What Kyle Shanahan views as ‘ridiculous’ talk could be the difference in 49ers
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If Kyle Shanahan is being honest — and this Thanksgiving, he was — he thinks the talk is “ridiculous.”
The San Francisco 49ers head coach doesn’t value categorizing quarterbacks as “elite” or “Super Bowl-caliber,” he explained after a 31-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks improved his team to 8-3.
He doesn’t view playoff success nor quarterback talent in such black-and-white terms, and he doesn’t recommend you do either.
“There [have] been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls,” Shanahan said Thursday night. “And the ones who do, don’t win them on their own. They’ve got to be on a good team and they’ve got to have good defenses and there’s so many things that go into it. So I always kind of hate that conversation.”
The conversation will nonetheless follow the 49ers in the leadup to their next game, a Dec. 3 NFC championship rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles. Because it’s obvious to any NFL fan that San Francisco fields a very good, very successful team this season. It was obvious, too, that the 49ers carried a very good, very successful team to the conference championship game last season.
Then starting quarterback Brock Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing elbow and backup quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, and rapidly the Eagles overpowered an otherwise powerful 49ers team. Which brings us back to Shanahan’s sermon.
“You’ve got to have a really good football team to talk about even having a chance to get there,” Shanahan said. “And when you have a really good football team, you better have a really good quarterback. And when you do that, you still better have luck with injuries. You’ve still got to play good defense. You’ve got to play better with everything.”
Against the Seahawks on Thursday, the 49ers checked each of those boxes. They exploited schematic mismatches to an early lead they’d never lose; complemented a six-sack nasty defensive line effort with a lockdown day from cornerback Charvarius Ward; and rebounded from a rocky third-quarter stretch in which Purdy surrendered a pick 6.
Purdy certainly wasn’t perfect or even as clean as in the 49ers’ prior game, when the second-year quarterback did indeed net a perfect 158.3 passer rating. But his impact was greater than his box score suggests. And Purdy’s under-the-radar contributions can change the 49ers’ calculus against the Eagles.
Shanahan on Purdy’s decision: ‘I couldn’t believe it’
At night’s end, Purdy had completed 21 of 30 passes for 209 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He’d also demonstrated sharp football IQ on multiple plays, two of which show the covert ways his decision-making impact his team.
On the final play of the first quarter, the 49ers faced second-and-8, up 7-3. Purdy dropped back to scan the field, but before he could release to a reliable target, six-time All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner began to wrap him up. Wagner enveloped Purdy’s waist in his…
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