49ers film room: What is a quarterback pressure? Part 2 - Using examples from the Super Bowl and preseason to show the differences

Today we look at a common trope that the 49ers offensive line allowed 9 unblocked pressures in the Super Bowl, what a quarterback pressure is/isn't, and we'll look examples from the preseason later.

In the last article, we broke down how the perception of “the 49ers offensive line allowed NINE unblocked rushers” in the Super Bowl is misleading by showing several of the plays those “unblocked rushers” occurred on. Aside from the two most obvious, and one of those I’d consider obviously the most game altering, most of the free rushers at the quarterback came on plays where the offensive line 1) did not have the numbers to block more than five rushers due to having five eligibles in the pattern and 2) came on play action on the backside away from the run action by doing what defenses call “greenlighting” the quarterback on boot passes.

In those plays, the quarterback needed to mitigate the rusher with better throws or the scheme needed to give the quarterback better answers, which isn’t always the case and is actually more of a bug than a feature in the Shanahan offense. In either case, it’s never really realistic to expect that the quarterback can always be protected from these rushers and also isn’t realistic to never expect him to win with good throws on them.

This is where having Brock Purdy is a plus more than a burden though, as we’ll see on a few throws and plays below, he beat the rush by quickly identifying his hot routes or expertly got himself out of a jam by recognizing pre-snap what was happening.

Good throws to beat the blitz in the Super Bowl

Purdy also hit at least three throws to beat the free rusher, one for a touchdown, two in overtime for gains of 12 and 20 yards that set up the 49ers just outside the red zone.

On a touchdown throw to Jauan Jennings, the Chiefs are sending a cover-0 pressure. As with the cover-0 pressure above, the Chiefs are giving Purdy the same blitz indicators. But this time Brock drilled Jennings in the chest with a throw and Jennings barreled his way into the end zone. The offense is running a “Pile” concept, an out route with a dart/1-step slant route underneath it to the right, both of which are the hot reads here.

The offensive line is in a full slide to the right, leaving the unblocked rusher to the left, and again, it’s not clear why they don’t adjust this pre-snap to the hot route side. The routes on the left are not hot routes and take too long to develop. The Chiefs stunt their defensive end inside and send the linebacker around the edge, pulling in the protection and getting a second free rusher but this time Purdy drills the throw.