SANTA CLARA, Calif. — You wish to know who held Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers accountable Saturday, with the clock operating out, the rain coming down, Deebo Samuel out injured and the Inexperienced Bay Packers only a play or two from a monumental playoff upset?
You wish to know who assigned accountability and demanded that the 49ers combat by means of their game-long struggles? Who laid out all of the potential penalties? That may be Purdy and each different member of the 49ers, who obtained themselves into this spot with certainly one of their most baffling performances of this season.
They obtained the ball again with 6:13 left within the recreation after a Packers field-goal miss. They 49ers trailed by 4 factors. They wanted a landing. They usually knew this was in all probability their final life like likelihood to determine find out how to keep away from a horrendous loss on this divisional-round playoff recreation. So as soon as the offense obtained into the huddle, Trent Williams gave a mini-speech.
“I simply instructed them, hey, man, with six minutes left, this is likely to be the final time we get the ball. And if we don’t do one thing with it, this could possibly be the final time we’re on this huddle collectively,” Williams recalled. “So no matter you’ve obtained, simply carry it. Deliver it the subsequent play after which carry it the play after that after which let the remaining handle itself.”
All of them felt it. The 49ers have been at Levi’s Stadium, arrange as NFC favorites to get to the Tremendous Bowl, they usually completely felt it. What occurred subsequent: Purdy broke out of his funk and began finishing passes, Brandon Aiyuk made an enormous diving catch on third down, Purdy scrambled contained in the Packers’ 10-yard line and eventually Christian McCaffrey bolted in for a 6-yard landing that put the 49ers forward ultimately. Then Dre Greenlaw completed off the 49ers’ 24-21 victory by intercepting Jordan Love’s ill-advised across-his-body heave within the closing minute.
However oh yeah, the 49ers felt it. And no person felt it greater than Purdy. Virtually an hour after the sport, you may inform they nonetheless felt it — all of the adrenaline, all the frustration over taking part in so haphazardly in such an enormous recreation, all the importance and all of the reduction. The 49ers noticed their playoff lives flash earlier than their eyes Saturday … and because of these final handful of performs, they’re nonetheless alive with a berth within the NFC Championship Recreation at Levi’s on Jan. 28, going through the winner of Sunday’s Lions-Buccaneers recreation.
They reside. They usually know a bit of extra about themselves now than they did in any case their simple victories this season. (However so do their opponents.)
“At a degree, you’re down and also you’ve gotta discover a method,” Purdy mentioned. “It’s the fourth quarter, it’s the NFL. Clearly, we’re within the postseason now. We have been all, like, all proper, that is it. That is our season. For us to capitalize on that was large. For all of us.
“Clearly for myself as a quarterback, it’s good for confidence and all that. However we’ve too many good gamers on this group, so many gamers which might be difference-makers. We’ve obtained an awesome protection. For us to not discover a method, it’s not proper. So for us to lastly have a recreation like this and pull by means of it was large for all of us.”
Nick Bosa flat-out mentioned that the 49ers wanted a recreation like this and famous that they misplaced all their shut video games this common season and gained all of the blowouts. And greater than anyone, Purdy wanted one thing like this. In fact, the 49ers by no means wish to see Purdy wobble for three-plus quarters the way in which he did Saturday. The 49ers by no means wish to get outplayed like the way in which the Packers outplayed them for many of this recreation.
However the 49ers additionally wanted to see Purdy stand up from a battle and ship. They wanted him to not simply be an awesome front-runner. They wanted him to dig out from a gap and win this dang recreation, and he went 6-of-7 on that final drive, trying fairly calm (“he was Brock, couldn’t inform something,” Williams mentioned of that second) and really very like the man who led the NFL in passer score and broke the 49ers’ single-season document for passing yards this season.
So what on the earth was taking place on this recreation for Purdy earlier than that? The rain, for positive, precipitated him some bother, the identical method the moist climate in Cleveland early this season appeared to hassle him. At occasions Saturday, Purdy wiped his proper hand whilst he dropped again to move.
