Brock Purdy made it to the Super Bowl with an inimitable comeback. Yet there are still doubts about the competence of “Mr. Irrelevant.” What else is he supposed to do?

“If there’s one reason the San Francisco 49ers don’t win the Super Bowl, it’s Brock Purdy.”

“FOX” journalist Nick Wright got carried away with this statement. Whereby “getting carried away” is only partially true, as he still stands by this statement.

On X, formerly Twitter, many users joined the ranks of the Purdy doubters. “The same thing would happen if Zach Wilson had been given a super team,” one of the comments reads: “You just win when half the offense is made up of all-pros.”

All of this was written or said by people after Brock Purdy made his second consecutive comeback in the playoffs.

It’s narratives like these that have made the debate about the 49ers’ playmaker unobjective. It makes you wonder: What else is he supposed to do to prove it to these people? Purdy is a top quarterback!

Purdy’s comeback: The final piece of the puzzle

Sure, he didn’t play a good game in the first half against either the Green Bay Packers or Detroit Lions in his two playoff games this season.

What sounds like grist to the mill of critics and haters is actually the exact opposite. Purdy, who had yet to record a real comeback win, shifted into fifth gear and turned the game around. Not alone, of course, but with outstanding performances in each case. Against the Packers in the final quarter, against the Lions in the entire second half.

The numbers are particularly impressive. After the break, he completed 13 of his 16 passes for 174 yards. He also added 52 yards on the ground (excluding kneeldowns), with each of his scrambles ending in a first down.

Those scrambles in particular showed a new, previously unknown facet of his game. With 144 rushing yards in the regular season, he is not exactly known for being on the road a lot. A facet that was a decisive factor in the victory

Reproach to Brock Purdy: “With a team like this, anyone could do it “

It almost doesn’t matter whether the 24-year-old is pulling off comeback victories like he has in the past two weeks or whether he dominates his opponents from start to finish.

One sentence in particular comes up again and again: “With a team full of superstars, anyone could actually do it,” is the common refrain. Admittedly, the 49ers are probably the best team in the NFL individually. It’s not for nothing that seven players were voted First or Second Team All-Pro.

But is it that simple? The Dallas Cowboys even had nine players selected to the All-Pro team. Nevertheless, they lost their first playoff game to the Green Bay Packers without a sound or a chance. Why is Dak Prescott not regularly in the Super Bowl if it is apparently so easy with good players around him?

The position of quarterback is not only defined by arm strength and athleticism, but at least as much by willpower, prudence and a winning mentality.

We’ll save the comparison with another quarterback who was only selected in the seventh round and exemplified these attributes for this point. So does the statistic that Purdy won 24 of his first 30 games.

In the Super Bowl against the best

Now he and his team are in the Super Bowl – highly deserved, it has to be said.

And none other than Patrick Mahomes is waiting there. Incidentally, after his 17:10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, in which he scored an incredible zero points in the second half, he was already hailed by many experts and fans as the best quarterback in history.

You’d almost think there’s a difference in evaluating a first round pick and literally the last player selected in the draft.

For Purdy and the 49ers, it’s not only the ultimate test against the league’s most decorated quarterback, but also a rematch. The two teams already faced each other in Super Bowl 54, when Purdy had just finished his first season as a starter at Iowa State.

One would think that the discussions and debates about the 24-year-old would end with a Super Bowl ring at the latest. But even if he doesn’t, he could care less.

Because all he does is win games.