Can the 49ers' ‘QB-proof offense’ take them to the Super Bowl? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the San Francisco 49ers win over the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, and debate if the 49ers can reach the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy at the helm of Kyle Shanahan’s ‘Quarterback-proof offense.’
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON; You kind of flip it, and you look at Brock Purdy and this is a little bit of what I wrote about. There's this 30-yard completion to George Kittle where it touches like every possible surface on Kittle's body, seemingly, by the time he catches it. And after the game, you talk to Kittle and he's just like, I wasn't even read on that play. Like, it was everybody else, and I just got caught in a situation where all of a sudden, we're off script, and he starts to leak into space and he sticks his hand up.
And Purdy is like, all right, well, I'm just going to go ahead and do this. Like, I'm going to throw it across the field. It wasn't a huge-- he threw it back across field, wasn't a huge risk, but it was definitely a risk at the moment, particularly, to throw it to a guy who wasn't a read on the play. And I thought it was interesting because you sit there and this is sort of what I ended up writing is, just that this 49ers team now, feels a little bit like the last two Super Bowl winners.
And now you have the 49ers, who-- how many times did we question coming into the season? Remember, all-- the whole offseason was talking about the quarterbacks. Is it Trey Lance? Jimmy Garoppolo is being told to stay away from the team. This is weird. Deebo Samuel doesn't want to be here. Nobody knew who Brock Purdy was if you weren't a 49ers or an Iowa State fan. And now you look at this team, I went in the locker room and Deebo Samuel is sitting in his locker laughing.
You know, Brock Purdy walks into the hallway in Levi's Stadium and you hear the fans, like it's like a rock star. Just walked out of the locker room, and it definitely has the feel of the momentum of the last couple of years where we watched Super Bowl teams just sort of pick it up at the right time and the right place. Now, look, they're going to go to Philly. It's going to be a tough road game.
I think Brock Purdy just played in the toughest game that he's played to this date. But what you and I said all season about San Francisco is, the team as you said, built differently, ton of depth. They got healthy all over the place at the right time. We saw it last night. I mean, Elijah Mitchell steps in when Christian McCaffrey has like I think he tweaked, like, his calf. Kittle's making plays. The offensive line's playing really well.
It just feels like a team right now that doesn't need the other quarterback in this final because we look at every other quarterback in the final four and we're like, he's such an outlier. It's these three guys and Brock Purdy.
FRANK SCHWAB: By the way, real quick, because I mean, is not that it hasn't been mentioned, but everybody was kind of dunking on the 49ers for the Christian McCaffrey trade. Oh, my God, they gave up so much. They're undefeated with him. Other than the first game where he played like 15 snaps off the plane, right? Like that-- who cares? They haven't lost since then. He's been such a difference maker for them, not necessarily against the Cowboys.
The Cowboys did a great job bottling him up, but in every other game-- I mean, McCaffrey is such a difference maker, give a lot of credit to the 49ers for making a bold trade, whereas, I remember people-- you tweeted out the 49ers felt they were running back away, and everybody-- all the Twitter people on you, like, oh, how could you say that? It's 2022, we should be better than this. No, they were running back away. He has made such a difference for them.
It's just an interesting-- it's an interesting dynamic in that they've built this team totally different. They just-- it's almost like the quarterback doesn't matter in this league where like you said, the quarterback matters so much, they were giving these guys $40, $50 million a year. The 49ers are basically a quarterback proof offense. It's a weird construct, but it's really interesting. It's fun. It's fun not to just have four of the same teams in the final four, right?
I just have a lot of respect for this 49ers team. Really well coached. Just put together really well. I think a lot of-- you talked about Dak looking confused all the time and he did. He really was-- his was seeing ghosts, to use a Sam Darnold line. I think a lot of that is DeMeco Ryans. He's such a creative play caller. I really hope he does get a head coaching job. I hope it's not in Houston because I think that's a dead end job. But I just-- I have such a-- I just have such a respect for what the 49ers are doing. They're just mashing teams.
I mean, they haven't lost since, I believe, it was October 23 is their last loss. It's a really, really good football team and and this Brock Purdy story just keeps going. It's pretty crazy.
CHARLES ROBINSON; I would ask you, do you think that-- I know it's built differently, OK? But conference championship games are different types of games, and someone tweeted out last night, the four quarterbacks are set, and you sit there and you're like, OK, Mahomes, Burrow, Jalen Hurts, and then it's like this-- you order French fries and you get a burnt onion ring in the middle of it, and you're, like, what? Where did this come from? Like, this just-- it sticks out like a sore thumb. Obviously, Brock Purdy is better than a burnt onion ring. I'm not saying that. I just-- it's so--
FRANK SCHWAB: Don't knock burnt onion rings. They can be all right. You get that extra onion ring in their fries, I'm not mad.