Being on the losing side of a regular season football game wasn't something that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy experienced before Sunday's 19-17 road loss to the Cleveland Browns, but he approached it like one would expect from an NFL quarterback -- by taking accountability while looking ahead to what he needs to do to improve.
In addition to the loss to the Browns being the 49ers' first regular-season defeat since October of 2022, snapping a streak of 15 consecutive games, Sunday marked the end of a ten-game regular season winning streak for Purdy as the team's starter. The Browns totaled three sacks and six quarterback hits on Purdy, who finished the game with 125 yards on 12-of-27 passing with one touchdown and one interception. After scoring 30 points or more in all but one of Purdy's regular season starts, the 49ers were held to their lowest regular season point total with Purdy as their quarterback and produced just 215 yards of total offense.
While speaking to reporters at Cleveland Browns Stadium after the loss, Purdy put much of the blame for his team's offensive performance while looking ahead to figuring out what he can learn from what happened on Sunday.
"It's the NFL," Purdy said. "You get opportunities, you got to take advantage of them. And so there was definitely some throws and opportunities, I feel like that were there for me and I missed on them, and that made us be behind the sticks. And then you have to get a third down, which is tough on the road here. And that's something that I got to learn from, man. So definitely going to be real about it, and we all got to look ourselves in the mirror and see the flaws and stuff and get better from it. But it starts with me."
Not helping Purdy was the fact he lost two of his key playmakers due to injury during the game in wide receiver Deebo Samuel (shoulder) and running back Christian McCaffrey (oblique). But Purdy pointed the finger at himself for not being able to get the offense running better when Samuel and McCaffrey were out of the lineup.
"Obviously, they're playmakers really good playmakers and so it hurts, but at the same time, we got guys to be able to come in and make plays, too," Purdy said. "And so that's on me, being able to help out guys like Ray-Ray [wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud] and JJ [wide receiver Jauan Jennings] that are going to play more, Elijah [running back Elijah Mitchell] coming in. I got to do a better job with just communicating to them in the huddle, giving them some sort of expectation of what's to come in terms of the play and stuff.
"So that's something I've got to be better at. But we got good players and I'm confident whoever comes in, even if Deebo and Christian aren't able to go, we got good players."
Another streak that came to an end Sunday was one Purdy had for consecutive pass attempts without an interception, which was snapped at 248 when he was picked off by cornerback Martin Emerson in the third quarter. Purdy was eyeing wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the play but threw high and to the left, giving Emerson his first career interception.
We'd like to welcome you to Emerson Island, we hope you enjoy your stay 🏝 pic.twitter.com/gs7IxqpdLI
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 15, 2023
"It was just bad ball on my end. BA did a great job," Purdy said. "He broke whoever was guarding him, and he had all the separation in the world to be able to lead him and convert first down. So that was on me for sure."
Despite Purdy's struggles, which also included a wet ball slipping out of his hands during a passing attempt in the first half, he remained confident in his ability to make things happen in the face of a stifling Browns defense. Purdy nearly came out of Sunday with a win after leading the 49ers into position for a game-winning field goal with nine seconds left to play, but kicker Jake Moody's 41-yard attempt missed the mark.
"That was my mindset and mentality the whole game," Purdy said. "Obviously, you score on the first drive, but we ran the ball a lot, and so for me, it's like, all right, let's get into a rhythm, set the guys when they're open, let's move the chains and then put up points.
"And so that was my mentality the whole game, every drive, even though I missed some throws and whatnot, that's where I was at. But at the end of the day, man, I feel like I didn't play to the standard that I need to."
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan didn't single out Purdy for the struggles on offense, saying after the game there was plenty of blame to go around, including some for himself.
"We went against a very good defense to start with. That's what we expected it going in," Shanahan said. "I thought we did some good things in the first half. We had two opportunities in the first half to get two really big plays that I think would have changed a lot of it. And we missed both of them. One, getting a penalty on it, so we didn't get to do it.
"And then we came out in the third quarter, got way behind the chains, whether it was a penalty, a stuffed run. We got in a ton of second-and-longs, which you tell me we get in that many second-and-longs, third-and-longs versus that defense, I got a real good idea of how it's going to go. But it wasn't just Brock, it was everybody. Everybody had their turn on offense especially, and it starts with me."
Purdy and the 49ers will look to rebound next week when they go to Minnesota to face the Vikings on Monday Night Football (October 23, 8:15 p.m. ET/5:15 p.m. PT). It'll be a bit of a different feeling coming off a regular-season loss, but there's little doubt Purdy won't let his experience in Cleveland linger for too long. And perhaps he'll get a tad wiser along the way.
"Obviously, we know what our expectations are and what our standards are here, and so to come out and lose any game, it's always going to hurt and sting for us," Purdy said. "Yeah, we were on that streak and all that kind of stuff, but we don't try to focus on the outcome. It's more about being our best every play, every drive, every series, and then it just falls into place how it needs to.
"So for us, we feel like we failed our own expectations today in terms of playing our best, and that's something where we're going to have to watch the film and be better at. But at the same time, we got some games to play, a season to look forward to ahead of us and we're going to learn from."
