The latest win for the San Francisco 49ers had special meaning for quarterback Brock Purdy, who was able to come out with a win in his first NFL start in his home state of Arizona.
A product of Queen Creek, Arizona, Purdy returned to the Grand Canyon State on Sunday to guide the 49ers to a 45-29 victory over the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Purdy had the opportunity to play at State Farm Stadium when he was in college at Iowa State, but that was in 2020 when crowds were gone from games due to COVID-19. He was able to get the full experience on Sunday, which turned out to be a moment he won't forget.
"I came back here for the Fiesta Bowl, but that was in COVID," Purdy told reporters Sunday. "So there wasn't that many people watching, just family and friends. But now to come back and have a whole stadium and it felt like a game. In high school I'd come and watch the Cardinals, and it felt like that. Now I'm playing on that field. It was so cool. So, definitely something I'll look back on in life and be very thankful for."
Purdy, who played high school football at Gilbert High School in Perry, Arizona, got a number of ticket requests for the game from friends but only wound up securing seats for his family. Still, that didn't stop those who know him from showing up to provide support.
"To come home and have everybody from high school, Perry and Queen Creek, Gilbert, to come to the game and support like they have, it means everything to me," Purdy said. "I've always dreamed of being able to come home and play in front of everybody just because of how much I know that they have my back and support me. So I hope I was able to give them a good game and I appreciate all that they've done for me in my life."
The game went about as well as it could have for Purdy, who had an injury scare early in the game after going to the sidelines temporarily due to a stinger but returned to finish with 242 yards and four touchdowns before exiting the stadium to chants of "MVP."
"To finish the game with people chanting your name in the stands is about as cool as it can get," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said.
There's much more to discuss in this 49ers Notebook than just Purdy's return to Arizona. We've got a look at Charvarius "Mooney" Ward's huge performance against the Cardinals along with Deebo Samuel's fun description of one of his two touchdowns, Kyle Shanahan and Fred Warner explaining what went wrong with the defense, and Dre Greenlaw explaining why it's time for the 49ers to get some new shirts. Let's get into it...
Full Mooney
Mooney Ward came into Sunday's game leading the league in passes broken up, but he expressed hope in recent weeks that he'd eventually turn those PBUs into INTs. That hope came true against the Cardinals, as Ward had two interceptions, returning one of them 66 yards for a touchdown.
CHARVARIUS WARD PICK-SIX
📺: #SFvsAZ on CBS
— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2023
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/kw7mays4qU pic.twitter.com/ZR2RkaAseq
The touchdown was a career first for Ward, going back to his earliest playing days.
"I had a big smile on my face, probably for the whole first half after that touchdown," Ward said Sunday. "I feel like I made a great play. Thank God first of all. Two picks -- first time they ever happened in my career, even high school and college and junior college. So I'm definitely happy and thankful for that."
Ward gave some unexpected credit for the interceptions to backup quarterback Sam Darnold. Ward had been working with a JUGS football passing machine to help him catch footballs, but once Darnold got involved, things changed.
"This week I caught some balls from Sam Darnold -- from a quarterback that throws the ball hard," Ward said. "It's different when a quarterback's throwing the ball to you rather than your coach throwing about you. It's a different spin on it. So I caught some balls from Sam Darnold and I'm probably going to do that every week now for sure."
Other than Ward himself, no one was happier for his success on Sunday than his teammates, who have labeled him an All-Pro cornerback on more than one occasion this year.
"Oh, yeah, that was amazing," linebacker Fred Warner said of Ward's pick six. "We needed that, especially in that moment. Big-time play by him and he's been playing at an All-Pro level all season, leading the league in PBUs, but he's been kind of talking about how he needed to get those interceptions to really lock it down. And so to have two today, one for a touchdown, can't speak enough to how amazing he's been playing and needed him big time today."
Samuel told reporters that he more or less predicted a pick six for Ward before the game, even though he was off on the yardage.
"Right before the game, bro, I'm like, yo, it's about time for you to get you a pick," Samuel said. "Like, I'm tired of seeing PBUs and I said, you're going to take one about 91, 90 yards. It was close to it. He hit that like he just caught a screen and he went and got in the end zone. And you see me, I put my helmet on so I don't get a penalty, of course, but just ran down there and met him in end zone."
Ward's playing status for Sunday's game was in question as of a few days ago due to a groin injury he sustained in last week's win over the Seattle Seahawks. He had no interest in sitting out against the Cardinals, however, so once he felt good enough during the week, he started to plan on being in the lineup.
