NEW ORLEANS – Brock Purdy carefully put on his sock and sneaker over a slightly swollen but not discolored big toe, the right one that kept him out of his 49ers uniform Sunday and put Mac Jones into the leading role of a 26-21 win over the Saints.
Purdy smiled when asked about Jones’ debut, calling it “awesome” after observing from the 49ers sideline, where he chimed in “here and there” without interfering.
“He’s started in the NFL before, so I didn’t want to act like an older guy,” Purdy said in an exclusive interview with the Bay Area News Group at his locker. “He’s been here before. He knows what to do. So I just let him do his thing.”
This was Jones’ 50th career start, the others stacking up in New England and Jacksonville. Purdy has 37 regular-season starts (and six playoff thrillers).
“Brock was awesome,” Jones said. “He’s helped me all week, and he’s doing a great job rehabbing. He knows how it is out there, and is like: ‘You’re doing great. Keep ripping it.’”
Which one starts next Sunday’s home opener in Arizona is yet to be determined, but things don’t look dire for the $265 million quarterback. “We’re good,” Purdy said vaguely. Asked if he’s caustiously optimistic, he answered: “We’ll see.”
“There’s a chance,” coach Kyle Shanahan said of this Sunday’s duties. “But we have to see how the toe goes. It’s very up to debate so we’re taking it a day at a time.”
Here are 10 things that caught my eye (and ear) as the 49ers improved to 2-0:
1. TOUCHDOWN TRIFECTA
Of Jones’ 39 passes, 26 completions and three touchdowns, one stood out to Purdy: a 42-yard scoring strike to Jauan Jennings for the eventual winning points with 12:18 remaining.
“He had a bunch of good throws, but that was one when we needed it – third down, cross-court to Jauan,” Purdy said. “He had a little no-look on it, supposedly.”
Jones, exuding what Nick Bosa calls “fun energy,” laughed when asked if it was a no-look throw, saying: “I don’t know, I’ll have to watch the tape.”
But seriously, Jones noted that the Saints defense had a surprising alignment, forcing Jones to use eye discipline to deke a linebacker just long enough to hit Jones in stride at the 25-yard line. “Jauan just had a drive-by and just caught it. I looked to the left a bit, moved back, and threw it, then he took it to the house,” Jones said.
2. FOURTH-DOWN HEROICS
On the same side of the Superdome field where the 49ers relied on George Kittle’s fourth-down catch to set up a winning field goal in 2019, the 49ers needed their fourth-down defense to finish off the Saints. Cue: Bryce Huff, who sprinted in as the left defensive end and helped pop the ball free from Spencer Rattler, the Saints’ 0-8 starter.
“Luckily, everybody on the D-line won their rep, so he didn’t have any place to step up and I was able to have the edge and get home,” said Huff, their June 2 trade acquisition from the Eagles. “Turn the edge as fast as I can. (Rattler) likes to step up in that B-gap. Everybody on the right side (of the 49ers’ D-line) won so he flushed right to me.”
Bosa was the right defensive end on that play, but he was the left end a week earlier when his strip-sack fumble secured their win at Seattle.
From the archives: Kittle turned Jimmy Garoppolo’s fourth-and-2 pass into a 39-yard catch, plus a Saints’ facemask penalty propelled the Niners to the 14-yard line for Robbie Gould’s walk-off field goal.
3. FRED SAID NO
Fred Warner greeted reporters in the locker room by crowing: “That’s not too bad right there: 2-0!”
Warner had a team-high 11 tackles, but the biggest play of the game may have been his forced fumble, which he recovered after punching out Alvin Kamara’s fresh catch. Shanahan won a replay challenge to grant the takeaway, and Warner said he did not lobby his coach for it, so kudos to Shanahan or his replay czars.
Reminded that he not only forced the fumble but had an All-Pro pass deflection of a third-down pass on the Saints’ final possession, Warner responded: “You know I’ve been doing that.” Indeed.
That was Warner’s 54th career pass defense, surpassing Pro Football Hall of Famer Patrick Willis for the most by a 49ers linebacker since it became an official statistic in 1994.
4. EMOTIONAL MORSTEAD
Fifteen seasons after his onside kick propelled the Saints to their Super Bowl XLIV win – as Niners fan Yazan Jubran reminded me postgame at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar & Restaurant — Thomas Morstead came through in the clutch in his second game as the 49ers’ punter. And Shanahan made sure to give him kudos postgame, for Morstead’s punts that pinned the Saints at their 11- and 6-yard line in the final few minutes.
“It’s incredibly satisfying. It’s hard to describe. I’ve dreamed about coming back here. It was a really special day for me,” said Morstead, the Saints’ punter from 2009-2020. “Just everybody, the team has been so supportive of me and believes in me. I couldn’t have asked to have such an awesome experience today.”
Morstead, 39, was emotional. Tears welled in his eyes. And rather than celebrate his individual contribution, he bypassed a victory lap and shared how he took a picture postgame with Saints punter Kai Kroeger, a former mentee.
