Purdy, 49ers rally from 17-point deficit to tame the Lions
SANTA CLARA, California — Brock Purdy threw for 267 yards and a touchdown, and the San Francisco 49ers rallied from 17 points down at halftime to beat the Detroit Lions 34-31 on Sunday and secure a ticket to the Super Bowl.
The 49ers scored 17 points in the span of eight minutes during the third quarter to tie the NFC championship game, before pulling away in the fourth quarter to set up a rematch of 2020’s Super Bowl, which the 49ers lost to the Chiefs 31-20.
San Francisco mounted the fourth comeback ever from 17 points down or more in a conference title game thanks to some big plays by Purdy, and some bad mistakes from the Lions, including two failed fourth downs within field goal range. Detroit fell just three points short of reaching its first ever Super Bowl.
“We played as bad of a first half as we could, but we were still within 17. There are plenty of points there you can make up,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said. “The defense shut them out in the second half, and this dude right next to me (Purdy) made it happen.”
After being questioned about whether he could lead a comeback, Purdy has now done it twice in as many weeks. He engineered a gamewinning drive in the fourth quarter to beat Green Bay last week, and then had an even bigger comeback against the Lions.
Christian McCaffrey had two TD runs, and little-used backup Elijah Mitchell scored on a 3-yard run to make it 34-24 with little over three minutes to play, as the Niners got over its conference title game hump that saw it fall short the last two seasons.
“There’s been unfinished business for a while, man. Our team was set for this for a long time,” Shanahan said. “It’s been a long year to get to this point, and we got it done today. It was hard at the beginning, but the character we have in our team, the type of guys we have, we can’t wait to get to Vegas.”
The Niners blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter of the NFC championship game against the Los Angeles Rams two years ago, and were forced to play much of last year’s title game loss at Philadelphia without a functioning quarterback, after Purdy injured his elbow on the opening drive and fourth-stringer Josh Johnson retired with a concussion early in the third quarter.
But, San Francisco managed to make the long journey back to the big stage, and is now in position to deliver the franchise its record-tying sixth Super Bowl title, and first since the 1994 season.
A magical season for the Lions, however, ended in heartbreak. Detroit remains the only team to play every season of the Super Bowl era without reaching the ultimate game. This looked like it could be the year to end that drought, as Detroit won back-to-back playoff games after winning just one in the previous 56 seasons.
But, the Lions couldn’t finish the job, despite holding a 24-7 halftime lead.
San Francisco settled for a field goal on the opening drive of the second half, before the game completely flipped in a four-minute period.
Detroit coach Dan Campbell opted to go for it on fourth-and-two from the San Francisco 28, but Josh Reynolds couldn’t hold onto a pass from Jared Goff, leading to a turnover on downs.
The Lions then seemed to have a potential interception when Purdy’s deep pass hit Kindle Vildor in the face mask, but the ball popped up and was caught for a spectacular 51-yard gain by Brandon Aiyuk. Purdy found Aiyuk three plays later for a 6-yard score.
“Before the game, a ladybug landed on my shoe, and you all know what that means,” Aiyuk said. “That’s all I can say. Other than that, I don’t know.”
Jahmyr Gibbs then fumbled on the next play from the scrimmage, setting up a 1-yard run by McCaffrey to tie the game at 24.