The San Francisco 49ers had their second straight emphatic win, defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7 on Sunday in rookie quarterback Brock Purdy's first career start.
The Iowa State product did not fail to amaze, as Purdy led the offense with poise, completing 16/21 of his passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns, making an array of difficult passes.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, head coach Kyle Shanahan reminisced on the moment he shared with Purdy after the game, sharing that, despite the strong performance, Purdy brought up plays from practice that he had missed, speaking to his "perfectionist" mentality.
"[After the game, during our conversation, Brock] said how much fun he had. He said he brought up a couple plays he missed in practice during the week that were killing him. He was like, Hey, I knew I would get it by gameday, so I'm sorry about some of the things during the week, which was unbelievable because he had a great week of practice and we weren't concerned about that aspect at all, but it just shows you the kid is a perfectionist and everything he does, he wants to see what he can do better," Shanahan said."
Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy having a conversation after the game pic.twitter.com/g30JjVREru
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Purdy faced a "Welcome to the NFL" moment on the first play of the game as he took a hit after audibling out of the pre-planned play, but remained confident in his abilities, which propelled the rest of the team with their belief in him.
"I think [not getting rattled] affects everything and it's hard to fake that stuff. And Brock is always himself and how he carries himself, how he talks," Shanahan said. "He is the same dude every day and he's the same guy on the field, whether he is making a good play or bad play, he believes in himself and he's going to keep slinging it and ripping what he sees and I think our guys feel that and when you're like that, it gives a lot of people confidence because you know it's a matter of time."
However, there was some unfortunate news regarding Purdy, as Shanahan revealed that his rookie quarterback suffered an oblique injury in the second quarter when diving for a first down on a scramble.
While Purdy's injury is to his left oblique, Shanahan noted the importance of the muscle when throwing the football, making it just as painful as an injury to his throwing side.
"I believe Brock's [oblique injury] is on his left side, but your oblique is a big muscle that goes across everything. When you throw it's your whole core, so I feel like it's not good either way."
Although Purdy believed that he could've finished the game if needed, Shanahan acknowledged to reporters on Monday that battling through the injury was a challenge for his quarterback and that the team will await the results of his MRI.
"I think it was a challenge for him. Just talking to him and seeing him after the game. I think he really toughed it out, did some real good things with it and I know he is sore today, so hopefully the MRI will be good and give him a chance to play Thursday."
At the moment, if Purdy is unable to go for San Francisco's Thursday Night game, veteran Josh Johnson would start against the Seahawks in a potential division-clinching game.
- Rohan Chakravarthi
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Written by:Writer/Reporter for 49ers Webzone
