The NFC playoffs will induce yawns if no one's able to stand up to the increasingly stout Philadelphia Eagles (12-1).
The San Francisco 49ers (9-4) might make things interesting, and that's impressive because two of their starting quarterbacks were lost to injury and offensive star Deebo Samuel (ankle) was carted from Sunday's game.
With a defense that's the NFL's best statistically and Kyle Shanahan's ability to swing the chess match on offense, the Niners don't need a quarterback who's the next Joe Montana or Steve Young.
Competent quarterbacking should make them dangerous, and what we learned Sunday is that Brock Purdy, their third starter there this year, can provide it.
The rookie's solid showing in the 35-7 victory was a credit not only to Purdy, who went last in this year's NFL Draft out of Iowa State, but the folks who drafted him and prepared him.
Purdy, who wears No. 13, looked comfortable against a veteran Bucs defense that was able to study him from seven days earlier, when he replaced the injured Jimmy Garoppolo in the first quarter of a 16-point victory against Miami.
The fiery 22-year-old — who's a smidge above 6-foot and shows arm strength that's fringe to average — made the plays Shanahan and teammates set up for him. And he cooked up other successes, such as when he eluded two defenders in rushing for a touchdown. He passed an important toughness test: not flinching against the pass rush and flinging a 27-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey.
This was a clutch performance opposite Tom Brady in the NFL's featured afternoon contest.
Just don't read too much into the lopsidedness of the score or Purdy's passer rating (134.0) that was the team's best this season. The game went off the rails early. The Bucs (6-7) made a bunch of costly mistakes. They lacked their top two safeties and — for more than three quarters — their best defensive lineman.
For all his success, Purdy got away with two errors that could've boomeranged on another day.
Here's how he began: he checked out of a run but didn't see safety Keanu Neal's blitz, only for Neal to bail him out with a helmet shot. So instead of facing second-and-long or perhaps suffering a turnover if Neal had exploited the clean chance, the Niners reset near midfield via the personal foul.
From there, they drove for a 7-0 lead on the strength of Purdy's third-down seam pass to George Kittle and Shanahan's chess moves that facilitated McCaffrey's 21-yard rush (clever counter blocking) and Samuel's 13-yard rushing TD (sweep led by All-Pro tight end Kittle as a fullback).
Purdy's second mulligan was a ref's dubious flag that nixed an interception by a defender the rookie didn't see; responding well again, Purdy and Shanahan created a 32-yard scoring pass via Brandon Aiyuk's double move that fooled the Bucs.
Purdy (16 for 21, 185 yards) showed enough to believe the West-leading Niners will go into their final four games as a betting-line favorite. And, matching their number of starting QBs, a third NFC title game (in four years) is a real possibility.
