The 49ers beat the Lions in the NFC title game and will now play in Super Bowl LVIII.
The San Francisco 49ers lost Super Bowl LIV to the Kansas City Chiefs. As the clock wound down, defensive back George Kittle was caught on camera promising to return to the league’s biggest game.
The Niners finally kept Kittle’s promise after four years as well as a historic comeback on Sunday.
The 49ers shocked everyone by coming back to beat the Detroit Lions 34–31 in the NFC Championship Game.
They are now going to the Super Bowl and will have a chance to get back at the Chiefs for their loss on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
To get there, the Niners had to come back from being down 24–7 in the first half, when the Lions were the better team.
They ran the ball all over the field and sacked San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy on almost 60% of his dropbacks.
The Lions’ Kindle Vildor helmet deflection set off recipient Brandon Aiyuk’s 51-yard catch, which put the Niners back in the game. In just eight minutes, they scored 17 points to tie the game.
When Jake Moody kicked a field goal from 33 yards out with 9:52 left, it gave the Niners their first lead. The score was 27–24.
This was the Niners’ second fourth-down stop of the game. They sealed the win with a 3-yard touchdown rush from runner Elijah Mitchell that made it 34-24 and an onside kick return from Kittle.
For the 1957 Niners, it was also a bit of payback. They had a 24–7 lead at halftime and a 27–7 lead against the Lions in the first round of the 1957 Western Conference playoffs, but lost 31–27.
With the win, the Niners beat both the New England Patriots as well as the Green Bay Packers to become the team with the most playoff wins in NFL history.
It was the same kind of comeback that the San Francisco 49ers made against the Atlanta Falcons in 2012 when they came back from 17 points down to win.
Coach Kyle Shanahan is now 8-3 in playoff games, tied with Tom Flores for the inferior playoff win rate among coaches in at least 10 games. Since Shanahan became head coach in 2017, he is second only to Andy Reid in playoff wins with 14.
The Niners were going to their fourth NFC Championship Game in five years, and it was their third straight trip.
They came into Sunday’s game still thinking about how they lost to the Eagles of Philadelphia last year.
It was during that loss that Purdy tore the ulnar collateral ligament within his right elbow in the first quarter.
The Niners felt like they missed a chance because they thought they might have beaten Philadelphia and because they knew better than anyone else in the league how hard it is to get back to this point in the playoffs.
The San Francisco 49ers upset the Detroit Lions 34–31 on Sunday, coming back from being down 17 points at halftime thanks to Brock Purdy’s 267-yard touchdown pass. They will now play in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers (14-5) tied the NFC championship game with 17 points in eight minutes in the third quarter.
They then pulled away to the fourth quarter to get a rematch against Kansas City, who they lost to in the Super Bowl four years ago.
It was the fourth time in conference title game history that a team came back from being down 17 points or more.
Purdy made some big plays, and the Lions made a lot of mistakes (14-6), including two missed fourth downs with the ball close to the goal. Detroit didn’t make it to the inaugural Super Bowl in the team’s history.
“We had the worst first half possible, but we continued to be only 17 points behind.” “You can make up a lot of points there,” Niners boss Kyle Shanahan said.
“In the second half, the defense shut them out, and this guy behind me (Purdy) made it happen.”