5. McCAFFREY SCORES
It may have been rude but I asked Christian McCaffrey how relieved he was to score a touchdown for the first time since the 2023 season’s Super Bowl. McCaffrey, pulling on his Stanford education, wisely responded: “Yeah, definitely. I’d like to get there a lot more. I’m so happy to be playing with this team and I feel good.”
McCaffrey joined Lenny Moore and Marshall Faulk as the only players in NFL history with 50 rushing touchdowns and 30 receiving touchdowns. “Cool. I did not know that. That’s awesome,” he said.
6. FINISH THEM
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh raved last week about how Bosa and pass-rushing experts get paid comparable to a baseball closer — who “gets paid a junk ton of money to do it. That’s that guy. You’re in the fourth quarter, every game’s going to come down to one score and you need somebody to close the game. That’s where those edge rushers and interior pass rushers come into play.”
So, after Bosa’s strip-sack fumble recovery secured last Sunday’s Week 1 win at Seatte, Huff introduced himself into 49ers’ lore by sacking Spencer Rattler at the Saints’ 34-yard line and popping free a fourth-down ball that settled for a 15-yard Saints’ loss.
Huff credited teammates for forcing Rattler into his path, to the delight of Huff’s dozen-plus relatives in the stands. “I was actually kind of surprised when I came out for warmups. The lower level looked like a home game almost,” Huff said. “It really got loud on the last play, especially. I really appreciate the support. It was cool to see.”
Said Bosa: “I’m happy for him, and his time in Philly obviously winning a Super Bowl was great, but I don’t think they utilized him great. So it’s kind of a resurgence for him and I’m excited to see where it goes.”
7. KICKER FLASHBACKS
For all the angst Jake Moody created with his kicking woes before getting waived last week, how terrifying was it to see Eddy Piñeiro miss his initial kick – a point-after attempt that veered wide right 3:25 left in the first quarter.
Asked if he flashed back to Jake Moody’s misses that led to Piñeiro‘s hiring last week, Shanahan said with sarcasm: “No, it didn’t faze me at all.” Piñeiro made his two ensuing field-goal attempts (44 and 46 yards) and his two point-after kicks.
8. BOURBON STREET BLISS
The 49ers Faithful, decked out in red jerseys, unofficially accounted for at least half the 70,078 crowd, to the delight of the away team.
Jeff Duncan, who’s in his 26th season covering the Saints, said the Superdome has only been taken over in such fashion by two other fan bases in recent years: the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills.
“I know our guys travel well. But it seems we travel here better,” said Shanahan, who loved their 2019 win in a sold-out Superdome but lost 27-13 in 2020 amid a COVID-limited crowd of under 6,000. “The stadium (Sunday) almost seemed 50-50. There were times we didn’t have to do the silent cadence, which was unusual. I couldn’t be happier with our fans.”
Said Saints first-year coach Kellen Moore: “They’re one of those teams that travel well. I think our fans showed up in an electric way and gave us a competitive advantage.”
9. TOP-THREE SHANAHAN
This marked Shanahan’s 72nd regular-season win as the 49ers’ coach, pushing him past Lawrence “Buck” Shaw as their third-winningest coach behind George Seifert (98) and Bill Walsh (92). Shanahan’s 62 losses – and, more damning, his two Super Bowl losses – are the most in 49ers’ history, behind Walsh (59) and Dick Nolan (53).
Shanahan basked in the hereby named “Red Room” glow of 49ers fans taking over another stadium, saying: “It’s so cool. One of my favorite times of my career was 2019, how many fans we had hear, how loud that game was, and then watching them on Bourbon Street after,” said Shanahan, quite proud of Sunday’s another “50/50” crowd. “There were times we didn’t have to do the silent cadence, which was unusual. I couldn’t be happier with our fans.”
Shanahan gleefully evoked coach-speak when said he only saw “film” of that 2019 celebration in the French Quarter. On his way off the podium, I sarcastically told Shanahan to have fun on Bourbon Street this night. “That would be awesome,” he replied.
10. UNDEFEATED START
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The 49ers’ 2-0 start is matched by the Arizona Cardinals, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Cincinnati Bengals among teams who did not make last season’s playoffs.
The 49ers also opened 2-0 with road wins six other times in team history and made the Super Bowl in four of them.
“The stuff we did in the past doesn’t dictate the future,” said center Jake Brendel, who insisted Jones’ three sacks were more “on us” than the quarterback’s reluctance to throw the ball.
The last NFL team to open a season with back-to-back road wins with two different starting quarterbacks: the 49ers, with Joe Montana and Steve Young in 1988 at New Orleans and the New York Giants, respectively.
The 2016 Minnesota Vikings were the last team before these 49ers to open a season 2-0 with two different starting quarterbacks (Shaun Hill, Sam Bradford).
By the way, if you thought (correctly) that Jones held onto the ball too long (as he confessed), Saints coach Moore said: “There were some situations he was able to sit in the pocket too long. You let any quarterbacks in this league be comfortable in the pocket, they’re going to be deliver some things downfield.” Any quarterback. Even Mac Jones.
