Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Brock Purdy’s playoff debut was better than a couple of 49ers legends.
Mr. Irrelevant just blew past two San Francisco 49ers legends with his debut in the postseason. Brock Purdy had himself a great game to kick off Wild Card weekend versus the Seattle Seahawks — and in the process gave Pete Carroll his first loss in the postseason when his team was leading at halftime,
The 49ers beat the Seahawks, 41-23, behind an electric second half from Purdy that put Mr. Irrelevant in hallowed company.
Trailing 17-16 at halftime, Purdy accounted for three straight Niners scores. First, he scored a rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak at the goal line. Then the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft escaped trouble to find Elijah Mitchell for a seven-yard touchdown pass. Finally, the rookie found a wide-open Deebo Samuel who did the rest of the work for a 74-yard catch and run touchdown.
Later in the fourth quarter, Purdy once again bought time before finding Brandon Aiyuk in the back of the end zone but his wide receiver let him down with a drop.
Purdy finished the game with an impressive stat line: 18-30, 332 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT and 1 rushing TD
To put those numbers in perspective, this is how the two legendary San Francisco quarterbacks performed in their playoff debuts:
Joe Montana was 20-31, 304 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT in a win in 1981
Steve Young was 12-17, 158 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT in a loss in 1987
Montana’s highest yardage total in a playoff game was 357 in Super Bowl XXIII. He had four or more combined touchdowns in just three games.
The more mobile Young crossed 300 yards passing just three times in the postseason, topping out at 328 in a loss to the Green Bay Packers in 1995. He had just one game of four or more combined touchdowns with his impressive six-touchdown game in Super Bowl XXIX.
Purdy has a long way to go before etching his name in stone for the 49ers but his post-season debut bringing up the names of Montana and Young is something no one could have expected.
