SANTA CLARA — Let’s tick off the boxes from the 49ers’ debacle against the Jaguars on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, shall we?
The 49ers couldn’t run the ball. They couldn’t stop the run. They were gashed through the air by an opposing quarterback for whom on-target passes are a career rarity. They went entire series where catching a football seemed like an impossible feat, and for good measure, they got burned for a touchdown on special teams.
It was, in short, a complete and total mess. A no-good, very bad game.
Those happen in the NFL. It’s a league built on parity and chaos. The ball is oddly shaped, after all.
And in the modern NFL, a game like Sunday’s is the exact kind of game in which you turn to your franchise quarterback to fix things.
The great quarterbacks are janitors for organizational messes, smoothing over the cracks and making a bad team look competent for three hours.
On Sunday, the 49ers looked like a bad team. They needed the full-fledged, dark-magic, MVP-vote-receiving, $265-million-contract version of Brock Purdy.
That’s not what was under center.
And so, a miserable team performance was cemented into a 26-21 loss, the team’s first of the year. Don’t let that score fool you; it was a minor miracle this game was even within reach in the fourth quarter.
Purdy, clearly hobbled by the sorta-kinda-turf toe that sidelined him for two games, was sailing passes all afternoon. He couldn’t step into his throws, and his secret weapon — that sneaky scrambling ability that extends drives — unsurprisingly stayed holstered.
Of the four turnovers San Francisco gift-wrapped for Jacksonville, Purdy had his fingerprints all over three of them: two interceptions and a game-sealing fumble.
“It hurts,” Purdy said of the loss, while claiming his toe was healthy. “It starts with me throwing better balls and being smart with the ball. … I just got to be better.”
Purdy’s teammates had his back afterward. Christian McCaffrey insisted Purdy “did a great job out there.” They argued the interceptions were tipped, and the fumble was the offensive line’s fault.
And you know what? They’re right.
But this is the NFL. The quarterback gets the glory, and the quarterback gets the blame. That’s the deal. You sign the big contract, you accept the terms. No one cares about the fine print after a loss.
And a credit to Purdy for understanding that. He could have blamed the injury or his teammates, but he didn’t. He’ll take it all — and there will be plenty beyond this column — head-on.
Be honest, you can hear the disingenuous sports-talk radio refrain already: “Mac Jones would have won this game.”
That, of course, is laughable.
Jones, the plucky backup who admirably won two games in Purdy’s stead, was also limited all week in practice with a sprained PCL.
The alternative wasn’t some healthy savior; it was the other, less-talented injured quarterback. Putting a hobbled Jones — who is already a statue on his best days — behind that porous offensive line would have resulted in a near-death experience.
The fantasy of the backup is always better than the reality.
Because it’s not as if Purdy was a complete disaster. He threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns.
But turnovers are the game in the NFL, and even if you want to absolve Purdy of direct blame for the game-changing giveaways, what about the half-dozen (at least) missed throws and missed opportunities that prevented the Niners from ever taking control of this game?
Those are on him and him alone.
Completing 57 percent of your passes just isn’t going to cut it in this league.
Maybe the 3-0 start masked the truth of this team, and Sunday was a heavy dose of reality. Strip the results away, and what is this 49ers squad? What, exactly, are they great at (besides getting injured)? What are they even consistently good at?
Right now, they’re just another team in the NFL’s messy middle; a squad looking for an identity. And like every other team in that position, they’re looking to their quarterback to provide one.
On Sunday, he couldn’t do it.
He’ll get another chance on Thursday. And, like on Sunday, his play against the Rams later this week will likely be the difference between success and failure for the Niners.
Such is the burden of the franchise quarterback.
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