“Clearly, I placed on a glove for the primary drive,” Purdy mentioned. “It was coming down in sprinkles, so I took it off. I used to be attempting to determine what I wished to do. I used to be form of fed up with the glove. … Yeah, there have been occasions I dropped again when the ball was a bit of moist from the grass. Kind of affected some accuracy and stuff. However that’s soccer. I’ve gotta be higher than that.”
GO DEEPER
49ers overcome Packers, rain and their very own errors: ‘It was intestine test for everyone’
Not a difficulty, although, if it’s dry subsequent Sunday at Levi’s and naturally by no means if the 49ers get to the Tremendous Bowl at Las Vegas’ indoor Allegiant Stadium in February.
Purdy additionally mentioned that the Packers’ protection did a superb job reducing off his deep choices and forcing him to go to his checkdowns. After which Purdy spent many of the recreation dashing these checkdowns, usually for incompletions. Additionally, whereas the Packers registered just one sack within the recreation, the move rush appeared to hassle Purdy — altering his throwing lanes and making him transfer his ft as he threw, which led to a few wild passes that the Packers simply may’ve intercepted however dropped.
This is likely to be a problematic concern for the 49ers within the subsequent few weeks, since Purdy additionally appeared fairly uncomfortable towards the Ravens on Christmas, and the Ravens very nicely could possibly be the AFC’s consultant within the Tremendous Bowl. However Purdy seemed like he solved one thing in his head throughout that final drive; in the event that they’re begging you to take the straightforward move, and the straightforward move can march you down the sphere, simply take the straightforward move. Don’t let earlier errors mess you up when it issues most.
“We had what we wished proper in entrance of us, so you must clear the slate,” Purdy mentioned. “It’s important to have a clear thoughts and never attempt to drive something. Take what the protection provides you. And discover a method, man.”
On that final drive, Purdy accomplished the brief passes that have been there after which zipped an important 17-yard out path to Chris Conley. His solely incompletion on the sequence got here when George Kittle — who in any other case was the 49ers’ greatest offensive performer, chipping in a 32-yard TD within the second quarter and 81 receiving yards total — dropped one other brief one, which Purdy adopted up with the dart to Aiyuk on third down.
“The entire day was just a bit off,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned. “However guys caught with it. Even that second-and-6 proper there on the finish, getting that drop leads us to third-and-6, then BA made a helluva play to maintain us on the sphere.”
One other potential trigger for the 49ers’ bumpy offensive play: the two-week layoff, counting Week 18 when Purdy and plenty of different frontliners sat out the meaningless loss to the Rams and final weekend’s bye.
“I don’t know, may’ve been that,” Shanahan mentioned. “May’ve been the rain, could possibly be good protection. However these are stuff you’ve gotta speak about. We dealt with that as greatest we may.”
Purdy, who was 23-for-39 on the day for 252 yards and 1 TD, for a 86.7 passer score, wasn’t the one struggling 49er on this recreation, after all. The protection suffered by means of a handful of slips and miscues towards Love and his receivers and gave up an enormous 53-yard run to Aaron Jones. The 49ers’ particular groups obtained hit, too — the protection unit gave up a 73-yard kickoff return to Keisean Nixon and Jake Moody had a 48-yard field-goal try deflected on the line.
However the protection turned in Greenlaw’s game-sealing interception, plus one other one earlier, and stopped Inexperienced Bay within the purple zone a number of occasions. And Moody made up for his earlier miss with a clutch 52-yarder early within the fourth quarter that introduced the 49ers to inside 21-17.
“Under no circumstances was it excellent,” Shanahan mentioned. “I used to be very pissed off. But additionally extraordinarily proud and likewise actually pumped that we’re taking part in one other week.”
Fairly frankly, the 49ers performed the type of playoff recreation that often will get a group eradicated. There would’ve been harsh criticism leveled all through the NFL if the 49ers and Purdy had misplaced this recreation. And the 49ers and Purdy knew all that, because the clock ticked down they usually obtained into that huddle. There was a season to avoid wasting. And now there is likely to be a pair extra video games left to play.
GO DEEPER
Dre Greenlaw would not go down, and neither did the 49ers because of him
(High picture of Brock Purdy: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Photographs)
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