A KICK AND A PICK
Gould’s field goal, Thomas’ interception cap rally by playoff-bound 49ers
The 49ers are in the playoffs, and with their not-dead-yet moxie and play-making ability, don’t rule them out from a SoFi Stadium return for next month’s Super Bowl.
After spotting the Los Angeles Rams a 17-0 lead, the 49ers rallied Sunday for a 27-24, overtime win to capture the NFC’s No. 6 seed, the second of three wild-card berths.
Up next is a renewal of an epic rivalry and a visit to the NFC East-champion Dallas Cowboys (12-5) on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. It will be their first postseason meeting since the 1994, when the 49ers won in the NFC Championship Game en route to the franchise’s fifth (and last) Lombardi Trophy.
“That’s the perfect type of win we needed heading into this tournament, because it’s not going to be easy,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “The NFC is loaded with talent and we have to take it one game at a time, dial in, and we’re going to need everyone, first at Dallas.”
The 49ers (10-7) did not lead Sunday against the Rams until 7:15 into the 10-minute overtime, when Robbie Gould’s 24yard field goal capped a 12-play drive.
Could the 49ers’ ever-shaky pass defense protect that lead? Well, to no surprise this season, a third-and-10 pass to Cooper Kupp resulted in the 49ers’ season-long specialty: a pass interference penalty (on Emmanuel Moseley). Then came an unlikely hero: Ambry Thomas, who intercepted a Matthew Stafford bomb down the sideline, the type of deep pass that 49ers’ cornerbacks have yielded at inopportune moments since September.
What a comeback it was. Not just from 17-0. The 49ers were down 24-17 with 1:27 remaining. Granted a reprieve, Garoppolo engineered an 88-yard, game-tying touchdown drive.
“To come back like we did, it took everything,” Garoppolo said. “I felt it after the game, and all the guys in that locker room did, too. It was one of those games you won’t forget anytime soon.”
It took five plays, the longest being a 55-yard catch-andrun by Deebo Samuel, and the clutchest being a 14-yard scoring strike to Jauan Jennings, who earlier caught a game-tying touchdown pass from Samuel amid a third-quarter rally.
Garoppolo, playing with a sore thumb that kept him out last game, overcame a yucky first half and finished 23-of32 for 316 yards, with a touchdown and two interceptions. That touchdown (to Jennings) forced overtime and extended the 49ers’ season, not to mention the quarterbacks’ tenure that seemed doomed a year ago
when the 49ers pursued Stafford in a trade and then traded up to draft Trey Lance.
OK, back to Jennings, and that is what the 49ers did in overtime. The second-year receiver who came up with a 34-yard reception to the Rams’ 24-yard line and then a 9-yarder to the 8, teeing up Gould for the winning points.
The comeback took hold in a riveting third quarter. Samuel produced two touchdowns, first on a 16-yard run and then on a stunning, 24-yard option pass that tied the score at 17.
Garpopolo didn’t look too impaired by his thumb, but he did have two passes intercepted, the second of which halted a potential go-ahead scoring drive with 7:42 to go.
“He’s a really good football player, and you have to be to come back from bad plays,” George Kittle said of Garoppolo. “knows how to bounce back, he doesn’t snowball, he’s got the quick release, a nice jawline and knows how to make plays.”
Making that Rams’ interception was Jalen Ramsey, who broke up the pass intended for Kittle and juggled the ball until seizing it in the end zone, sparking hope for a Rams’ revival. (Garoppolo tried in vain for officials to call a roughing-the-quarterback penalty, after he got hit in the helmet after the throw.)
That set the off-Hollywood stage for fourthquarter fireworks, and the Rams used the NFL’s most productive tandem this season: Stafford to Kupp. They hooked up on a 30-yard catch (on third-and-6) and then connected for a go-ahead touchdown on a 4-yard reception (third-and-goal) with 2:29 left.
It wasn’t enough for the Rams, who still clinched the NFC West and the No. 4 seed, earning them a home date next weekend with division runner-up Arizona.
And it was Thomas, in his fifth career start, grabbing Stafford’s final heave to seal the 49ers’ playoff-clinching win.
“He’s definitely made a believer out of me the second half of this season,” Shanahan said. “I wouldn’t have believed it the way it started off. It sounds harsh. But it took time. When he got his opportunity, he was ready and showed what’s in him.”
Said Thomas: “I knew I had to get back in football mode. I was out for a year (he was a 2019 COVID opt-out at Michigan) and once I got back in football mode, it was going to be over, that it would be an ‘I’ve arrived’ moment.’ ”
Next weekend, the 49ers arrive in the playoffs, a year after injuries scuttled their 2020 plans for a “Super Bowl Revenge Tour.”