"I thought he played really well," head coach Kyle Shanahan said of his quarterback's performance in the San Francisco 49ers' 22-17 Monday night loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Brock Purdy finished the game 21 of 30 for 272 yards and a touchdown. However, his two interceptions proved costly for the Niners, one of which occurred in the final minute of play, ending their attempt to secure a go-ahead touchdown.
Both interceptions were made by Vikings safety Camryn Bynum, with the first occurring with 5:36 remaining in the game.
"I thought on the first one to [WR] Jauan [Jennings], he just missed the throw," Shanahan said of the initial interception. "I thought he just sailed it a little bit inside, had Jauan right there."
Purdy took responsibility for the interception, attributing it to a poorly thrown pass.
"J.J. did a good job in his route, and the D-line got a good push on us, and I sort of just was trying to anticipate the throw," Purdy explained. "At the end of the day, it was a bad ball, and obviously, I threw it too far ahead of him."
Purdy added, "J.J., he did his job. He ran the right route, the right timing, and everything. I just got pushed and sort of lost sight of him and just anticipated it too far ahead of him."
Bynum hauling in the second pick was the nail in the coffin for the 49ers, allowing the Vikings to run out the clock and hand San Francisco its second consecutive loss.
"The second one, and then they're soft as can be, going down without any timeouts," Shanahan said. "And he tried to lob it over a guy who was really deep, and it looked like the guy climbed the ladder and made a hell of a play."
With the game in his hands, the quarterback was desperate to get the offense down the field for a chance to score a game-winning touchdown.
"Thirty-four seconds left, sort of trying to strain and make a play," Purdy admitted. "That was like the shot within the play to hit [WR] Ray-Ray [McCloud], coming across the middle, and then that middle safety, he did a good job. I was trying to throw it over him, trying to force it. Got to learn from it."
Shanahan added, "He just missed the one to Jauan, a little over the middle. Had to have it a little more inside the numbers. And the second one was just trying to lob it over someone in desperation."
Despite those mistakes, the coach felt Purdy turned in a strong performance, emphasizing that the first interception was the young quarterback's "one tough play that he didn't make."
The 49ers now own a 5-2 record and will have to play catchup with the 6-1 Philadelphia Eagles in the race for home-field advantage. Looking ahead, the 49ers have the Cincinnati Bengals next on their schedule. After that, the team will head into its bye week. San Francisco isn't making any excuses after this latest bitter defeat.
"We flat out got beat, and I think, right now, you've got to take it like a man," Shanahan said. "And we've got a game here, I think tomorrow, when we wake up, it'll be five days from now. We've got a team coming off a bye week who's been waiting for this for a little bit, and we can't sit here and worry about what's happened before this.
"We've got to make sure that we do everything from now all the way until Sunday, when that game's over, to find a way to beat the Bengals. And then we go into our bye week. ... We've got about five-and-a-half days left. Got to focus all on that and make sure we go in that bye week 6-2, not 5-3."
