Brock Purdy

How Shanahan sees 49ers QB Purdy learning from four-interception game

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Coming off arguably the worst game of his brief NFL career, Brock Purdy has a lot to learn after throwing four uncharacteristic interceptions in the 49ers' stunning 33-19 Christmas Day loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday at Levi's Stadium.

Coach Kyle Shanahan reviewed the game tape with Purdy and shared his takeaways from the young quarterback's performance.

“He's just got to move forward and treat it as a game," Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. "We review the game. He does it on his own before I see him. I got some time to watch it with him yesterday. I know it's always tough when you have four picks, no touchdowns, especially when you have four of them by two minutes into the third quarter. But you also look into all of them, you talk to him about why they happened, what happened.

"When you look in that game, it's not a hard thing for him to bounce back from and get to work this week. There's a couple bad plays, the first one in particular. But when you get a look at the tape, there's nothing, that's very similar to coaching than what we do every week."

Purdy came crashing back down to earth after weeks of NFL MVP hype. Now he is tasked with trying to bounce back on the road against the Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Shanahan is confident that the four-interception game will be good in the long run for Purdy's development.

"I thought the biggest thing for Brock was the way it went in the first half," Shanahan told reporters. "I thought, just between Brock and I just talking, where I thought he struggled the most was after the four picks. I thought his first pick was a bad mistake. I thought the next three were unfortunate ones that you don’t make excuses for -- there's just tough football plays, and they made some good football plays. But it's tough to play a lot of football after you have four picks and stuff, especially when you're down versus that type of defense.

"I think that was the best experience for him. How to feel that, to know what's happened, to know why it's happened, and still have to go out there and sling it around and play. I think that's the best experience you can get from that game."

Purdy, who sustained a stinger in a second consecutive game, was a full participant in 49ers practice on Wednesday. He shouldn't be limited in Week 17.

The 49ers need Purdy to learn from his mistakes and right the ship quickly as they try to hold on to the NFC's No. 1 seed. The 4-11 Commanders might be just what the 24-year-old quarterback needs.

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