49ers film room: How Brock Purdy beat the Giants cover-0 blitz packages for two touchdowns on Thursday night

Today we look at how Brock Purdy was able to beat the blitz on his touchdown throws as well as a couple of other noteworthy throws versus the Giants pressure packages.

Brock Purdy struggled for most of the first half of the Thursday Night Football game versus the Giants but the 49ers ended up putting the game away in the second half, due in part to Purdy hitting two touchdown throws versus Wink Martindale’s cover-0 blitz. The final: 30-12.

The Giants gave the 49ers a heavy dose of blitzing and tight man coverage to throw off the timing and rhythm of the 49ers high-powered offense. They were not allowing free access downfield and eventually the Giants turned up the pressure with a number of cover-0 blitzes in the red zone. Per NFL NextGenStats, Purdy faced the blitz on 33 of his 39 dropbacks, 84.6%.

But Purdy was able to recognize his hot and alert routes on both plays and beat the blitz with two on-target throws that gave his receivers chances to make plays.

First touchdown pass, 2nd quarter, 3rd-and-5, 7:53 remaining

On Purdy’s first touchdown throw, the Giants weren’t hiding their intentions with six defenders walked up to the line of scrimmage and five defensive backs in off-man to cover the five eligibles. With five to block in pass protection, this meant that Purdy was responsible for the free rusher, where ever that rusher came from.

The play call has a built in check for an all out blitz with a concept called “Pile,” an out route with a “now” quick slant underneath it, both designated as the hot receivers.

The Giants are playing cover-0, an all out blitz with no safety help over the top for the defenders covering the five eligible receivers.

Rookie receiver Ronnie Bell (No. 10) is in the slot running the pile route to the front corner of the end zone with Giants corner Deonte Banks (No. 25) in coverage. Christian McCaffrey is out wide running the now slant under Bell’s out route. Bobby Okereke (No. 58) is in coverage on McCaffrey out wide, confirming man coverage.

The free rusher is Oshane Ximines (No. 53) off the left of the offensive line. He actually lined up offsides and drew a penalty on the play which the 49ers obviously declined. Trent Williams smartly widens with Ximines off the edge to get him to widen before he turns to block inside and this buy’s Purdy another half second to throw. Purdy sees the rusher coming off the edge and quickly rifles the pass out to Bell in the front corner of the end zone with high level anticipation.

He probably could’ve hit McCaffrey on the now slant underneath, the easier throw but that’s not who Purdy is. Instead, Purdy throws the pass with anticipation before Bell is into his break. He’s going to take more chances downfield and he’s making the ceiling for this offense higher than it was with previous quarterbacks on the roster.

Speaking of taking more chances downfield, Purdy hit another back shoulder touchdown throw on a sluggo (slant and go) route, similar to week one with Brandon Aiyuk, but instead this time hit Deebo down the right sideline against another cover-0 blitz.

Second touchdown, 4th quarter, 2nd-and-7, 6:05 remaining

The second touchdown throw midway through the fourth quarter was another cover-0 blitz beater and a gamble by Kyle Shanahan. Several times throughout the night, the Giants defensive backs were sitting on, and jumping, the quick slant routes by the 49ers receivers, including on at least four occasions by Deebo Samuel, who caught one of the slant passes and had defenders draped all over him on those routes.

Knowing the Giants corners were sitting on these routes, Shanahan called a sluggo route for Deebo knowing they might jump the slant inside.

The defense sends a 7-man pressure here with no safety help in the middle of the field. Adoree Jackson is covering Deebo out wide to the bottom of the screen. `

The defense sends seven because both the tight and the running back end up staying in pass protection, a nice adjustment by Shanahan. There’s no safety help in the middle of the field and Deebo is 1-on-1 downfield with Jackson. He gives a stutter move like he’s going to run a slant route but doesn’t quite sell it well enough. Jackson never bites on the move and is stride for stride with Deebo.

This required Purdy to make a tougher throw than it needed to be. It’s possible that Deebo recognized the coverage and knew he wouldn’t have time to sell the slant stem portion of the route because he needed to get downfield quicker due to the pressure. Purdy places the ball outside on his back shoulder, allowing Deebo to turn and shield the ball from Jackson’s swat as he twists into the end zone for the touchdown.

Purdy made several more nice throws against pressure last night that didn’t seem to phase him and seemed like Martindale could find no answers.

Here he layered a nice throw over the corner on the sideline to Kittle running a corner route. The snap is low and already throws off the timing. Purdy buys himself time for Kittle to get open by drifting away from the blitz just long enough to get the throw off.

At the start of the 4th quarter, McCaffrey dropped what would’ve been Purdy’s 2nd touchdown pass of the night to that point. 

McCaffrey is running a choice route out of the backfield that he actually breaks off up field rather than out or across as is usually the way it’s run. He gave a stutter move and took off with the linebacker in trail. Purdy navigates the pocket, moving and climbing to buy himself time to rip the throw to McCaffrey.

He changed his depth, resets, and fires to the outside shoulder of McCaffrey but he couldn’t hang on to the pass. If he did, he likely rolls into the endzone for a touchdown. Purdy never panicked and never showed any happy feet like his predecessors would have on this type of throw.

Outlook

After a rocky start, Purdy settled down and so did the offense in a 30-12 win, their third straight game with 30 points. Purdy is a high variance quarterback who will probably have some really high highs and some really low lows in the coming weeks but again, like i wrote about after week one, he does those three things really well that the last several starters just could not do: 1) takes downfield chances, 2) makes plays off-schedule, 3) and is skilled at buying time to extend plays.

In those 3 ways alone, evident in the plays above on some, he elevates the offense above what 49ers fans are accustomed to seeing in recent seasons. The tests only get more difficult in the coming weeks with Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in week five.