49ers Stuck With Their Offense in 2nd Half vs. Lions, and Purdy Delivered in Key Moments

Sometimes, a game isn’t decided by one team out-scheming another or imposing their will physically. Sometimes, two teams are evenly matched, and the game just comes down to a few random (or fluke) plays.

The NFC Championship was one of those games.

That’s not to take anything away from the 49ers. They were the #1 seed in the NFC and it would be hard to argue there was a team in the conference more deserving of going to the Super Bowl. But they snuck away with the win by the skin of their teeth in this one.

Trailing 24-7, it didn’t seem like that would happen. One key reason it did was that the 49ers stuck with the run. Or rather, they were able to stick with the run because of the events that transpired throughout the 2nd half. That kept the Lions from pinning their ears back and letting that pass rush (which was the best in the NFL in pressure % this season) attack the quarterback.

On their first play of the 3rd quarter, Christian McCaffrey ran for 8 yards. That set up a 2nd-and-2 where Kyle Shanahan utilized play-action, which is a great time to do it considering it’s 2nd-and-short and the defense is anticipating a run to keep the chains moving.

You can see below how those Detroit linebackers got sucked up to the line of scrimmage just enough to allow Purdy to fit the ball in behind them:

That’s a hell of a throw, by the way.

The 49ers would kick a field goal to make the score 24-10. The sequence of events that took place over the next 8 minutes would allow the 49ers back into the game and ensure they could run their entire offense instead of becoming 1-dimensional.