Brock Purdy touts his wheels and blitzes the ball because the 49ers' stabilizing force against the Patriots

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Brock Purdy is not any braggart.

But after Sunday's 30-13 win over the New England Patriots, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback said his 10-yard split coming out of faculty was faster than Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey.

“I do,” he emphasized. “You need to check my facts. I think I have just enough (speed) to get out of the pocket, make a play and gain five, seven yards here or there. I’m not Lamar Jackson at all.”

A more accurate statement could be that his time was comparable to his teammates. Purdy's 10-yard split of 1.55 seconds in 2022 was actually a couple of fractions of a second slower than Samuel (1.48) and McCaffrey (1.52) entering the draft.

Still, everyone understands his standpoint, especially his recent opponents.

For the second straight game, Purdy resorted to his legs when the passing game stalled. He gained 7 yards in the primary third of the 49ers' first possession. In the second, he scored one other five – and a primary down – in a drive that spanned 15 plays and ended with a 22-yard field goal by Jake Moody. There were also a couple of slick throws where Purdy looked like Fran Tarkenton, ducking out of trouble, scrambling to the sideline and making improbable passes before being hit. He finished 15 of 27 for 288 yards.

It was removed from an ideal game for Purdy. San Francisco had a likelihood to place the Patriots away for good early within the fourth quarter when Purdy's pass intended for Brandon Aiyuk in the long run zone was as an alternative intercepted by safety Jabrill Peppers. Kyle Shanahan said afterward that he thought Purdy must have thrown the pass earlier, while Purdy said he didn't see Peppers at first.

“It's something I have to push forward in my progress and not be greedy,” he said. “I think I reached out to him two or three times, which is just not good as a quarterback. You go through your progress based on your problems and read with your feet, and that’s when I got greedy.”

After 4 games, the passing game is not any longer as smooth and automatic because it was initially of last season, when the 49ers got off to a 5-0 start. For one thing, teams are focused on taking away Purdy's bread-and-butter throws, including the intermediate and deep cross routes to Aiyuk that were so reliable last season.

Last week, for instance, the Los Angeles Rams sometimes dropped eight players into coverage and only released three, leading to a play by which Purdy held the ball for greater than 12 seconds. Purdy noted that on one other play they dropped nine players and only passed two.

On Sunday, he said the Patriots' safeties did a very good job of anticipating and benefiting from the 49ers' favorite routes. But as the sport progressed, Purdy and the passing attack began to reap the benefits of those adjustments. As New England's safeties kept stepping forward and clogging up the center, he began to go deep. His three furthest throws:

• A 53-yarder excessive for Deebo Samuel Sr. within the third quarter. Samuel, who began the sport at tailback, had three catches for 58 yards after missing last week's game with a calf injury.

Deebo took us 55 yards.

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• A forty five-yard strike to Jauan Jennings early within the fourth quarter. Jennings led the team in receiving yards for the second straight yr, ending the sport with three catches for 88 yards.

JJ is down there somewhere

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• A 38-yard pass to Aiyuk on Purdy's first throw of the sport. Aiyuk finished with modest receiving numbers for the fourth straight game – two catches for 48 yards – but his second reception, a diving fingertip grab on third down, was the type of high-difficulty catch he didn't pull off earlier within the season.

Even one in all Purdy's shorter throws, a 12-yard touchdown to George Kittle within the second quarter, flew wide through the air.

This is our TE @gkittle46

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Kittle said the play called for him to run an out-and-up and that it ought to be done from further back, across the 40-yard line. He thought this particular play was “a little aggressive” so near the goal line.

“I didn’t really trust the play call,” he admitted afterwards. “Because that was something we originally called from further out. And after we made the decision from the 12-yard line, I had to ascertain with Brock again to be certain that we called the proper play. And I used to be like, 'Okay, man, just throw it.'”

Purdy did, putting the ball where only Kittle could catch it, and the 6-foot-2 tight end delivered the pass between three sub-6-foot Patriots defensive backs.

That touchdown gave the 49ers a 20-0 lead, and they led by at least two points the rest of the way.

Still, it was a muddy win against a Patriots team that lacked offensive talent and was plagued by injuries. The 49ers suffered a number of injuries of their own – including defensive starters Fred Warner (ankle) and Jordan Elliott (knee) – and had another costly special teams fumble, a third-quarter kick-return fumble by Isaac Guerendo that led to New England's only touchdown.

The 49ers continued to have problems within the red zone. They had six plays contained in the Patriots' 25-yard line on Sunday, but only two touchdowns, that of Kittle and a 4-yard run by Jordan Mason within the third quarter. Otherwise they were content with three Moody field goals and one interception. Last season, they led the league in red zone efficiency, scoring touchdowns 67 percent of the time.

“We have to clean that up, especially when we're playing very dominant teams that have really good offenses,” said Kittle, who seemed to understand the Patriots were a decidedly forgiving opponent before he caught himself. “Not to say the Patriots don’t do that, but our defense played very well against them.”