GLENDALE, Ariz. — It was worth the wait and a special day for all of Brock Purdy’s family and friends who made the hour-long drive from his hometown of Queen Creek.
In his first game back from a six-week absence with turf toe, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback let it rip — with all of the offensive wrinkles and audibles and different looks that make opposing defenses nervous. The final score against the Arizona Cardinals was 41-22, but Sunday’s game was over the sixth time Purdy touched the ball.
The 49ers were already up 7-0 thanks to Skyy Moore’s 98-yard kickoff return when Purdy dropped back at the Cardinals’ 30-yard line and didn’t look to his right. Tight end George Kittle, meanwhile, had made a move and beat his man to the outside on the right side.
Purdy’s looking away froze the Cardinals safety in the middle of the field until Purdy fired a perfect strike into Kittle’s outstretched hands for a touchdown.
“To hit that … it was like, ‘Yeah, we’re playing,’” Purdy said. “‘We’re in an NFL game.’”
Purdy finished with three touchdown passes on the day, Christian McCaffrey ran in two, and the 49ers improved to 7-4. After a frustrating rehab process in which Purdy was seemingly not quite right week after week, he was finally able to put his best foot forward. And the other one as well.
“My comeback is here, where I grew up in Arizona, which is special,” Purdy said. “All that mattered was playing together as a team and getting the dub. I’m just excited that we all played together.”
It was the 49ers offense’s first time being reunited since the season-opening touchdown drive in Seattle. That was when Kittle went down with his hamstring injury, and Purdy and receiver Ricky Pearsall joined him in the training room shortly after.
Pearsall hails from Phoenix and had a couple of dozen family and friends in attendance as well to see his first game back after missing six games with a knee injury. But that’s not what he was happiest about.
“It felt really good to look to my left and my right and see all the guys back out there, and it was fun,” Pearsall said. “We had a great week of practice and knew today was going to be our best offensive game of the year.”
It was just last week that Purdy started taking practice snaps with the first team again.
“He just picked up right where he left off,” right tackle Colton McKivitz said. “That was the cool thing because we don’t get a ton of work with him because he’s working with the scout team guys. For him to come in and play well, just like he did, run the offense smoothly, it is who he is.
“I mean, he commands a huddle, so to have him back out there is great.”
The players love and have all the confidence in Mac Jones, who went 5-3 as a starter in the eight games Purdy missed this season. But for all the national pundits and fans who were trying to push a quarterback controversy, Purdy’s mobility, big-play potential and leadership stand out. It’s why the 49ers backed up the Brink’s truck to his house.
“Brock’s presence in the huddle is just so elite,” Kittle said. “How he talks to the players. He plays with a joy that’s so infectious. It’s so much fun to play football with him.”
Kittle caught two of Purdy’s three touchdown passes. Even though Purdy gambled with a couple of dangerous throws early on, he finished with a tidy line of 19-for-26 for 200 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. And better yet, he said he didn’t feel or think about his toe once during the game.
Niners coach Kyle Shanahan, who was giddy just watching film with Purdy last week in getting ready for the game, wasn’t surprised by how well things went.
“Not many people have done it better than him,” Shanahan said. “He’s been as efficient as anyone, he’s made as big of plays as anyone, and he’s led us to a lot of wins. … I could feel he was more comfortable throughout the week just getting back into the full routine of practice and more comfortable in the meetings when you know you’re playing, and I thought he carried it over today, so it’s a good first week.”
Purdy thanked the training staff for its work with him.
“Trusting in them and our plan that we put together and, when I do come back, mentally I’m ready to roll,” Purdy said. “I’m going to drop back with confidence, rip it with confidence, play quarterback, go through my reads. It was getting to that point. And so, that was all new for me. But overall, it felt good, and I loved our plan, and I feel great now.”
On a day when the 49ers lost a few more players to injury (updates on linebacker Tatum Bethune’s ankle and kicker Eddy Pineiro’s hamstring are upcoming Monday), the offensive resurgence had everyone smiling.
“It felt awesome,” said fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who was celebrating his 200th NFL game. “That’s how we planned for this thing to be. … When all our guys were together, we planned on being this high-scoring, efficient offense that could carry the team.
“So it’s a great testament that the first chance we got, we went out there and put up 41 points.”
And though Pearsall had only one catch on three targets for 0 yards, don’t undersell his impact, Sunday and going forward.
“He opens up the field for everyone else,” Juszczyk said. “I think Ricky is the best man(-coverage)-beater we have on this team, so I think defenses have to play a little bit differently when he’s out there.”
Now, a small disclaimer: The Cardinals (3-7) are not very good and were missing all of their starting-caliber skill players on offense and a few on defense. And they had 17 penalty flags thrown at them to the 49ers’ one, which had a couple of players in the winning locker room feeling a little sorry for them.
“It did feel like the officials were picking on them, especially with some of those holding calls,” one player said. “Oh, well.”
Oh, well. The 49ers have bigger things to worry about, like a “Monday Night Football” game next week against a plucky, 6-5 Carolina Panthers team.
But they have some renewed confidence now, after an ugly loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week.
And the 49ers have their franchise quarterback back.
“He was vintage Brock,” McCaffrey said. “That’s a huge compliment.”