This was the key to Mostert’s big game
SANTA CLARA >> Mike Person sat at his locker, bloodied and laughing, as the room around him celebrated the 49ers’ Super Bowl berth.
“That’s a game well-fought,” he said, explaining the wounds.
In a dominating 37-20 win over the Packers on Sunday, it could have been anybody with those wounds. The 49ers rushed the ball 42 times for 285 yards, with Raheem Mostert’s 220 yards and four touchdowns leading the way.
In the words of fullback Kyle Juszyzck, “we all were offensive linemen today.”
“Receivers included,” he added. Person returned from a twoweek absence in last week’s divisional-round win against the Vikings. His presence was never more apparent than on the first of Mostert’s touchdown runs in their NFC championship win.
It was third and 8 and everyone in the Levi’s Stadium was expecting Jimmy Garoppolo to pass — especially the Packers.
Instead, Person pulled to the left side of the line from his right guard spot. Garoppolo turned and handed off to Mostert. As Green Bay linebackers Preston Smith and Kyler Fackrell crashed the backfield, Person put a body on each of them.
Mostert hit the hole and was off to the races. He hit a top speed of 21.87 mph, according to NFL’s
NextGen stats — the fastest play by a ballcarrier this postseason. Even if the Packers saw it coming, he wouldn’t have been easy to catch.
“We knew they were in pass rush mode,” Person said. “And it worked like a charm.”
It echoed a sentiment shared by many 49ers after Mostert set the field on fire with 220 yards rushing.
“They’re an aggressive defense and sometimes being aggressive, it can take yourself out of gaps,” Juszczyk said.
Nobody, not even the 49ers, could expect that Garoppolo would only attempt eight passes. That they would accumulate nearly 300 yards on the ground.
But Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers did know there would be opportunities to exploit the Green Bay defense. In practice this week, they prepared for
strange defensive looks and to take advantage of Green Bay’s aggressiveness.
“We practiced going against a lot of odd looks,” Juszczyk said. “Things that you might not see regularly because we had a feeling they were going to throw some different things at us … like five bigs, one linebacker. They’ll put a safety at linebacker. We saw a lot of that today.”
Ultimately, the Packers’ complexity — and the 49ers’ preparation for it — may have been their downfall.
“They do so many different things that I think it makes it hard to stay on the same page,” offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “They take chances and if you catch them in something they weren’t ready for, it allows big holes to open up.”
And on Sunday, the Packers defense might as well have been honeycomb.
“(The holes) just opened up,” Mostert said. “I had to choose which one to hit.”