Christian McCaffrey scored his second landing on a six-yard run with 1:07 to play, and the San Francisco 49ers mounted their first second-half comeback of the season to beat the Inexperienced Bay Packers 24-21 in a divisional-round playoff recreation on Saturday evening.
After spending all common season as front-runners, the Niners (13-5) wanted to return from behind for a change, and Brock Purdy and McCaffrey did simply sufficient on the final drive to ship San Francisco to their third straight NFC championship recreation. 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.
McCaffrey completed it off along 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 TD 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 cross interference name in opposition to Bo Melton. Love and Melton then related on the subsequent play for a wide-open 19-yard landing aided by Tashaun Gipson slipping on the moist turf in protection.
After McCaffrey put San Francisco again within the lead with a 39-yard TD 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 two-yard landing cross to Tyler Kraft and the Packers prolonged the result in 21-14 on a two-point conversion cross to Aaron Jones.
The Niners have been the primary crew to make the playoffs in 13 seasons with out overcoming a second-half deficit to win a recreation.
They obtained a 52-yard area aim 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 couldn’t ending any of them off, setting for 2 area targets and getting stopped on a fourth-and-1 sneak. They turned the primary crew in 20 years to achieve the pink zone on their first three drives of a playoff recreation with out getting a TD.
The Niners made them pay for that with Purdy hitting George Kittle on a 32-yard cross on the run for a TD 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 aim try by Moody that was blocked by Colby Picket to ship the Niners into the half with a 7-6 lead.
