SANTA CLARA, Calif. – You want to know who held Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers accountable on Saturday as time ran out, the rain fell, Deebo Samuel was out with an injury and the Green Bay Packers were just a play or two away from one Monumental victory away were playoff surprise?
Want to know who put the charge in charge and demanded the 49ers endure their game-long struggles? Who laid out all the possible consequences? That would be Purdy and every other member of the 49ers, who secured this spot with one of their most amazing performances this season.
They got the ball back with 6:13 to play after a Packers field goal was missed. The 49ers trailed by four points. They needed a touchdown. And they knew this was probably their last realistic chance to figure out how to avoid a terrible loss in this divisional round playoff game. With the offense cornered, Trent Williams gave a mini-speech.
“I just told them, hey, man, with six minutes left it might be the last time we get the ball. And if we don't do something about it, this could be the last time we sit together in this group,” Williams recalls. “So whatever you have, just bring it with you. Take it to the next game and then the game after that and let the rest take care of itself.”
They all felt it. The 49ers were at Levi's Stadium, positioned as NFC favorites to reach the Super Bowl, and they were absolutely feeling it. What happened next: Purdy broke out of his panic and started throwing passes, Brandon Aiyuk made a huge diving catch on third down, Purdy scrambled inside the Packers' 10-yard line, and finally Christian McCaffrey scored for a 6-yard A touchdown that marked the putt. The 49ers are finally ahead. Then Dre Greenlaw completed the 49ers' 24-21 win by intercepting Jordan Love's ill-advised body shot in the final minute.
But oh yeah, the 49ers felt it. And no one felt it more than Purdy. Almost an hour into the game, you could tell they were still feeling it – all the adrenaline, all the disappointment at having played so haphazardly in such a big game, all the meaning and all the relief. The 49ers saw their playoff life flash before their eyes on Saturday… and thanks to that last handful of plays, they're still alive and have a spot in the NFC Championship Game at Levi's on Jan. 28, where they'll face the winner of the Lions- Buccaneers compete on Sunday.
Dre Greenlaw runs with the ball after intercepting a pass from Green Bay in the fourth quarter to give the 49ers the win. (Godofredo A. Vasquez / Associated Press)
You live. And they know a little more about themselves now than they did after all the easy wins this season. (But this also applies to their opponents.)
“At some point you’re down and you have to find a way,” Purdy said. “It’s the fourth quarter, it’s the NFL. Obviously we're in the postseason now. We all thought, all right, that's it. This is our season. It was huge for us to capitalize on that. For all of us.
“Obviously for me as a quarterback it’s good for confidence and so on. But we have too many good players in this team, so many players who make the difference. We have a great defense. It's not right that we can't find a way. It was huge for all of us that we finally had a game like that and were able to pull it off.”
Nick Bosa said emphatically that the 49ers needed a game like this, pointing out that they lost every close game and won every losing game this regular season. And more than anyone, Purdy needed something like that. Of course, the 49ers don't want Purdy to wobble for more than three quarters like he did Saturday. The 49ers never want to be outplayed the way the Packers outplayed them for most of this game.
But the 49ers also needed to see Purdy bounce back from a fight and deliver. They needed him to be more than just a great frontrunner. They needed him to dig himself out of a hole and win that damn game, and on that final drive he went 6 of 7 and seemed pretty calm (“he was Brock, couldn't say anything,” Williams said of that moment). and very similar to the guy who led the NFL in passer rating and broke the 49ers' single-season record for passing yards that season.
So what on earth happened in that game for Purdy before that? The rain certainly caused him some problems, just as the wet weather in Cleveland seemed to bother him earlier this season. On Saturday, Purdy wiped his right hand at times, even as he dropped back to pass.
“Obviously I put a glove on the first ride,” Purdy said. “It came off in little sprinkles, so I took it off. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was kind of tired of the glove. … Yes, there were times when I dropped back when the ball was still a little wet from the grass. Somehow it affected the accuracy and so on. But that's football. I have to be better.”
GO DEEPER
49ers beat Packers, rain and their own mistakes: “It was a gut check for everyone”
However, no problem if it's dry at Levi's next Sunday, and of course not at all if the 49ers go to the Super Bowl at indoor Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in February.
Purdy also said the Packers' defense did a good job of cutting off his options deep and forcing him into his checkdowns. And then Purdy spent most of the game rushing those checkdowns, often because of incompletions. Even though the Packers only registered one sack in the game, the pass rush seemed to bother Purdy – altering his throwing paths and forcing him to move his feet as he threw, leading to a few wild passes that the Packers easily could have made intercepted but dropped.
This could be a problematic issue for the 49ers in the next few weeks, as Purdy also looked pretty uncomfortable against the Ravens on Christmas and the Ravens could very well be the AFC's representative in the Super Bowl. But Purdy sounded as if he had resolved something in his mind during the last trip; If they're begging you to take the easy pass, and the easy pass can get you down the field, just take the easy pass. Don't let past mistakes confuse you when it matters most.
“We had what we wanted right in front of us, so you have to come clean,” Purdy said. “You have to have a clear head and not try to force anything. Take what the defense gives you. And find a way, man.”
On that final drive, Purdy completed the short passes that were available and then reeled off a crucial 17-yard route to Chris Conley. His only incompletion of the series came when George Kittle – who was otherwise the 49ers' best offensive player, scoring a 32-yard TD and 81 total receiving yards in the second quarter – missed another short, which Purdy responded with the dart followed to Aiyuk on third down.
“The whole day was just a little off,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But guys stuck with it. Even the second and sixth game right at the end, that drop takes us to the third and sixth game and then BA made a great play to keep us on the field.”
Another possible reason for the 49ers' spotty offensive play: the two-week break, counting Week 18, when Purdy and many other top players had to sit out last weekend's meaningless loss to the Rams and bye.
“I don’t know, that could have been,” Shanahan said. “Could have been because of the rain, could have been a good defence. But these are things that need to be talked about. We handled it as best as we could.”
Of course, Purdy, who went 23 of 39 for 252 yards and 1 touchdown on the day for a passer rating of 86.7, wasn't the only 49er to struggle in this game. The defense suffered from a few slips and errors against Love and his receivers, giving up a huge 53-yard run to Aaron Jones. The 49ers' special teams also took hits – the coverage unit gave up a 73-yard kickoff return to Keisean Nixon and Jake Moody had a 48-yard field goal attempt deflected at the line.
But the defense converted Greenlaw's game-winning interception and another before it, stopping Green Bay in the red zone several times. And Moody made up for his earlier miss with a game-winning 52-yarder early in the fourth quarter that brought the 49ers to within 21-17.
“It wasn’t perfect by any means,” Shanahan said. “I was very frustrated. But we are also extremely proud and really excited that we are playing for another week.”
Frankly, the 49ers played the type of playoff game that usually gets a team eliminated. If the 49ers and Purdy had lost that game, there would have been harsh criticism throughout the NFL. And the 49ers and Purdy knew all of this as the clock expired and they got into that huddle. There was a season to save. And now there may be a few games left.
GO DEEPER
Dre Greenlaw didn't go down, and thanks to him, neither did the 49ers
(Top photo by Brock Purdy: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)