Brock Purdy 'Playing His Ass Off' Says 49ers HC amid Playoff Picture for No. 1 Seed

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan praised the effort of Brock Purdy following a monster performance from the quarterback in Sunday's 42-38 win over the Chicago Bears.

"I thought Brock had a hell of a game," Shanahan told reporters. "Brock has been playing his ass off, made some huge plays in this game. Kept some drives alive with his legs, made some off-schedule plays, and he's an assassin out there ... he's playing as good as it gets right now."

Purdy couldn't have started the game any worse. He threw a pick-six to Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards on the first play from scrimmage.

The 2023 Pro Bowler shook off that early mistake and was brilliant for the rest of the night. He finished 24-of-33 for 303 yards, three touchdowns and the one interception, and he had 28 yards and one score on the ground.

▶️ Full Bears-49ers Recap

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"I just think it's a big testament to Kyle and John and our owners, just the culture that they've built here," Purdy told The MMQB's Albert Breer.

The quarterback then went on to discuss his instinctual approach in Shanahan's scheme.

"You can't overthink it and just randomly decide, 'Hey, I'm going to be Superman right here, and put the team on my back and do something crazy,'" he said. "It's like, 'No, it doesn't matter who's in the game, I still have to go out and execute as a quarterback that is trusting in Kyle's play calls and his offense, and trusting that he's going to put me in a good position to be able to drop back and rip it.' And if number one's not there, I'm going to get to my number two in the progression. That's how I play the position.

With the result, the Niners extended their winning streak to six games and improved their record to 12-4. If they beat the Seattle Seahawks in Week 18, they'll not only be NFC West champions but also claim the conference's No. 1 seed.

"It's huge," Shanahan said of having so much on the line in the finale. "So proud of the guys throughout the whole year, proud of today. It's a hell of a deal being able to have the opportunity to play for the 1-seed, and these guys have earned it."

Purdy told Breer there's an intangible quality that

"Every team's so different," he said. "I just think this year, given the circumstances, I just feel like our heart, the scrappiness, the willingness to finish games and find ways to win has been different compared to what I've played on in the years past. In the first couple of years, we were blowing out teams. In the fourth quarter, the starters are out of the game. It was that vibe. And that was fun to be a part of. And I was grateful to be a part of that."

Nobody was writing San Francisco off completely when a Week 10 loss dropped the team to 6-4, but few would've considered Shanahan's squad to be a Super Bowl favorite to that point.

Now, the 49ers are hitting their stride. Closing out the regular season with a victory over the 13-3 Seahawks would make them arguably the strongest team in the postseason field.