A playoff comeback that Brock Purdy really needed

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – You want to know who held Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers accountable Saturday, with the clock running, the rain coming down, Deebo Samuel out with an injury and the Green Bay Packers just a few plays away from a monumental play -off disturbed?

Do you want to know who assigned responsibility and demanded that the 49ers continue their fight throughout the game? Who laid out all the possible consequences? That would be Purdy and everyone else on the 49ers, who ended up in this spot with one of their most stunning performances of the season.

They got the ball back with 6:13 left in the game after a Packers field goal miss. 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 devastating loss in this divisional round playoff game. So once the foul came up, Trent Williams gave a mini speech.

“I just told them, hey man, with six minutes to go this 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're in this group together,” Williams recalls. “So whatever you have, just take it with you. Take it to the next piece and then take it to the piece and let the rest take care of itself.

They all felt it. The 49ers were in Levi's Stadium, set up as NFC favorites to go to the Super Bowl, and they were definitely feeling it. What happened next: Purdy broke out of his funk and started making passes, Brandon Aiyuk made a huge diving catch on third down, Purdy scrambled inside the Packers' 10-yard line and finally Christian McCaffrey rushed in for a 6-yard touchdown which finally gave the 49ers the lead. Then Dre Greenlaw capped the 49ers' 24-21 victory by intercepting Jordan Love's ill-advised move across his body in the final minute.

But oh yeah, the 49ers felt it. And no one felt it more than Purdy. Nearly an hour after the game, you could tell they were still feeling it: all the adrenaline, all the disappointment at playing so haphazardly in such a big game, all the meaning and all the relief. The 49ers watched their playoff lives flash before their eyes on Saturday… and thanks to those last handful of plays, they're still alive with a spot in the NFC Championship Game at Levi's on Jan. 28, where they'll face the winner of the Lions -Sunday's Buccaneers game .

They live. And they know a little more about themselves now than they do after all their easy wins this season. (But so do their opponents.)

“At some point you're in trouble 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: this is it. This is our season. The fact that we were able to benefit from that was enormous. For all of us.

“Obviously for me as a quarterback it's good for my confidence and all that. But we have too many good players in this team, so many players who make the difference. We have a great defense. If we don't find a way, that's not right. So it was hugely important for all of us to finally have a match like this and get through it.”

Nick Bosa said outright that the 49ers needed a game like this, noting that they lost all their close games this regular season and won all the blowouts. And more than anyone, Purdy needed something like this. Of course, the 49ers never want to see Purdy wobble for more than three quarters like he did on Saturday. The 49ers never want to be outplayed the way the Packers outplayed them for most of this game.

But the 49ers also had to watch Purdy rise from a struggle and get results. They didn't just need him to be a great frontrunner. They needed him to dig out of a hole and win this damn game, and he went 6-for-7 on that final drive and looked pretty composed (“he was Brock, couldn't tell anything,” Williams said of that moment) and very much like the man who led the NFL in passer rating and broke the 49ers' record for passing yards this season.

So what the heck happened before that in this game for Purdy? The rain certainly caused him some problems, just as the wet weather in Cleveland early this season seemed to bother him. Saturday, Purdy wiped his right hand at times, even as he dropped back to pass.

“Obviously I put on a glove for the first ride,” Purdy said. “It came down in sprinkles, so I took it off. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was a little tired of the glove. … Yes, there were times when I would fall back when the ball was a little wet from the grass. It kind of affected the accuracy and all that. But that's football. I have to be better than that.”

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But that won't be a problem if it's dry at Levi's next Sunday and of course not at all if the 49ers go to the Super Bowl in February at the indoor Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Purdy also said the Packers defense did a good job of cutting off his deep options and forcing him to go to his checkdowns. And then Purdy spent most of the game rushing those checkdowns, often due to incompletions. Although the Packers recorded just one sack in the game, the pass rush seemed to bother Purdy – changing his throwing lanes and making him move his feet as he threw, leading to a few wild passes that the Packers could have easily pulled off. intercepted, but dropped.

This could be a problematic issue for the 49ers in the coming weeks, as Purdy also looked quite uncomfortable against the Ravens on Christmas, and the Ravens could very well be the AFC's representative in the Super Bowl. But Purdy sounded like he'd solved something in his head on that last ride; If they beg you to take the easy pass, and the easy pass can march you across the field, just take the easy pass. Don't let past mistakes get you down when it matters most.

“We had what we wanted right in front of us, so you have to wipe the slate clean,” Purdy said. “You must have a pure mind and not try to force anything. Take what the defense gives you. And find a way, man.”

On that final drive, Purdy completed what short passes there were and then rushed 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 performer, scoring a 32-yard touchdown in the second quarter and 81 total receiving yards — dropped another short, which Purdy followed up with the dart. to Aiyuk in third place.

“The whole day was kind of off,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But the boys persevered. Even that second and six there at the end, getting that drop leads us to third and six and then BA made a great play to keep us on the field.

Another possible cause for the 49ers' bumpy offensive play: the two-week layoff, counting Week 18 when Purdy and many other frontliners sat out last weekend's meaningless loss to the Rams and bye.

“I don't know, it could be that,” Shanahan said. “It could be the rain, it could be good defense. But those are things you need to talk about. We dealt with that as best we could.”

Purdy, who went 23-for-39 for 252 yards and 1 TD on the day for an 86.7 passer rating, was of course not the only struggling 49er in this game. The defense suffered a handful of slips and miscues against Love and his receivers and gave up a huge 53-yard run to Aaron Jones. The 49ers' special teams were also hit, with the coverage unit giving up a 73-yard kickoff to Keisean Nixon and Jake Moody having a 48-yard field goal attempt deflected to the line.

But the defense turned back Greenlaw's interception, plus an earlier one, and stopped Green Bay in the red zone multiple times. And Moody made up for his earlier miss with a 52-yarder early in the fourth quarter, bringing the 49ers within 21-17.

“It certainly wasn't perfect,” Shanahan said. “I was very frustrated. But also very proud and very happy that we will play another week.”

To be fair, the 49ers played the type of playoff game that typically eliminates a team. There would have been harsh criticism throughout the NFL if the 49ers and Purdy had lost this game. And the 49ers and Purdy knew it all as the clock ticked and they got into that huddle. There was a season to save. And now there might be a few more games to play.

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(Top photo of Brock Purdy: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)