Week 13: Dolphins @ 49ers

[thesack12]

Seeing as how he never came back the sidelines in street clothes, I figured the prognosis on Garoppolo wasn't great. But a season ender is obviously worst case scenario.

Damn, what a kick in the balls after a great win.

9ers were really starting to roll, had control of the division and have a relatively soft (on paper) schedule to close out the season. They were sitting in good shape to host a 1st round playoff game and had a solid chance at the #2 seed. With how Jimmy was playing this season, 9ers had a legitimate shot to bring home the Lombardi.

Just freaking brutal.

[thesack12]

Purdy showed today that he can be a serviceable QB. Still he's a massive downgrade from Jimmy and is incredibly inexperienced of course and needs to prove some sustainability. Purdy's mobility is clearly the main thing he offers that Jimmy doesn't. Kyle needs to utilize that aspect. We saw some of it today, with several passes off roll outs.

It will be interesting to see how Purdy fares the rest of the season. I'm curious to see what a Purdy central gameplan looks like. Its also going to get tougher for Purdy after defenses start to build a book on him after a few games of film are put on file.

At 8-4 currently and a seemingly light schedule remaining,9ers still have a good chance at making the playoffs. But their overall ceiling has been drastically lowered.

[arich35]

A lot of Purdy's throws reminded me of Jimmy a lot. I think he will be fine, seems like he has some balls and isn't afraid to throw in tight windows.

[Jikkle]

It does seem the Purdy offense will likely be closer to the Lance offense than the Jimmy one with obviously far less running. Lots of rollouts and lots of play-action.

Purdy might actually operate an offense closer to what Shanahan is looking to run so it'll be interesting to see what he does in the game against Tampa.

Still it'll be a couple of games before we really know if Purdy can at least keep the ship steady and get the team into the playoffs or not.

Even if they do make the playoffs they'd still need an amazing defensive performance and a running attack like the 2019 playoff run if they want a chance at it all.

Might have the defense to do it but I don't think we have the offensive line to replicate the dominant running attack that we saw a few years ago.

And I'd question if we have the defense to do it because while on paper it's looking good I do feel both the Saints and Dolphins left points on the board and we could've easily have lost the last two games.

[Pattersonca65]

It does seem the Purdy offense will likely be closer to the Lance offense than the Jimmy one with obviously far less running. Lots of rollouts and lots of play-action.

Purdy might actually operate an offense closer to what Shanahan is looking to run so it'll be interesting to see what he does in the game against Tampa.

Still it'll be a couple of games before we really know if Purdy can at least keep the ship steady and get the team into the playoffs or not.

Even if they do make the playoffs they'd still need an amazing defensive performance and a running attack like the 2019 playoff run if they want a chance at it all.

Might have the defense to do it but I don't think we have the offensive line to replicate the dominant running attack that we saw a few years ago.

And I'd question if we have the defense to do it because while on paper it's looking good I do feel both the Saints and Dolphins left points on the board and we could've easily have lost the last two games.

I don't see that at all. The offense under Lance was going to be deeper routes. That is not Purdy's strength at all. With Purdy most of his targets are in the short to intermediate range. Purdy is quite accurate in the range showing on the slant routes he threw yesterday. Purdy's best types of throws are the type that Lance struggles with the most and has accuracy issues.

[Pattersonca65]

Damn, Jimmy gone for the year. Blown assignment that led to his sack and him trying to extend the play did him in.

This. The offensive line blew an assignment that left a man unblocked. But Jimmy tried to extend a play that was doomed. He should have just thrown the ball away on that play.

[Samurai]

It does seem the Purdy offense will likely be closer to the Lance offense than the Jimmy one with obviously far less running. Lots of rollouts and lots of play-action.

Purdy might actually operate an offense closer to what Shanahan is looking to run so it'll be interesting to see what he does in the game against Tampa.

Still it'll be a couple of games before we really know if Purdy can at least keep the ship steady and get the team into the playoffs or not.

Even if they do make the playoffs they'd still need an amazing defensive performance and a running attack like the 2019 playoff run if they want a chance at it all.

Might have the defense to do it but I don't think we have the offensive line to replicate the dominant running attack that we saw a few years ago.

And I'd question if we have the defense to do it because while on paper it's looking good I do feel both the Saints and Dolphins left points on the board and we could've easily have lost the last two games.

I don't see that at all. The offense under Lance was going to be deeper routes. That is not Purdy's strength at all. With Purdy most of his targets are in the short to intermediate range. Purdy is quite accurate in the range showing on the slant routes he threw yesterday. Purdy's best types of throws are the type that Lance struggles with the most and has accuracy issues.

Yeah, I think that Shanahan will need to come up with a different game plan for Purdy than just dusting off the Lance plan or the Jimmy plan. He doesn't throw the deep ball well, so in that regard he is similar to Jimmy. But Jimmy was a pocket passer and Purdy does well when rolling out of the pocket. One of his scouting reports said "He has solid lateral mobility and escapability in the pocket, and he also has decent speed in the open field." I would never describe Jimmy's strength as mobility and escapability. With a 4.84 40, he's faster than Jimmy but slower than Lance (estimated to be in the mid 4.5 range). The Des Moine Register scouting report said "Purdy is more comfortable playing in a system that allows quarterbacks freedom, rather than being chained to the pocket. His best plays in college were while on the move, either in the passing game or as a rusher. He absorbed contact. He was adept at hitting short- to mid-range receivers in stride. When it came to accuracy, the 6-foot-1, 220-pounder was solid. Purdy completed 71.7% of his passes last season, and 67.7% for his career."

So he sounds like a different physical profile than either Jimmy or Lance. The question is can our Mad Scientist come up with the right game plan that puts Purdy in the best position to be successful on such short notice? If so, I think we can still go fairly far as long as our defense keeps up their pace. But the O-line will have to step it up, both to keep Purdy upright and healthy and to allow the running game to take pressure off the rookie.

[CrimsonCrew]

Digesting the Jimmy news is brutal. Two guys lost to the same, very rare injury? What are the odds of that? I thought maybe high ankle sprain and we get him back for the last couple games of the season and the playoffs. Losing him for good is obviously a huge blow to our SB prospects.

I'm interested to see what Purdy can do. He had some incredibly ugly moments, but he also showed really good poise against an unrelenting pass rush, finding open guys and letting them make plays. It gave me some hope that he could lead us well enough to at least make the playoffs and maybe win a game or two, but I just don't now. The running game hasn't exactly been locked in this year.

The defense made some HUGE plays in this game, forcing four turnovers. But I view at least some of those plays as being relatively lucky. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. We've forced a bunch of fumbles this year that just bounce right back to the other team. And the INTs were maybe nice plays, but also at least two awful throws by Tua. I don't have faith in this defense shutting down a really good offense for four quarters. We basically did it yesterday, with the exception of two big TD plays, but they had a lot of opportunities that Tua just flat-out missed. If he hits those, there's a good chance we don't win a game that was a lot closer than the final score indicates.

We'll see. Should be interesting if nothing else, but especially in a year in which the NFC is so wide open, it's a real kick in the crotch to lose two starting QBs.