GLENDALE, Ariz. — An hour into his homecoming, Brock Purdy was flat on his back. He’d just taken a helmet-to-helmet hit from 232-pound linebacker Dennis Gardeck. The crowd, dominated by 49ers fans, tried to rally Purdy by chanting his name.
Was he knocked out? Did his surgically repaired elbow get wrecked? Was the 49ers’ season in peril?
Purdy would miss only three snaps because of a nerve stinger in his left shoulder, and he’d finish off that same drive with one of his four touchdown passes en route to a 45-29 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
The 49ers (11-3) thus clinched their second straight NFC West title and their 23rd division crown in franchise history. They remain in position for the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed with three regular-season games to go, their next being on Christmas next Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens at Levi’s Stadium.
When Purdy’s fourth touchdown pass found Deebo Samuel on a 17-yarder to the front left pylon, offensive linemen gave Purdy a group hug, and then right guard Jon Feliciano pretended to brush dirt off Purdy’s back from the second-quarter injury scare.
Purdy, who grew up some 45 miles away in Queen Creek, totaled 242 yards in adding to his NFL MVP candidacy. He wasn’t the only star of this season-high point total, however.
Christian McCaffrey scored three touchdowns, ran for 115 yards, and had five catches for 72 yards. His scoring hat trick raised his season total to 20 touchdowns, including four against the Cardinals in a 35-16 home win Oct. 1. McCaffrey, who appeared to battle a cranky right knee Sunday, is three touchdowns shy of Jerry Rice’s single-season franchise record, set in 1997.
The 49ers never relinquished the lead once Charvarius Ward’s 66-yard pick-six put them ahead 14-7 in the first quarter. Another interception by Ward, with some six minutes left, helped seal the deal, as the 49ers sent in Sam Darnold to replace Purdy under much different circumstances than that second-quarter sequence.
The last-place Cardinals (3-11) proved pesky from the outset, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and running for more yards than any 49ers’ opponent since 2017. They continuously tested a 49ers defense that was missing interior linemen Javon Hargrave and Arik Armstead.
Arizona, however, often settled for field goals while the 49ers’ toy shop kept producing touchdowns.
Anything that unfolded at State Farm Stadium would have seemed so inconsequential had Purdy sustained a serious injury, similar to last season’s NFC Championship Game loss in Philadelphia, where he hurt his elbow.
This injury scare came when Purdy stepped up in the pocket to avoid two defenders, and just as he flipped a 9-yard completion to Kyle Juszczyk, Gardeck’s facemask collided with Purdy’s. After a couple of minutes on the grass, Purdy walked with the 49ers’ medical staff to a sideline medical tent for further evaluation, and Darnold took the next three snaps.
Once Purdy returned with 2:55 until halftime, the 49ers didn’t skip a beat. Purdy threw a 6-yard completion to Samuel, then deftly tossed a third-and-2 pass to George Kittle, whose 1-handed catch brought the 49ers to the 6-yard line. McCaffrey followed with a 1-yard run before his 5-yard scoring catch. Purdy pumped his right fist, strolled to the sideline to exchange high-fives, then took a seat on the bench to review video. It was business as usual, with a 21-13 lead only 1:14 before halftime.
And Purdy kept producing. He did, however, fall short of matching Joe Montana’s record of eight straight games with a 70-percent completion rate; Purdy was 16-of-25 (64%) with a 153.3 passer rating.
His third touchdown pass (41 yards) came as he escaped to his left and found a wide open McCaffrey, who backpedaled about 10 yards and fell down catching the ball at the 10-yard line. McCaffrey got up and scored his second touchdown for a 28-13 lead. On the previous play, Purdy beat the Cardinals’ bitz with a third-and-11 dime to Kittle for a 35-yard catch-and-run.
In between those two touchdown passes, an area of concern resurfaced: Ronnie Bell appeared to fumble a punt return and the Cardinals returned that loose ball for an apparent score 53 seconds before halftime. A replay review nullified that touchdown and deemed Bell down by contact before any fumble.
The Cardinals went over the 200-yard rushing mark Sunday when Emari Demercado scored on a 49-yard run, cutting the 49ers’ lead to 35-22, with 11:30 remaining. The 49ers hadn’t allowed so many rushing yards since the Cowboys racked up 265 in October 2017. Arizona finished with 234 yards on 30 carries.
Each team opened with a 75-yard touchdown drive, and the 49ers’ score came in glaring fashion when Purdy found a wide open Samuel for a 12-yard, game-tying catch. Samuel went in low-key motion to the left, and no Cardinals defender followed him on the play, which came after McCaffrey’s 26-yard run to the Cardinals’ 12. It was the 49ers’ ninth touchdown on an opening possession this season, and it was Samuel’s seventh touchdown in four games.
The 49ers surrendered an opening-drive touchdown for a second straight game, with James Conner doing the honors in this one via a 2-yard run past Javon Kinlaw up the middle. It was no surprise the Cardinals attacked the interior. Kinlaw and Kevin Givens started in place of Armstead and Hargrave; backup Kalia Davis left in the first half with an ankle injury.
Conner left with 86 yards, extending the 49ers’ streak to 41 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard rusher. Kyler Murray (26-of-39, 211 yards) didn’t throw a touchdown pass until the final minute, to Elijah Higgins. The Cardinals repeatedly attacked the middle of a 49ers defense clearly missing Hargrave and Armstead, but sloppy tackling and loose containment on the edge also impacted things.
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Nick Bosa, who had a third-down sack in the first half, exited for a snap in the third quarter because of a hip or leg issue. Bosa returned to help force a third-and-goal incompletion as the Cardinals settled for a field goal, trimming the 49ers’ lead to 28-16 with 4:20 left in the third.
Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (rib) was ruled out in the final minutes. Lenoir and Davis were the only 49ers ruled out by injury. That Purdy was not among them was the sigh of relief that reverberated from the Sonoran Desert.
