picks coming in the next three passes. “He just read the coverage wrong, didn’t expect someone to be back there, and made a bad decision,” Shanahan said.
Turnover result: They produced points, albeit a 2-0 lead for the 49ers via a safety, once Jackson threw the ball away in the end zone after tripping over umpire Alex Moore and getting chased by Chase Young, Nick Bosa and Javon Hargrave.
Interception No. 2: The 49ers were at the 37-yard line, two plays into the second quarter, when Purdy’s pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage by blitzing cornerback Brandon Stephens, with that jump ball snared by Marlon Humphrey.
Turnover result: The Ravens went ahead 10-5 with a go-ahead touchdown drive. Gus Edwards scored on a fourth-and-goal plunge from 1, slicing through the 49ers’ front featuring six defensive linemen. Afterward, Bosa, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw huddled on the sideline to search for answers.
Interception No. 3: This looked like the most galling error in terms of a panic throw. Purdy scrambled right, saw a penalty flag had been thrown (on McCaffrey for a chop block), and, rather than throw the ball away, Purdy targeted George Kittle, only to have a ricochet grabbed by Hamilton for his second interception.
Turnover result: The Ravens opened their ensuing possession at the 20-yard line, and promptly settled for Justin Tucker’s 41-yard field goal and a 13-5 lead with 7:03 until halftime.
Interception No. 4: Purdy’s arm got hit in the pocket by defensive tackle Travis Jones and the third-quarter throw fluttered into the hands of Queen. Williams appeared to strip and recover the football, but a replay ruling confirmed that Queen was down by contact.
Turnover result: On the next snap, Jackson threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers, for a 30-12 lead, just 3:11 into the second half. On the 49ers next possession, Williams was out with a groin injury, and Moore stepped in until he sustained a concussion, eventually forcing Colton McKivitz to move over from right tackle, which is where usual guard Spencer Burford was inserted.
The last time a 49ers quarterback had four passes intercepted: Colin Kaepernick, on Sept. 27, 2015 at Arizona.
Said Purdy: “It’s easy to be riding high and thinking you’re the man, when things are going well, you’re winning games, and you don’t see a whole lot of adversity in some games. This is the reality of the NFL. I have to look at myself in the mirror, get better, make some cleaner decisions, help my team put up points and protect the ball. When things don’t go my way, it’s understanding I can’t be acting out. I have to be real with myself and be better.”
Purdy, in 22 previous games, had never thrown two interceptions before halftime in his career. He threw three in Monday’s opening 22 minutes.
Shanahan said he saw no cracks in Purdy’s demeanor, and Darnold added: “Brock’s always very poised, very mature. He always has that next play next drive mentality.”
Said Purdy: “I want to be the same guy every day. I want to be consistent in what I do, whether things are going well or not. I know who I am and I’m not going to waver in that.”
Purdy’s only previous games with multiple interceptions were October losses to the Vikings and the Bengals. Purdy also fumbled in that 31-17 loss to Cincinnati, after which he apologized to the team in the locker room, and the 49ers responded by winning six straight, up until Monday night’s massacre.
Five turnovers and 102 penalty yards certainly doomed the 49ers, but so did their defense giving Jackson what Shanahan called too many opportunities.
That 49ers’ defense welcomed Javon Hargrave back from a one-game, hamstring-related absence, and he delivered a sack. A more emotional return came briefly from cornerback Jason Verrett, who suited up for the first time since the 2021 season opener, in which he sustained a knee injury and then subsequently tore an Achilles in November 2022.
The 49ers pulled Ambry Thomas (hamstring) and inserted Verrett at nickel back to open the second half. Three snaps into his comeback, Verrett got beat for a touchdown, as he left Nelson Agholor open in the end zone to catch Jackson’s 6-yard scoring strike for a 23-12 lead. Verrett then took a seat and stewed by the sideline’s water cooler, rather than join fellow defensive backs on the bench. When the 49ers’ nickel defense was back on the field, Verrett was watching from the sideline without his helmet.
While the Ravens’ defense produced five interceptions, the 49ers’ forced no turnovers, to which Warner said: “We had to find a way to take the ball away to get us back in that game and we couldn’t do it. … We can’t let this affect our confidence.”
Added Bosa: “This team has been through worse and we’ve been through worse than this, for sure. We still have everything ahead of us and we’ve got to come back.”
