The two catches by Brandon Aiyuk that kept the 49ers in the Pro Bowl race
There was 6:29 left in the last quarter of the NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions, and things didn’t look good for this team. The home side was behind 24–10 and wasn’t doing much.
Kerby Joseph, a safety for the Lions, had just been hurt, and it looked like quarterback Brock Purdy was ready to throw deep for Brandon Aiyuk, who has been the 49ers’ best across-the-field receiver all season.
It worked out to be a 51-yard gain, yet not the way you’d think. The cornerback, Kindle Vildor, did a good job of stopping the pass, yet Aiyuk caught it on the bounce and almost scored a touchdown.
The 49ers were the clear favorite throughout the majority of the season. They often got out large leads quickly, making their opponents throw the whole second half, which put games out of reach.
Many people didn’t think the Niners were strong enough to win when the game was on the line because of the way they played.
A win over the Packers in Green Bay last week wasn’t proof enough. The 49ers made it clear against the Lions on Sunday.
At halftime, the 49ers were down 17–0 and didn’t look like they had a good chance to get back into the game.
But these veteran-led Ers never gave up. They scored 27 straight points to tie the 2012 49ers for the greatest comeback in the history of the NFC Championship Game.
After a string of close calls and heartbreaking losses before the Super Bowl, the Niners will finally get their long-awaited chance to win their sixth Lombardi Trophy.
In a strange twist, they’ll be playing the Chiefs, who came back from behind to beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LIV and set the Niners for a four-year journey to return to the league’s biggest stage.
The 49ers didn’t play well in the first half when Detroit led 24–7, and this score was huge for both him and his team, who are negotiating a new contract without him this season.
It was also the kind of play that changed the course of a game where going to the Super Bowl was on the line.
On Detroit’s next possession, San Francisco forced a fumble, which was then used to set up a touchdown run by Christian McCaffrey.
A 17-point lead for the Lions was gone in an instant. After that, they scored a field goal and an Eli Mitchell touchdown, as well as the 49ers never fell behind again.
In the third quarter, the 49ers were down 24–10 to the Detroit Lions, and Brock Purdy looked deep with Brandon Aiyuk on first-and–ten from the 45-yard line.
The replay proved that Aiyuk did catch the ball after it hit Vildor’s helmet and bounced back.
He missed his mark with a pass that Vildor could have caught. Vildor’s hands and facemask didn’t catch the ball; instead, Aiyuk dove and caught it at the 4-yard line.
Before Aiyuk reached the ground, Vildor touched him. It wasn’t a passing touchdown, but the pass went 51 yards. After three plays, Purdy found Aiyuk in the final zone to make it 24–17 in favor of Detroit.
“Before the game, a ladybug landed in my shoe,” Aiyuk told Erin Andrews on Fox. “You all know what that means.” Good luck. Today, God was with us. Goodwin. Niner gang, bang! “That’s crazy.”
Aiyuk did a great job of staying focused to make an all-time catch, ladybug or not. Without it, the 49ers undoubtedly wouldn’t be in the Super Bowl.
It is already set: they will play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the second time in five years.
“There was nothing else you could do. We were lucky to get the ball first in the third, which gave us hope. It was also good that the game was only 17 points. It seemed like this should have turned out worse.
Without a doubt how it felt. That’s how the amounts looked. We were just down 17, though, so that’s not too bad.
You need to play a lot better, though, so that doesn’t happen too often. We scored a field goal to end the game in the third quarter.
I was sure that wasn’t enough, but the next time they tried to score, I think our defense stopped them at a fourth down. The turnover was the next drive I want to talk about.
It was a trio of drives in a row. I believe the score was tied at the very end of the third. Okay, the first quarter again, but this time it’s the fourth. Let’s begin.”