That is what the 49ers had been missing.
With Mac Jones at quarterback, this Niners offense was able to tread water, going 5-3 with the backup at the helm.
But now, with Brock Purdy back in the starting role after being sidelined for six weeks with turf toe, they can start swimming toward the playoffs.
The Niners’ 41-22 win over the Cardinals in Arizona on Sunday was the kind of get-right game this team — which has played up-and-down football in recent weeks — needed.
All three phases contributed. The defense forced three turnovers. Special teams gave the Niners the shortest possible field after the opening kickoff return to the 1-yard line.
But it was the Niners’ offense, which will need to lead the way the remainder of this season, that was special in the desert.
And it was a reminder of just how much the Niners missed their star quarterback.
Let’s be fair to Jones: He did his job. The 49ers’ backup quarterback managed.
He completed the easy throws and more than his fair share of the tough ones. He handed the ball off, even in games where the Niners couldn’t run the ball.
He didn’t, for the most part, light himself on fire.
And in the modern, quarterback-starved NFL, not lighting yourself on fire gets you a whole lot of praise.
And in this modern media landscape, where attention is the only currency, praise quickly turns into conspiracy and absurd projection.
Let all that nonsense about a quarterback controversy — which was being pushed by even reputable NFL voices — be put to bed.
There’s a reason the 49ers signed Purdy to a contract worth upwards of $265 million this past offseason.
Jones ran Kyle Shanahan’s offense at an admirable level.
Purdy understands it.
There’s a monumental difference, there.
And you could see, feel and hear it on Sunday.
Shanahan might be the playcaller and offensive architect. Klay Kubiak might be Shanahan’s right-hand man and the so-called offensive coordinator.
But when the 49ers are at their best, they’re running Purdy’s offense.
Because he doesn’t just understand the offense, he expands it.
With Purdy under center, the Niners’ attack is not only incisive and decisive, it’s downright devastating to opposing defenses.
You could hear Purdy orchestrating the attack from under center on Sunday — checking plays at the line of scrimmage, “canning” to a second look and seemingly always making the right call.
The stats don’t cut through: 19-of-26, 200 yards and three touchdowns is a nice day at the office, but it’s hardly All-Pro stuff.
But Purdy’s voice, his energy, his confidence? That resonated.
“Brock’s presence in the huddle is just so elite,” tight end George Kittle said. “He just plays his game with this joy that’s so infectious, and it’s just so much fun to play football with him.”
And what was a joy for the 49ers was a nightmare for the Cardinals.
Because Purdy not only put the 49ers in the best position to succeed at the snap, but he was also creating more opportunities by going through multiple progressions, challenging the Cardinals’ defense with passes to every level and area of the field and making time with his feet.
His ability to do that last part was, justly, in question going into Sunday’s game. Turf toe is a notoriously stubborn injury, and it won’t really go away until the offseason.
But Purdy told Shanahan he was ready to play this week, and unlike the last time he said that — Week 4 against the Jaguars — he backed up that claim.
“I didn’t think about [the toe] in the game. I felt great,” Purdy said after the game. “I was able to do everything. Scramble, keepers, roll outs, step up in the pocket — play quarterback.”
And while Purdy might have been comfortable on the field, he’s still not comfortable praising himself at the podium.
His go-to saying on Sunday?
“On to the next one.”
His teammates had no such disinclination.
“He was vintage Brock, and that’s a huge compliment,” Christian McCaffrey said. “To be out that long and be able to come back and do what he did today is extremely impressive.”
“He’s definitely feeling it,” Kittle said.
He’ll need to keep “feeling it” for the final six games of the season if the Niners are going to make the playoffs.
The Niners can’t game-manage their way to the playoffs. They need a game-winner like Purdy.
Ordinarily, you’d like the Niners’ chances of playing .500 football, particularly with three more bad teams coming up on the schedule.
But this 49ers defense, bless its heart, is a shell of its former self. It’s injured, it’s discombobulated, and while the players are trying their best, that probably isn’t good enough.
The 49ers are not going to be winning any more 17-14 games this season.
No, if San Francisco is going to make the postseason, it will be because Purdy and a suddenly pretty healthy and unquestionably dangerous offense drag them there.
To do that will require the exact kind of play we saw on Sunday, repeated every single week.
Purdy has to be the offensive coordinator, the three-level passer and the backyard magician, all at once.
Jones was a fine substitute teacher. He kept the class in line and even provided a few interesting lessons.
But the final exam is here, and the 49ers are just handing the clipboard back to the professor.
This is Purdy’s team. This is his offense.
And this season will be whatever he makes of it.
