Of the eight games quarterback Brock Purdy has played for the 49ers, six have happened at home. The road trips consisted of a Week 15 visit to Seattle and a Week 17 trip to Las Vegas.
Both Purdy and coach Kyle Shanahan explained to reporters on Wednesday that the team used the Thursday night road game in December against the Seahawks as advance preparation for an eventual playoff game at Philadelphia.
"We'll do the same thing we did that week," Shanahan said. "That was huge just because that was our first game really all year that it was that important and Brock hadn't had experience with it and so it was great to have that, especially with us going to Philly. I remember I was talking about that that week that we needed that. We needed that rep in case we ended up in the NFC Championship at Philly and we got that and very fortunate that we did. And I feel we're good to go. He knows what to expect, he knows how we do it and we'll give him reps at it all week, but he got it ready on just a Wednesday when he played Thursday, so I feel like won't be an issue this week."
Shanahan added that, to simulate the noise in Philly, they'll crank up the music in practice this week.
"When we played Seattle that week, [Shanahan] did say it was good preparation for what we might have to play in, in terms of the playoffs, going on the road for road games and obviously for Philadelphia," Purdy said. "Everything in these kinds of games is all about communication. How can you operate smoothly, get in and out of the huddle, get the play off in the right way, make sure everyone's on the same page, so that's definitely a big emphasis this week just at practice with the little things, the details of communicating and being on point. And that starts with the cadence, so it's going to be huge for us."
It finishes with Purdy not freaking out in the moment. Then again, he hasn't freaked out yet, through eight games as the replacement for Jimmy Garoppolo.
If he leads the team to a win on Sunday and a berth in Super Bowl LVII, it will become very difficult to not make him the starter in 2023.
49ers used Week 15 at Seattle to prepare for possible playoff game at Phiadelphia originally appeared on Pro Football Talk
