SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy looked to the clouds and yelled.
He yelled with his whole chest.
No, it was his whole body.
Scratch that, he yelled with his entire soul.
Then the 49ers’ rookie quarterback pounded his chest five times, alternating arms with each beat.
Purdy had just spun out of a sack and made the defining play of the game, a 7-yard touchdown toss to running back Elijah Mitchell to give the 49ers a 31-17 early fourth-quarter lead over the Seahawks in the team’s first-round playoff game.
It was a yell of frustration.
It was a yell of excitement.
It was a yell that reverberated through the entire 49ers roster.
“I love seeing him let his emotion out like that, because he’s a pretty calm, cool, collected guy — not very loud,” 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “But when he lets it out, it fires you up.”
The touchdown was the start — the spark — of a surge that turned a six-point game into a 41-17 lead. The offense started cruising. The defense suffocated the Seahawks. The breakthrough scramble and throw turned what had been a nervy contest for the 49ers into a blowout win and another playoff game next weekend at Levi’s Stadium against an opponent to be determined.
But the play — and the yell that followed — also perfectly exemplified Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft who was thrust into the role of 49ers’ starting quarterback in the middle of a playoff run, amid Super Bowl expectations.
The rookie has surprised the world of football by not just surviving, but elevating the Niners’ offense.
Surprised everyone but himself, that is.
“It was just a broken play… [Mitchell] was my last read. When I scrambled — Elijah was where he needed to be. That’s why I was excited,” Purdy said.
“To create momentum, it was just a big play for everyone — a big moment for everyone. I was just excited about it and wanted to create some juice for my team.”
It was fair to wonder if Purdy had reached his limit in the first half of Saturday’s game. After six sterling performances — all wins — to close the regular season, the lights of the playoffs looked too bright for the rookie in the early goings.
The 49ers were juice-free in the first two quarters, with Purdy completing only 9 of 19 passes in the first half.
He looked jittery. He was missing easy throws and overlooking open receivers, and the 49ers around him weren’t playing much better.
Dominated in the trenches and being carved apart on defense, San Francisco — 10-point favorites heading into the game — trailed the Seahawks 17-16 at halftime.
The Niners, to their credit, responded with a touchdown to start the third quarter.
But the game still felt in the balance, even after Charles Omenhihu stripped Seattle quarterback Geno Smith of the ball — recovered by Nick Bosa of the 49ers — deep in San Francisco territory on the subsequent drive.
The Niners had to capitalize on the turnover. After kicking three first-half field goals, they needed a touchdown.
Purdy delivered.
He pushed the Niners into Seattle territory with a 33-yard pass to Jauan Jennings. And after an aborted play on first down from the 7-yard line, Purdy tapdanced in the backfield on second down, missing open receivers in the end zone.
Oh no.
He then scrambled to his left, right into the path of Seattle veteran defensive end Bruce Irvin.
Oh no.
But then Purdy spun around, changing the direction of his scramble.
He was on the run to the right, but instead of continuing into the open field, he saw Mitchell standing all by himself atop the ’10’ painted on the field.
Oh yes.
Purdy made a jump throw in stride that hit Mitchell in the chest. The running back could have walked into the end zone.
Then Purdy hit himself in the chest.
The rookie quarterback might not have the biggest arm. He’s not tall or particularly strong. He’s certainly not the fastest player on the field. If he told you he worked for the 49ers, you would initially think the boyish 23-year-old was an intern in the front office.
But in a sport filled with alpha males, you’d be hard-pressed to find a player with more confidence in themselves.
His self-belief has become legend in the 49ers’ locker room. It’s allowed countless players to declare — after the fact, of course — that they “called” the third-string quarterback’s ascension to becoming the leader of a team that’s favored to win the NFC by Las Vegas oddsmakers.
“Brock is a dude,” offensive lineman Spencer Burford said. “He has confidence in himself, and we have confidence in him as well. When you have a quarterback like that, [one] that believes in himself, owns his mistakes, and knows what he’s doing… Everybody knew what we had to do in the second half. Brock just led the ship.”
Purdy needed every bit of that soon-to-be legendary confidence to do that.
A player with less self-belief would have gone into a shell had they played like Purdy in the first half. They would not have continued to run into the fire the way the young quarterback did, for fear that they would come out burned.
Still, for a player with effectively no NFL experience — a quarterback making his sixth NFL start — to push forward and take risks like Purdy did on Saturday, with the stakes so high, is astounding.
“[It’s] the instinct I have [from] playing football throughout the years,” Purdy said of the scrambles.
Those instincts proved to be game-changing on Saturday. They’ve been season-changing for the 49ers.
“He’s got a feel for it,” Kyle Shanahan said of his quarterback’s scrambling ability. “It definitely makes me nervous on some of it, but he did a hell of a job getting away. he knows his body — he’s out there and can see how close he is to those guys. He tries to never give up on a play, and he’s been very smart with the ball so far, so I appreciate that he’s doing it.”
Purdy completed 9 of 11 second-half passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns through the air on Saturday. He added a rushing touchdown with a quarterback sneak. After the touchdown throw to Mitchell, Purdy once again looked like the precocious, precise, patient, and poised quarterback that came into his first real NFL action following Jimmy Garoppolo’s injury in Week 13 and made the hardest position in professional sports look so effortlessly easy.
Purdy’s four touchdowns Saturday matched Garoppolo’s total touchdown output from his six career postseason games.
And with his huge second half, Purdy became the 10th quarterback in NFL playoff history to throw for 330-plus yards, score four touchdowns, and not throw an interception.
This isn’t normal. A rookie shouldn’t be doing this.
But it’s happening, and it has the 49ers — winners of 11 straight games, seven coming with Purdy at the helm of the offense — two wins away from the Super Bowl.
