San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy dazzled in the team’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. It’s the first time a 49ers passer pulled off the feat since Joe Montana in 1989. Here’s what you need to know:
- Purdy went 21-of-25 passing for 333 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions resulting in the perfect rating.
- The 49ers QB tossed touchdown passes to Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey.
- On Nov. 12, 1989 against the Atlanta Falcons, Montana completed 16 of his 19 passes for 270 yards and three TDs in San Francisco’s 45-3 win. He also rushed for a touchdown that day.
- San Francisco beat Tampa Bay 27-14 to improve to 7-3 in 2023.
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No more sputtering for San Francisco
The 49ers sputtered as a team toward the end, allowing Tampa Bay to make them sweat just a little bit, but Purdy was sensational as San Francisco built a big lead. The big highlight was Purdy’s perfect 76-yard deep strike to Aiyuk, who caught five passes for 156 yards. But Purdy did much more than that, roasting Tampa Bay’s blitz-happy defense for the second straight season (remember that his first career start came against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers last year) with a bevy of surgically placed intermediate passes. He also scrambled for a key first down at the end of the game.
Purdy is the first quarterback in 49ers’ franchise history to finish a game with at least 20 attempts and a perfect passer rating. He’s also the 22nd quarterback in NFL history to finish a game with at least 25 attempts and a perfect rating.
With wide leads across all efficiency categories among NFL quarterbacks — leads that only grew larger today — Purdy should absolutely be one of the frontrunners in the MVP conversation as the stretch run of this 2023 season approaches. — David Lombardi, 49ers staff writer
No shock for Purdy
The 49ers passer posted the best passer rating of his career in the team’s Week 10 thrashing of the Jacksonville Jaguars. That’s saying something since it was the third time Purdy produced a passer rating north of 140.0 in 17 NFL starts. He added a fourth time Sunday. So the fact he actually amassed a perfect passer rating this season shouldn’t be any sort of shock at this point.
Purdy entered this week leading the NFL in Expected Points Added per dropback, via TruMedia, with a 0.28 rate and in passer rating at 109.9. After Week 11 against the Bucs, Purdy’s numbers jumped to a 0.30 EPA rate and 115.1 passer rating. — Larry Holder, NFL senior writer
Required reading
(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
