Niners Nation
We can’t ignore the elephant in the room. After an opening drive touchdown, the San Francisco 49ers’ offense had three drives in a row where they threw an interception. It got to the point where the Jimmy Garoppolo flashbacks were real, meaning that once the ball left the screen, you were terrified of the outcome.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “Just had three throws you’d love to take back. They were all good decisions. Just a hair late on them. When you’re a hair late on stuff, you can’t throw it behind them. And he threw it behind him, and all three guys made him pay.”
Whether you were a fan or an outside observer, you were wondering whether there would be a quarterback change. Shanahan said putting Mac Jones in never crossed his mind.
Kyle also believes the turnovers weren’t injury-related or due to all of the time Brock missed: “There’s no narrative to a late throw. You’re just a little late, and when you do, and people are late a lot, you just can’t throw behind him when you are. You have to put it in front of them. You’re a little behind on all three, and all three of those corners made him pay.”
Let’s relive each interception to see whether it was a poor decision, throw, or good play by the defense, or all of the above.
Brock Purdy’s first interception came on a common football concept called “Yankee.” The offense max protects, leaving everybody in to block, except the wide receivers. Skyy Moore, the receiver at the bottom of the screen, runs the clear-out route to occupy the middle of the field defender, which is No. 7. Mission accomplished.
Jauan Jennings, the receiver at the top of the screen, runs an in-breaking route where he breaks around 15 yards while still getting depth, and bends his route inside around 18-ish yards.
Before we get to the throw, let’s talk about the matchup between Jennings and the cornerback he’s going against, Jaycee Horn. Coming into this game, Horn had allowed a completion percentage of 45.2 percent. That’s the kind of production you expect when you give a player $100 million in the offseason.
One of the biggest limitations of Jennings is his lack of a second gear. Speed just so happens to be one of Horn’s many gifts. He ran a 4.37 at his Pro Day. Per Next Gen Stats, Jennings has a -8.7 receiving EPA this season, which is the fifth-worst in the NFL. He’s only catching 36.8 percent of his targets, which is the sixth-worst.
Before the ball was ever thrown, the Niners were already behind the 8-ball with this matchup. To Jennings’s credit, it’s a quality route. He has a step-and-a-half on Horn out of his break. But the throw isn’t just behind Jennings, it’s late:
Purdy takes an extra hitch, and that’s why he ends up being a “hair” late, as Shanahan said.
If Brock throws the...
