San Francisco 49ers dodge upset, prime Inexperienced Bay Packers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey scored his second landing on a 6-yard run with 1:07 to play, and the San Francisco 49ers mounted their first second-half comeback of the season to defeat the Inexperienced Bay Packers 24-21 in a divisional spherical playoff recreation on Saturday night time.

After spending the common season as front-runners, the Niners (13-5) wanted to come back from behind for a change, and Brock Purdy and McCaffrey did simply sufficient on the final drive to ship San Francisco to its third straight NFC Championship Sport. The Niners will host the winner of Sunday’s recreation between Tampa Bay and Detroit subsequent weekend for a spot within the Tremendous Bowl.

Purdy went 6 for 7 for 47 yards on the decisive drive, changing a 3rd right down to Brandon Aiyuk after which a 17-yarder to Chris Conley.

“It is a crew effort,” Purdy mentioned throughout his postgame, on-field interview. “The protection was on the market, making stops, and we had been like, ‘man, we have got to do one thing.’ For myself, it was like ‘settle down, undergo your reads, take what they offer you and put a drive collectively.'”

McCaffrey completed it together with his run on third-and-short, and the 49ers’ protection held on from there, with Dre Greenlaw intercepting Jordan Love for the second time to seal San Francisco’s fifth straight playoff win over Inexperienced Bay (10-9).

That final throw throughout his physique was one of many few errors by Love, who had given the Packers the lead with two landing passes within the third quarter. However his first full season because the starter instead of Aaron Rodgers had a disappointing ending.

Love had put the Niners within the uncommon spot of enjoying from behind. Inexperienced Bay transformed a third-and-15 when Ambry Thomas was referred to as for a 41-yard go interference name towards Bo Melton. Love and Melton then related on the subsequent play for a wide-open 19-yard landing aided by Tashaun Gipson Sr. slipping on the moist turf in protection.

After McCaffrey put San Francisco again within the lead with a 39-yard landing run, Inexperienced Bay struck rapidly because of a 73-yard kick return by All-Professional Keisean Nixon that he fumbled, solely to have teammate Eric Wilson recuperate.

4 performs later, Love threw a 2-yard landing go to Tucker Kraft and the Packers prolonged the result in 21-14 on a 2-point conversion go to Aaron Jones.

The Niners had been the primary crew to make the playoffs in 13 seasons with out overcoming a second-half deficit to win a recreation.

“After some time, it was like, ‘I’ve bought to get right into a rhythm, I’ve bought to hit guys which can be open.’ That is on me,” Purdy mentioned. “Total, we needed to discover a strategy to win, that is playoff soccer, we will get their greatest. And we made it work.”

They bought a 52-yard area objective from Jake Moody on the primary play of the fourth quarter to make it a four-point recreation and it stayed there when rookie Anders Carlson missed a 41-yarder for Inexperienced Bay.

The Packers moved the ball simply within the first half, stepping into the pink zone on three straight drives to open the sport. However they could not end any of them, settling for 2 area targets and getting stopped on a fourth-and-1 sneak. They turned the primary crew in 20 years to succeed in the pink zone on their first three drives of a playoff recreation with out getting a landing.

The Niners made them pay with Purdy hitting George Kittle on a 32-yard go on the run for a rating that gave San Francisco the lead.

However San Francisco squandered one other likelihood late within the half when coach Kyle Shanahan wasted time earlier than settling for a 48-yard area objective try by Moody that was blocked by Colby Picket to ship the Niners into the half with a 7-6 edge.

San Francisco huge receiver Deebo Samuel injured his shoulder on the opening drive and missed a lot of the recreation.

The Related Press contributed to this report.