The Giants launched an aggressive blitz against Purdy, targeting him on 84.6% of his dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats – the highest rate in NGS history. Martindale, adopting a “teenager-playing-Madden tilt”, forced Purdy to release the ball quickly, resulting in his fastest career average time to throw (2.34 seconds).
Purdy ultimately completed 20-of-31 passes for 247 yards, two touchdowns, and endured two sacks against the blitz. Considering he often had to throw off one foot, this performance was commendable.
Shanahan acknowledged the challenge of facing a defensive coordinator like Martindale, especially on a short week, emphasizing the difficulty it poses for any quarterback.
“Yeah, he missed a couple today and guys made a couple of real good catches also,” Shanahan commented on Purdy’s performance. “I thought it was just a huge challenge. One of the biggest ones Brock’s been in just the short week to prepare for a scheme like that. Just how much they do, they had six guys on the line of scrimmage throughout the game, half the time they’re coming, half the time they’re not. There’s not a comfortable play throughout a game from a play call standpoint and from the quarterback just because there’s a lot of plays that don’t work versus that. So, you got to constantly be looking at it and sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, which is a huge challenge for a quarterback. I thought he settled down throughout it as the game went and ended up playing good enough for us to win.”
Having playmakers like Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and Christian McCaffrey certainly helped. They were able to turn short dump-offs into significant gains, contributing 215 of the 49ers’ 310 passing yards after the catch on Thursday night.
