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It doesn’t get more dysfunctional than the last time Jayden Daniels had the football in his hands.
The Commanders come to town with equal crises of confidence in their quarterback and head coach. Wires somehow got crossed between Daniels and Dan Quinn last week, leading to the clock running out in overtime. This forced Washington to settle for a tie despite reaching field-goal range after the quarterback was tackled in bounds with no timeouts.
On the list of things that just don’t happen in the NFL, this was right up there. Daniels apparently felt the need to call a players-only meeting in hopes of regaining his teammates’ trust.
Can you imagine Kyle Shanahan or Brock Purdy ever putting the 49ers in such a situation? The ending might as well have taken place in France for as foreign as it felt for the Faithful who are witnessing the beauty of the pure opposite, a coach and quarterback in total lockstep.
Is there any other coach-QB combo you’d rather have leading a drive late in crunch time?
Shanahan’s game-calling has come a long way since the Super Bowl that shall not be named when he was an offensive coordinator, which happened to be the last time he had a QB he trusted as much as Purdy. Quinn, the head coach of that Falcons team, perhaps not so much.
The 49ers are 5-0 and the clear Super Bowl favorites heading into their primetime clash with the Commanders on Monday for any number of reasons, but the mind-meld between Shanahan and Purdy in the quarterback’s fifth season in his system is near the top.
The only problem with the 49ers’ dominance so far this season is that it’s robbed us of getting the chance to see Purdy deliver his formal dissertation on Shanahan 301. It’s been more than two years now since he was last asked to author a true two-minute drill.
That drive ended in an interception and a 24-23 loss to the Cardinals on Oct. 6, 2024.
Purdy’s play so far this season suggests a more favorable outcome the next time the situation arises. Shanahan has trusted him to throw the ball with the 49ers ahead late in the game more than any other quarterback, and Purdy has rewarded him with a pair of touchdowns and another first-down conversion on six attempts.
We got a taste of what a two-minute drill might look like on the go-ahead drive Purdy led at the start of the fourth quarter last week. Here’s a hint: a lot of Mike Evans. As if Purdy and Shanahan weren’t unfair by themselves, they added a cheat code over the offseason.
Nobody else gets to claim the 6-foot-5 man made of hands.
Nor can any other team claim to have the wealth of experience the 49ers possess. The offense with the most 30-and-olders in football can be looked at one of two ways: a veteran group with concerns about their health and aging curves, or a bunch of players who have been there, seen it, done that and won’t be fazed by any circumstances.
Heck, the quarterback is just about the greenest of the bunch. And what Purdy lacks in late-game reps he more than makes up for in cucumbers worth of coolness.
Daniels, on the other hand, not so much.
For no apparent reason, he waited until there were 12 seconds left to snap the ball after a run on the previous play put the ball at the opposing 24-yard line with 50 seconds still on the clock.
Quinn, equally inexplicably, used a chunk of that time to swap in different personnel.
Then, rather than throwing an incomplete pass, Daniels panicked and ran. He was tackled near the line of scrimmage, allowing another four seconds to tick off before he got up. Washington was out of timeouts. The game ended before Daniels could get another snap off.
Shanahan, who was Quinn’s offensive coordinator for two seasons in Atlanta, offered a defense of his former boss who will seek to make amends on the opposite sideline Monday.
“I’m very grateful for the time I got with Dan,” Shanahan said. “I learned so much from him. Before I got there, I was so consumed with X’s and O’s.”
Quinn, he said, taught Shanahan the importance of instilling a team identity.
“That’s something that I’ve really learned from him, that the more you talk about it, the more you show it, the more you can get your guys to play to a certain style,” he said. “He made me a much better coach that way. … I knew it was important, but I didn’t realize how much you could gain with it like you can in X’s and O’s.”
But, at the end of the day, X’s and O’s are what build leads.
Clock management, clear communication and quick thinking are what protect them.
And in those areas, the 49ers are in good hands.