If anyone can do it, then it’s this San Francisco team. The San Francisco 49ers and Brock Purdy are up against their biggest challenge to date as they have to face off against the #1 seeded Philadelphia Eagles in Philly to reach their second Super Bowl in three seasons.
It’s shocked me when I heard that in the nearly 60-year history (53 years) of the NFL since the 1970 merger, there has never been a rookie QB that has led their team to victory in the Championship game of either conference, let alone a Super Bowl win.
Sure, there have been first year starters who have won the Super Bowl in their first season, such as Tom Brady with the 2001 Patriots and Kurt Warner with the 2000 St. Louis Rams, while Ben Roethlisberger was the youngest QB to ever win the Super Bowl at just 23-years-old with the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 2006. But none of these quarterbacks were rookies in their, respective, Super Bowl winning seasons.
Case closed then, right? There’s no way Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 draft and Mr. Irrelevant, is going to be the one QB that will break the streak. I mean, he’s going up against an extremely dangerous Philly defense in a hostile environment in the NFC Championship game, and then a date against Joe Burrow and the Cincinatti Bengals or Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl if he survives Philadelphia.
That’s an impossible task for any rookie QB to have to face off against, let alone one that came into this season with little chance of ever becoming an NFL starter as the literal last pick of the draft. Right?
Well, I don’t think so.
Personally, I think the 49ers should be considered the Super Bowl favorites at this point as I believe they have a better defense than Philly, and a far superior coaching advantage too. As for the defense, ever since the Kansas City loss in Week 7, there has just been one team, which was a fluke as it was the Raiders game with Jarred Stidham having a career performance, that has scored 30 or more points against the unit.
If you include the two post season games the 49ers have played in their 12-game winning run, the opposing offenses San Fran’s defense has faced off against have averaged just 15 points against. And the list of QBs the 49ers have played against in that span includes Geno Smith (twice), Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford, and Tom Brady.
The 49ers pass rush of Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Samson Ebukam, and Javon Kinlaw has the ability to sack and pressure any QB against even the best offensive lines in the league at will, which has led to Nick Bosa becoming the NFL’s sack leader with 18.5 sacks and the 49ers having the league’s 10th best team sack tally with 44. And it’s going to be this unit that wins or loses this game for the 49ers, not Brock Purdy and the passing game.
Kyle Shanahan is an offensive genius, and he will undoubtedly take the game out of Purdy’s hands as often as possible to relieve the pressure on his young QB. I’d expect Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, Deebo Samuel, and the rest of the 49ers running core to have 10-15 touches each against an Eagles pass rush that will be desperate to get after the young Purdy. while giving Purdy easy throws to get him settled in the adverse climate.
That’s why it’s going to be vital to attack Jalen Hurts and the Eagles banged-up offensive line (Lane Johnson may be one of the greatest tackles ever, but facing Nick Bosa on a torn groin is no walk in the park) as the Eagles have just as competent of a running game as the 49ers. If the 49ers can disrupt the continuity between Hurts and the Eagles running game, then I think they’ll win this game as the Eagles have yet to show they can win without Jalen Hurts being intrinsically involved.
Though, perhaps I’m 100% wrong about all of this and the Eagles will utterly smoke the 49ers to reach their first Super Bowl since the 2018 win. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
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