San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy struggled for the second straight week in his team’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, and Shannon Sharpe made it known on ESPN First Take that Purdy was who Sharpe thought he was.
While Purdy wasn’t quite as bad against the Vikings as he was last week when he went 12-for-27 with 125 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a 19-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns, he certainly did not look his best on Monday evening.
In the 22-17 defeat, Purdy went 21-for-30 with 272 yards, a touchdown and a couple of picks in what marked just the second regular-season loss of his young career.
On the season overall, Purdy has thrown for 1,668 yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 67.9 percent of his passes and registering a passer rating of 107.2.
Many—including Sharpe—criticized Purdy even when he was playing spectacular football earlier in the season, accusing him of merely being a product of Kyle Shanahan’s system in the same way that Jimmy Garoppolo was when Garoppolo took the 49ers to the Super Bowl in February 2020.
Purdy, who played his collegiate football at Iowa State, was selected by San Francisco with the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The 23-year-old entered his rookie campaign as the Niners’ third-string quarterback but was pressed into starting duty when both Garoppolo and Trey Lance went down with season-ending injuries.
Brock Purdy ended up going 5-0 in his starts and led the 49ers all the way to the NFC Championship game, where they ultimately lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
He also got off to a 5-0 start this season before losing these last two weeks.
San Francisco is 5-2 on the year and will look to snap its two-game skid when it plays host to the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday.
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