49ers overreactions: Is Brock Purdy team’s best QB since Steve Young? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The franchise of 49ers overreactions would be a lot less interesting if it weren’t for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The 49ers have finished second-best in the NFL in two of the past five seasons, and both times it was Mahomes and his teammates who came back to beat them for the Lombardi Trophy.
Those two losses have left many in the 49ers’ fan base disheartened and frustrated.
San Francisco let a 10-point fourth-quarter lead get away vs. Kansas City in Super Bowl LIV. And in February, the 49ers became the first team in NFL history to blow leads twice in the fourth quarter and once in overtime in a loss to the Chiefs.
The 49ers (3-3) are coming off a good performance in a 36-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. But they have to tighten things up if they hope to break their four-game losing streak against Kansas City.
Here are this week’s 49ers overreactions:
They are losing the halftime adjustments game badly (spoilertalerts)
Overreaction? No.
If there is such a thing as a “halftime adjustments game,” the 49ers would have a losing record.
The whole notion of halftime adjustments are overrated because there only are 13 minutes at halftime and teams should be making tweaks between every series. But the facts are the facts.
San Francisco outscored the opposition 96-43 in the first half of their first six games of the season. After intermission, the 49ers were outscored 77-66.
Defensive end Nick Bosa alluded to this a week ago when he spoke about the 49ers’ defensive staff having San Francisco well-prepared to open games. He said they could do better at making adjustments to unscouted looks.
But it’s not only first-year defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen who is having his problems. The offense has experienced its issues, too.
The 49ers were held scoreless against the Cardinals in the second half of their Week 5 loss.
But was that a failure to make adjustments or was it simply because the 49ers committed three turnovers and were forced to go for it on fourth-and-23 because their kicker was injured? It does not matter. San Francisco must play better in the second half.
Brock Purdy has firmly established himself as the best 49ers quarterback since Steve Young (rich.colbert)
Overreaction? No.
Perhaps, Purdy has not firmly established himself as the best since the Hall of Famer, Steve Young. But it’s close enough that it is not an overreaction.
After all, Jeff Garcia was pretty darn good for his four seasons as the starter. He was voted to the Pro Bowl three times with the 49ers. Before Purdy was named the NFC starter last year, no San Francisco quarterback had been chosen to the Pro Bowl since Garcia.
Purdy led the NFL in a number of statistics last season. He broke team records for passer rating, yards per attempt and single-season passing yards. With Purdy as the main quarterback, the 49ers have won 21 of 28 games in the regular season with four more victories in the postseason.
It’s a debatable point right now, but he is well on his way toward leaving no doubt.
Paying Brandon Aiyuk was a spectacular waste of money (pcarnette)
Overreaction? Yes.
There is a larger conversation about whether the NFL wide receiver market is so out of whack that few of these players are worth the amount of room they take on the salary cap.
Brandon Aiyuk’s numbers are down significantly from last season when he caught 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns.
He has yet to find his way into the end zone, and he already has more sub-50-yard games (five) than he had all of last season (four).
But he is under contract for four seasons after this year, and there is plenty of time for him to pay dividends.
No lead is safe with this team. (controversycow)
Overreaction? No.
The 49ers already have blown two double-digit second-half leads.
And in their bounce-back victory over the Seattle Seahawks, they had a 20-point lead that nearly evaporated, too. One would figure that the 49ers have a good enough offense that they could come back from a big deficit, as they did against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game.
So maybe a lead is not safe, either way.
We will win games because of our offense and lose games because of special teams. Defense is pretty average (dlovato7)
Overreaction? No.
Based on what we’ve seen thus far, it’s hard to argue with this synopsis. With so many young and new players, it probably should come as no surprise that special teams has experienced more than its share of issues.
But maybe there have been signs of a turnaround, too. The 49ers scored a touchdown on a blocked field goal in Week 5 and they forced a fumble on a kickoff against the Seahawks.
However, their mistakes overshadowed those good plays.
The 49ers have a good enough team that they should be good as long as special teams can get out of its own way. But shoddy special-teams play has contributed greatly to all three defeats.
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