Brock Purdy accounts for four touchdowns as 49ers rout Seahawks in wild-card round
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy passes against the Seahawks during the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff game in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday. Credit: AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy was anything but irrelevant Saturday.
Purdy threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth score in his playoff debut to lead the San Francisco 49ers to a 41-23 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in an NFC wild-card game.
Purdy — the last player picked in the 2022 NFL Draft, which earned him the title of “Mr. Irrelevant’’ — won his sixth straight start since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo early in a Week 13 win over Miami.
“We’ve got a goal of winning the whole thing,” he said. “We’re in a tournament, so anything can happen. I’ve got such a great team, O-line, receivers, defense, across the whole board, man. It’s not a one-man show. I’m very blessed. Thankful to be here.”
Purdy became the first rookie quarterback to account for four touchdowns in a playoff game. His 332 yards passing are the second most by a rookie in the playoffs (Russell Wilson had 385), and he tied an NFL record for rookies set by Justin Herbert with his seventh straight game with multiple TD passes.
“Once the game started, it was just 11-on-11, I have to do my job, get it to the guys in space and go from there,” Purdy said. “We didn’t make it more than what it was . . . It wasn’t ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the playoffs, and we got to get all tense.’ We just have to play our game.”
The 49ers, who beat the Seahawks for the third time this season, will host Minnesota, Tampa Bay or Dallas next weekend in the divisional round.
“When we’re playing our best football, offense is doing our thing, defense is doing their thing, we’re a hard team to beat,” Purdy said. “We know that. We’ve got to just keep clicking on all cylinders.”
Purdy connected on a 3-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey in the first quarter, converted a 1-yard sneak for a TD in the third quarter and threw a 7-yard TD pass to Elijah Mitchell early in the fourth quarter that made it 31-17. The 49ers broke it open when Deebo Samuel took a short pass from Purdy and raced for a 74-yard touchdown.
“He has showed us over and over again who he is and the type of player he is,” linebacker Fred Warner said of Purdy. “So I’m not surprised.”
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