Brock Purdy's battle with his greatest football sin headlines what to watch for in crucial 49ers-Seahawks clash

The Hindu deity Krishna is attributed with saying that hesitation is the greatest of all sins.

Last week, it was one of which San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was guilty as they went down to a shock 24-23 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals.

Purdy was intercepted twice in that defeat, his second ending the game as he failed to get the ball off to an open George Kittle before a Cardinals blitz got home. Purdy was hit as he threw and intercepted by Kyzir White.

Both picks were a consequence of Purdy holding onto the ball too long, while a nine-yard sack in the third quarter was the product of him scrambling for 11 seconds rather than throwing it away, moving the Niners out of field goal range.

There were other factors behind San Francisco's defeat, but Purdy accepted he must be more decisive. 

On Tuesday, Purdy said of his game-ending pick:

"Yeah, I got hit and so I’m like, ‘alright, how did that happen with our protection that we had on and stuff.’ We had two guys come to the side of where our protection was set and one guy was free. So that’s on me in terms of getting the ball out and not holding onto it. In that situation when I was walking off looking at the video board, I was like, man, did I miss a guy or did I just try to get to Aiyuk the whole time and not see what was going on with the blitz and stuff?’ So, in that moment, that’s what I was thinking about. I wish I would’ve executed it differently."

He added of the team's struggles in the red zone, where the 49ers were one for six last Sunday: "I think we’ve had some opportunities and I think that’s an area for me to be better for sure. Trust the plays, trust the concepts, trust my guys, and being willing to go down there and rip it."

Now, there is very marginal room for error for the 49ers going into their Thursday Night Football clash with the Seattle Seahawks. The Niners are 2-3, going on the road and into a hostile environment knowing they will be 0-3 in their own division with home games with the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys on the horizon if they do not prevail at Lumen Field.

There is no time for the 49ers and, more pertinently, Purdy for hesitate in a matchup with a banged-up Seahawks defense that ranks 31st in Expected Points Added per play over the last two weeks.

It's time for Purdy to produce the type of performance that has seen him lead the Niners to primetime victories in Seattle in each of the last two seasons. His display in the Seattle pressure cooker will be the defining one of this game, and it's the main thing to watch for in this critical NFC West matchup.

A repeat of the nightmare on Christmas?

An overriding narrative of this game is 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and Purdy going up against Mike MacDonald's defense.

Last time the 49ers came up against the now Seahawks head coach, he was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens picked off Purdy four times in a Christmas Day nightmare for the 49ers signal-caller, leading to obvious questions about the challenge of facing that scheme, albeit with different players, again.

For Purdy, watching the worst performance of his career has been beneficial.

"We’ve watched it a bunch just in terms of like what we’re trying to do, what their scheme was against our offense and our scheme. And so watching it, obviously I’m watching how the game went and the decisions that I made and stuff and obviously learning from it. But more than anything, just when I do get in those situations again, handling everything in the right way in terms of getting to my answer and taking what the defense gives me and those kinds of things. So it’s been really good watching, but at the same time, we’re playing a whole new personnel in the Seahawks and so should be a little bit different in that regard, just playing different players. But when it comes to the scheme versus scheme, it was good to watch the game last year against Baltimore. It was good."

The difference in personnel is the key point. The Seahawks don't have linebackers of the caliber of Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen and they don't have a chess piece as versatile as Kyle Hamilton.

As such, the Seahawks do not have the means to cause problems for Purdy in the middle of the field to the extent the Ravens did on Christmas.