San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy finished Super Bowl 58 with 23 completions on 38 attempts, tallying 255 yards and a touchdown. Despite his effort, it fell short against the formidable presence of Patrick Mahomes on the opposing side. After a 5-0 stretch in the 80s and 90s, the 49ers have lost their third straight Super Bowl appearance and their second consecutive to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The 29-year championship drought continues.
"When you have a good offense like the Chiefs do, and what Mahomes can do, for us, it's like, 'All right, we have to score touchdowns,'" Purdy said after the gut-wrenching defeat. "And we had opportunities to do so, I think. Shot ourselves in the foot with just penalties and the operations and stuff. So I got to be better in terms of leading the guys and, I think, of how I handle things in the huddle, and telling them what to expect, stuff like that.
"But yeah, at the end of the day, I think we had the team, the offense to score touchdowns, and I think I failed to put our team in position to do that."
Despite his tough self-critique, Purdy received praise from teammates and coaches. Despite turning in a campaign good enough to earn him a spot as an MVP finalist, the quarterback has faced much criticism this season. His skeptics believe almost any quarterback could replace him and succeed with the talented supporting cast the 49ers possess on offense.
"I thought he did a great job," tight end George Kittle said. "Just throughout the game, I haven't watched the tape or anything like that, but Brock seemed like his normal self. You know, delivering the ball when he needed to, put it in tight coverages. I think Brock played a hell of a game."
When Christian McCaffrey was asked about Purdy's performance in the spotlight of sports' biggest state, the running back quickly shifted the blame to the team's mental mistakes, saying, "I thought he did great. I think you go look at the self-inflicted wounds we had, and we just beat ourselves."
Linebacker Fred Warner stated, "I thought he was great. He did everything necessary to win us the game. Got us two opportunities there, one before the end of the game, one before obviously in overtime, to give the defense a chance to go out there and end it, and we didn't do it."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan echoed the sentiments, expressing his pride in Purdy's contribution to the team's effort, declaring, "I thought Brock did a good job, gave us a chance to win."
He added, "I'm so proud of Brock, how he shows up every week, how he plays. He had an unbelievable year, and he did a hell of a job today."
Looking ahead, Purdy sees Sunday's defeat as a learning opportunity.
"The first thing that comes to mind is, when you have an opportunity like we did, to really put some points up on them and take it," Purdy stated. "You've got to take it. It's a Super Bowl. We got a good team, and the Chiefs on the other side, and I think we had opportunities to do that, and we all fell short of it.
"I think that's what eats at me, is I feel like we had our opportunities to, I think, sort of lap them and get up on them, and I think we failed to do that. So moving forward with my career, and if you get blessed enough to get in this kind of position again, I think you have to understand that and learn the hard way."
