Getting a win, on the road, against one of the NFL’s toughest defenses to improve to 9-4 heading into the bye week, is enough to make a quarterback dance. And dance he did.
During the third of quarter of the San Francisco 49ers, 26-8, win over the Cleveland Browns, 49ers QB Brock Purdy scrambled two yards into the end zone on a zone read and immediately broke into the “Dougie.”
“I’ve always been able to Dougie, I just haven’t really done it publicly,” Purdy said. “My wife can actually tell you, I annoy her in the kitchen with all that kind of thing. That’s where I got my practice. I told the team, if we score we are going to have some fun and I am going to hit the Dougie. I got an opp to do it, so I did it.”
San Francisco Kyle Shanahan said Purdy promised the team he was going to do the dance if he scored a touchdown. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall saw the hard work and preparation all week.
“He’s definitely got swag,” Pearsall said. “Everybody says he’s got ‘Brock Purdy aura.’…[H]e was practicing the whole week. He was asking for pointers and stuff like that. But I said, ‘You got it, bro. Just do it. Just do it when you score.”
Perhaps the best reaction was tight end George Kittle’s in-the-moment incredulous look on his face.
“He just was really good at it, and I was surprised,” Kittle said. “God Forbid a white guy has a little motion.”
Kittle had four receptions for 67 yards on the day, including a beauty of a 33-yard reception in the waning seconds of the second quarter to set up a 25-yard Matt Gay FG right before halftime.
“That was huge,” Shanahan said. “We were almost not going to go for it, just going into the wind like that with 30-something seconds left. The odds of their pass rush making something bad happen seemed a little bit higher than going and scoring, but Ricky made that big third down, got us down there. Throwing that go route in the wind like that, just going into that way, that was a big time play by Brock and a huge catch by George.”
George Kittle on why, even with all the injuries, the #49ers have never doubted their ability to keep competing and winning games. pic.twitter.com/ZsspDV2yjD
— Tracy Sandler (@TracyFGSN) November 30, 2025
Purdy finished the day 16-of-29 for 168 yards, a touchdown pass and the aforementioned touchdown run. He largely evaded Browns DE Myles Garrett for all but one sack, and the 49ers are in control of their playoff destiny.
“Any time you step on a football field you have a chance to win,” said running back Christian McCaffrey, who is well on his way to his second 1000 yards rushing/1000 yards receiving season. “Our guys don’t blink, we don’t worry about outside distractions. We just focus on what we can control and just maintain that competitive stamina through each game and the whole year.”
This scenario seemed all but impossible after losing their two best defensive players in DE Nick Bosa and LB Fred Warner, in Weeks 3 and 4, respectively, for the season. They were without Purdy for six games, without Kittle for five and without Pearsall for six. The San Francisco defense had had to rely on players with less experience, and less talent, to step up.
“I think, looking from the outside in, if people had said you would be 9-4 going into the bye, and you’re not going to have Fred Warner and Nick Bosa and Kittle is going to miss the first five weeks, and Brock going to miss six or seven games, I think a lot of people would have laughed.
“Kudos to our coaching staff, Coach Shanahan, [John] Lynch for bringing in the right guys to fill in those spots, developing players, taking advantage of those situations. How about (DE) Clelin Ferrell, just coming back? It’s fantastic. We’re set up really well.”
Speaking of Ferrell, the 49ers brought him back after suffering a myriad of injuries on the defensive line. He has had four sacks in four games with San Francisco, two of them coming on Sunday.
“For me, it’s not taking anything for granted,” Ferrell said after Sunday’s game. “When I came back this team was right in the thick of it. At the end of the day, the biggest reason why I came back here was to win. I’m just thankful for my teammates, coaches, everybody in the building just helping me get prepared and be ready for the moment. It was good.”
McCaffrey’s ability and durability has been a huge part of keeping the offense on track, and all of a sudden, a 49ers special teams unit that was, for years, a liability, has turned into something else entirely.
One of the reasons for that is returner Skyy Moore, whose 66-yard punt return in the first quarter set up a McCaffrey touchdown a few plays later.
“You know, he’s built for this team,” McCaffrey said. “He plays with zero hesitation and it’s good to see him break for some of these long ones, because for the whole first half of the year we were like, ‘He’s hitting it the right way.’ Every time the ball is in his hands he’s playing with no hesitation, he’s fast, and he’s physical, and he runs really hard. We knew it was just a matter of time before some of these big ones were gonna start to hit, and he’s been doing a hell of a job putting us in a great position.”
The 49ers look like a team that has believed in itself, tuned out the noise, focused on the task at hand each week and, maybe most importantly, is having fun doing it. Football is, after all, a game, and games are supposed to be fun.
With the bye week finally here, San Francisco just has to find a way to get the needed rest and not lose momentum at the same time.
“These bye weeks get tricky, because I think guys have been looking forward to it, so I think Kyle’s message tomorrow is ‘get away and do whatever you have to do, but remember when we come back, we have four incredibly difficult games that are hopefully going to set us up to do something fun.”
It will also be an opportunity for everyone to get a reset.
“I can’t believe it’s here,” McCaffrey said. “It’s nice to get some rest.” Co-sign.