If the decision to play quarterback Brock Purdy wasn’t controversial enough before Sunday’s game between Purdy’s San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals, it certainly was after the game.
With the 49ers trailing 31-17 in the fourth quarter, Purdy threw an apparent interception on the first play after the two-minute warning. The interception was negated by a roughing the passer penalty against Cincinnati’s DJ Reader. Given the score and time of the game, the penalty itself was largely inconsequential. But something that happened during the play was anything but.
Purdy was hit simultaneously by Reader and Trey Hendrickson. As Purdy fell to the ground, his head and neck snapped back quickly, with his helmet hitting the ground. The quarterback, who was in concussion protocol through the week, grabbed his head. Despite that, he remained in the game for the remainder of that possession (which ended the following play with a fumble) and came back in for the game’s final two plays.
The NFL claims to be concerned about concussions. So, it’s hard to imagine how the 49ers and any spotters at the game, missed what happened to Purdy.
And beyond the added attention given to concussions, Purdy was in concussion protocol all week. He wasn’t cleared to play until Saturday. It’s rare for a player to be in concussion protocol and play in that weekend’s game. Purdy also had one day fewer of rest, given that the 49ers previously played on Monday night. Purdy being cleared to play on Sunday was controversial well before the game started. Knowing that, it’s impossible to understand how that was missed in the moment.
But for the sake of this argument, lets give the 49ers and any spotters complete benefit of the doubt. The games do move fast, maybe they just didn’t have time to react. If the Bengals had simply gone into victory formation and ran what was left of the clock out after recovering the fumble on the following play, this might not be such a big issue. But that’s not what happened.
Cincinnati could only run the clock down to 19 seconds before punting the ball away to San Francisco. After the punt, only 12 seconds remained on the clock as the 49ers offense came back out onto the field. It’s worth noting that the game would have been over had San Francisco not taken a time-out after first down on Cincinnati’s possession. We can roll our eyes at that, but maybe Kyle Shanahan wanted to get backup Sam Darnold a few throws, in the event that Purdy isn’t clear for the 49ers next game.
Except when San Francisco’s offense came back onto the field, Purdy was still the quarterback. Any benefit of the doubt that might have existed when the 49ers left Purdy in after hitting his head was now gone. The 49ers now had an entire defensive possession to analyze the Purdy situation and get him out of the game. Also, San Francisco took a time-out following first down, Cincinnati did the same on second and third downs, after letting the rest of the play clock expire. Time was no longer even a bad excuse.
Amazingly, it gets worse. If the 49ers had simply decided to throw in the towel and have Purdy take a knee, this is still at least partially defensible. But Purdy threw — twice.
Granted, Purdy wasn’t going to get rushed on these passes. The first pass was to Christian McCaffrey, who gained 28 yards before running out of bounds with four seconds remaining. Purdy then passed to Ray-Ray McCloud. McCloud gained 41 yards before going out of bounds. By that point, time had expired and the game was over.
.Let’s look at this again. San Francisco started the final possession on their own 20-yard line, down 14 points with only 12 seconds remaining. So, to have a chance to tie (or even win) the game, the 49ers would have needed to first go 80 yards for a touchdown, then recover an onside kick, all within the span of 11 seconds. Good luck figuring out how that can all happen. And even if you do, San Francisco still would have been left needing a Hail Mary.
Even if your quarterback is completely healthy, there’s logic to either putting the second-stringers in or taking a knee. Why risk any exposure to injury at that point? Now, let’s remember Purdy’s situation. With everything that happened to that point, he was still sent out for the ultimate garbage time scenario. No game situation would have made the decision to send Purdy back out on the field better. This, however, made it worse.
A similar situation unfolded during the 2022 season with Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. While Tua’s situation was more serious (or at least more obvious) than Purdy’s, it was apparent that something was not right.
How often are defenders penalized for a hit in a situation where they couldn’t have realistically done anything different? Retired star JJ Watt voiced his displeasure with a fine of more than $48,000 leveled against Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren, who initiated contact with the crown of his helmet on what looked like a hard, but standard block.
If the NFL is going to take action like that in the name of player safety, particularly as it relates to head trauma, it can’t allow situations like Tagovailoa’s in 2022 and now Purdy’s in 2023 to unfold.