That’s what the 49ers had been lacking.
With Mac Jones at quarterback, this Niners offense was capable of tread water, going 5-3 with the backup on the helm.
However now, with Brock Purdy again within the beginning function after being sidelined for six weeks with turf toe, they will begin swimming in direction of the playoffs.
The Niners’ 41-22 win over the Cardinals in Arizona on Sunday was the sort of get-right sport this workforce — which has performed up-and-down soccer in latest weeks — wanted.
All three phases contributed. The protection compelled three turnovers. Particular groups gave the Niners the shortest potential area — 1 yard to the tip zone — after the opening kickoff return.
But it surely was the Niners’ offense, which might want to cleared the path the rest of this marketing campaign, that was particular within the desert.
And it was a reminder of simply how a lot the Niners missed their star quarterback.
Let’s be honest to Jones: He did his job. The 49ers’ backup quarterback managed.
He accomplished the straightforward throws and greater than his justifiable share of the powerful ones. He handed the ball off, even in video games the place the Niners couldn’t run the ball.
He didn’t, for probably the most half, mild himself on fireplace.
And within the fashionable, quarterback-starved NFL, “not lighting yourself on fire” will get you an entire lot of reward.
And on this fashionable media panorama, the place consideration is the one foreign money, reward shortly turns into conspiracy and absurd projection.
Let all that nonsense a couple of “quarterback controversy” — which was being pushed by even respected NFL voices — be put to mattress.
There’s a motive Purdy was given a contract price upwards of $265 million this previous offseason.
Jones ran Kyle Shanahan’s offense at an admirable stage.
Purdy, although, understands it.
There’s a monumental distinction, there.
And you may see, really feel, and listen to it on Sunday.
Shanahan may be the playcaller and offensive architect. Klay Kubiak may be Shanahan’s right-hand man and the so-called offensive coordinator.
However when the 49ers are at their finest, they’re operating Purdy’s offense.
As a result of he doesn’t simply perceive the offense, he expands it.
With Purdy beneath heart, the Niners’ assault shouldn’t be solely incisive and decisive, it’s downright devastating to opposing defenses.
Sunday, you may hear Purdy orchestrating the assault from beneath heart — checking performs on the line of scrimmage, “canning” to a re-evaluation, and seemingly at all times making the best name.
The stats don’t lower by way of — 19-of-26, 200 yards, three touchdowns is a pleasant day on the workplace, but it surely’s hardly All-Professional stuff.
However Purdy’s voice, his vitality, his confidence? That resonated.
“Brock’s presence in the huddle is just so elite,” tight finish George Kittle mentioned. “He just plays his game with this joy that’s so infectious, and it’s just so much fun to play football with him.”
And what was a pleasure for the 49ers was a nightmare for the Cardinals.
As a result of Purdy not solely put the 49ers in the perfect place to succeed on the snap, however he was additionally creating extra alternatives by going by way of a number of progressions, difficult the Cardinals’ protection with passes to each stage and space of the sector, and making time together with his ft.
His potential to do this final half was, justly, in query going into Sunday’s sport. Turf toe is a notoriously cussed harm — one which gained’t actually go away till the offseason.
However Purdy advised Shanahan he was able to play this week, and in contrast to the final time he mentioned that — Week 4 towards the Jaguars — he backed up that declare.
“I didn’t think about [the toe] in the game. I felt great,” Purdy mentioned after the sport. “I was able to do everything. Scramble, keepers, roll outs, step up in the pocket — play quarterback.”
And whereas Purdy might need been snug on the sector, he’s nonetheless not snug praising himself on the podium.
His go-to saying on Sunday?
“On to the next one.”
His teammates had no such disinclination.
“He was vintage Brock, and that’s a huge compliment,” Christian McCaffrey mentioned. “To miss games like that is really hard and to come back in the middle of the year… I think people just kind of watch and say ‘yeah, he had a good game.” However to out that lengthy and have the ability to come again and do what he did immediately is extraordinarily spectacular.”
“He’s definitely feeling it,” Kittle mentioned.
He’ll have to preserve “feeling it” for the ultimate six video games of the season if the Niners are going to make the playoffs.
The Niners can’t game-manage their approach to the playoffs. They want a game-winner like Purdy.
Ordinarily, you’d just like the Niners’ probabilities of taking part in .500 soccer, notably with three extra unhealthy groups arising on the schedule.
However this 49ers protection, bless its coronary heart, is a shell of its former self. It’s injured, it’s discombobulated, and whereas it’s making an attempt its finest, its finest most likely isn’t adequate.
The 49ers will not be going to be profitable any extra 17-14 video games this season.
No, if San Francisco goes to make the postseason, will probably be as a result of Purdy and a all of the sudden fairly wholesome and unquestionably harmful offense drag them there.
To try this would require the precise sort of play we noticed on Sunday, repeated each single week.
Purdy must be the offensive coordinator, the three-level passer, and the yard magician, abruptly.
Jones was a superb substitute instructor. He saved the category in line and even supplied a couple of attention-grabbing classes.
However the last examination is right here, and the 49ers are simply handing the clipboard again to the professor.
That is Purdy’s workforce. That is his offense.
And this season will likely be no matter he makes of it.