"I think by like Thursday when I was working out with the trainers and everything, I was like, yeah, I'm for sure going to go," Ward said. "A lot of people telling me to rest because they thought the Cardinals were a lesser opponent, but I didn't think about it like that. I know they're a division opponent that was going to play us hard. So I was like, I had to come out here and do my thing."
Shanahan was impressed with how fast Ward bounced back from the injury, and how well he played once he got back into game action. Shanahan is obviously hoping Ward will be able to carry that performance over into the coming weeks and get more interceptions as the 49ers head into the postseason.
"I was considering him a long shot early in the week and he kept saying he wasn't," Shanahan said. "And then the way he did it, got out there on Friday and was good to go, that was so cool of him. I think he's not hesitating on anything. He's running through the ball, he's getting his hands up. Usually that's the first step in knocking balls down, which he does as good as anyone on the planet right now. And that was cool because he says it, but when you knock that many balls down, running through them, eventually you're going to try to catch a couple.
"And today was the first time I really saw him try to do that. He did it early in the game and got that pick six and then the next one than went to him. It just looks like they stick to his hands now, so that was cool to kind of do that first one and hopefully there'll be many more to come."
The only downer
Sunday's game produced almost entirely positive vibes for the 49ers, but there was one exception. Despite coming into the day as one of the NFL's best teams against the run, the 49ers allowed over 200 yards on the ground to the Cardinals, including a 49-yard touchdown run from running back Emari Demercado and a 44-yard run from running back James Conner.
The 49ers were without two key starters on the defensive line due to injury (Javon Hargrave, Arik Armstead), plus the Cardinals have some players capable of making defenders miss, such as quarterback Kyler Murray. But the 49ers also didn't do as good of a job wrapping up on defense as they usually do, and it showed in the stat sheet.
"Just looking at it live, I thought we missed way too many tackles today," Shanahan said. "Give them credit -- they've got a bunch of guys that are hard to tackle. I mean, obviously their quarterback is as tough as it gets, but their skill players, they all can run... They got a bunch of guys who create that stuff. But it was disappointing on the missed tackles.
"Always when you add in the running element of a quarterback, that gets some too. But we definitely didn't play the run good enough today, which I think was pretty obvious. But we came here with one thing on our mind and that was to get a win, and that's what we got done and now we got to make sure to clean that stuff up."
The 49ers will need to have a much cleaner performance on defense in their next game when the run-heavy Baltimore Ravens come to Levi's Stadium on Christmas evening, led by another explosive running quarterback in Lamar Jackson.
"I look at myself, I'm always going to point the finger at myself first and foremost, and I've got to be the standard for everybody else," Warner said. "And then if we do miss a tackle, we got to make sure guys are getting to the football to get them down. Too many explosive runs."
A "lazy" touchdown
The first of two touchdowns against the Cardinals for wide receiver Deebo Samuel came on an interesting play design, which included a bit of fakery from Samuel in an attempt to lure the Cardinals' defense to sleep.
Samuel can be seen trotting towards the sideline on the play while the offense moved in the opposite direction during a fake handoff. The Cardinals bit and left Samuel wide open for an easy touchdown, much to his surprise.
Nobody even near Deebo in the end zone
📺: #SFvsAZ on CBS
— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2023
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/kw7mays4qU pic.twitter.com/CxwmJqjc8Q
"The crazy thing is we practiced that, and in my head I'm like, yo, no way this is going to be this wide open," Samuel said. "But I came around and seen nobody. Kyle put that in and normally when he puts stuff in, it works."
Everything worked as intended on the play, including Samuel's acting job.
"Definitely was part of the play, going across and not being as fast to draw a little attention and just be lazy a little bit. It worked."
Time for a new T-shirt
The 49ers clinched the NFC West for the second consecutive season on Sunday, and with that came some new championship gear.
Among them was a new T-shirt that several 49ers players were seen wearing in the locker room after the game.
NFC west champs! #ProBowlVote
— George Kittle (@gkittle46) December 18, 2023
Christian McCaffery
Nick Bosa
Kyle juszczyk
George Kittle @49ers pic.twitter.com/7HLUWNwMEK
But while the players were indeed happy to be division champs once again, linebacker Dre Greenlaw shared a sentiment that players and fans would agree with when he expressed a hint of boredom over getting his third division champion shirt.
"I'm kinda tired of this shirt," Greenlaw said. "I want a Super Bowl shirt."
With the way the 49ers have been playing, the chances of them getting one of those shirts seem to be getting better every week. For now, they'll settle for another NFC West celebration before shifting their focus to the Ravens on Monday.
