It wasn’t pretty – FAR from it – but the San Francisco 49ers are once again the NFC champions, headed to the franchise’s seventh Super Bowl after an incredible comeback to beat the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara, 34-31.
“We’re not going out like this,” coach Kyle Shanahan said of the mindset at halftime. “Guys didn’t want today to be the last day. We put ourselves in a hole. They played like it in the second half and we were able to get the ball to bounce the right way and we made up for what we did in the first half.”
And the game really was a tale of two halves.
Detroit completely owned the first half, with the 49ers’ offense really unable to sustain any momentum whatsoever after scoring a singular touchdown, and the Lions’ offense running all around, over and through the vaunted San Francisco defense.
It was about as dominant a performance as a team could’ve put on. In fact, when the Lions went up 24-7 late in the half, cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson waved goodbye – in the second quarter – to 49ers’ fans (Lions S CJ Gardner Johnson waiving goodbye to the 49ers at halftime #49ers #nfl #lions (youtube.com)).
But as dominant as the Lions were in the first half, quite frankly, they stunk it up in the second half. And coach Dan Campbell, who is a refreshing throwback to old-school coaches of the past, made a couple of questionable calls: he could’ve stretched the Lions’ lead to 27-10 by kicking a field goal in the third quarter, but elected to go for the possible fourth-down conversion instead on fourth and 2 from the 49ers’ 28-yard-line.
Quarterback Jared Goff was rushed (not many times Sunday, but he was on that play) but still got a throw off, but receiver Josh Reynolds couldn’t hold on.
In the fourth quarter, down 27-24, the Lions were in a similar situation: fourth and 3 from the 49ers’ 30. A field goal would tie it. Campbell again elected to go for the first down, and Goff’s pass was rushed again. The ball took a hop off the turf, downfield, and San Francisco again took over on downs.
San Francisco would score twice more: a field goal by Jake Moody and a touchdown by Elijah Mitchell. And Detroit’s dream of reaching the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl was over.
“I gambled and lost,” Campbell said, immediately after the game.
The man whose second-half play was extraordinary was quarterback Brock Purdy, who bailed the defense out – yes, we said it – after a putrid first-half performance, much like they showed against Green Bay in the divisional win.
Purdy completed a 51-yard pass to Brandon Aiyuk – with help from a deflection off the facemask of Kindle Vildor (AIYUK IS INSANE (youtube.com) – that gave the 49ers possession inside Detroit’s 5-yard-line, and ultimately a 6-yard pass to (fittingly) Aiyuk for the score, which got them within seven, 24-17.
The Niners would tie the game at 24-all when, after Jamyr Gibbs fumbled inside the Detroit 30-yard-line, San Francisco’s Arik Armstead recovered, and Christian McCaffrey would score on a 1-yard run.
Moody broke the tie with a 33-yard field goal that would give the 49ers the lead for good, as it turned out. Mitchell scored an insurance run from 2 yards out with 3:02 left to push their lead to 34-24, but the Lions weren’t finished.
Goff led them downfield and they scored, a touchdown pass to Jamison Williams with 56 seconds left. But the 49ers recovered the onside kick, and even with Detroit’s two time-outs, they were able to run out the clock.
Purdy on the comeback: “No one was rah-rah,” Purdy said. “No one was freaking out. It’s football. There’s a lot of experienced guys on this team, veteran guys who have been in crazy situations. We were just like, ‘We have to do our job.’”
Goff finished 25-of-41 for 273 yards and the scoring pass to Williams. Purdy threw for 247 yards and the score to Aiyuk, and also had two key runs of 21 yards each that both led to scores.
McCaffrey ran for two scores and Mitchell the third.
Defensively, the Niners were not good, at least in the first half: 148 yards rushing allowed.
But they tightened up in the second half. Defensive end Nick Bosa finished with two sacks; linebacker Fred Warner had 13 tackles; and the Niners’ defense finished with five tackles for loss.
And after missing a field goal early in the game, Moody finished 2-for-3.
As for the Lions, they’ll likely look different next year. Although their rookie class in 2023 was fantastic – running back Jamyr Gibbs, tight end Sam LaPorta and safety Brian Branch all included – It’s highly possible that one of the NFL’s coaching vacancies could be filled by either offensive coordinator Ben Johnson or defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. Campbell could be looking at having to replace them both.
There’s also free agency. Goff has a year left on his deal – the franchise might elect to go ahead and extend his contract now, or possibly not.
Among the Lions’ free agents are Gardner-Johnson, and guards Graham Glasgow and Jonah Jackson.
Detroit ends its season with an NFC North championship, a 14-6 overall record, and with playoff wins over both the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then an appearance in the NFL Championship Game for the first time since the 1991 season.
But close doesn’t count, Goff lamented after the loss in Santa Clara.
“You want to make the most of every opportunity and we had an opportunity, and we just couldn’t close it out,” Goff said. “It stings.”
San Francisco (14-5), of course, advances to Super Bowl LVIII, where they’ll face the red-hot defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who knocked off the AFC’s top seed, Baltimore, 17-10 on Sunday.
San Francisco at one point couldn’t lose a Super Bowl, led by coaches Bill Walsh and then George Seifert, and on the field by players like Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley and Jerry Rice, and then by Rice, Steve Young, Rickey Watters, Tim McDonald, Harris Barton, and Deion Sanders.
But lately, they can’t win one. The 49ers lost the infamous lights-out Super Bowl, with Colin Kaepernick at quarterback, and then in 2020, lost to the Chiefs.
And they haven’t played well in the playoff games this year. Green Bay outplayed the 49ers for the bulk of the divisional game, and then Detroit, of course, built that 17-point lead before the Niners came roaring back, got in front and held on for the win.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) and left tackle Trent Williams signal a touchdown by teammate Elijah Mitchell with 3:02 left in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. After looking horrible in the first half, the 49ers — who are the NFC’s top seed — came roaring back for a 34-31 win over the Detroit Lions. San Francisco is headed to Super Bowl LVIII, where they’ll face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. (Photo by MARK TERRILL, courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
