49ers Pull Off Historic Comeback In NFC Title Victory Over Lions

The San Francisco 49ers didn’t allow a 17-point deficit to rattle them Sunday night, and instead stayed the course and mustered up an NFL record-setting comeback over the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game.

It was all Lions in the first half as Detroit racked up 148 rushing yards, leaning to its greatest strength until the momentum shifted. After taking a 24-7 lead into halftime, the Lions completely fell apart and allowed the 49ers, four years removed from their last Super Bowl appearance, to take ownership from the third quarter on.

Detroit’s offense was stagnant and its rushing game was non-existent. In the second half, the Lions totaled an ineffective 34 rushing yards while San Francisco seized its window of opportunity and overcame the largest halftime deficit in championship game history, according to Field Yates of ESPN, to defeat Detroit, 34-31, and advance to Super Bowl LVIII.

That marked the end of the road to Detroit’s thrilling Cinderella run.

Most notably, Lions head coach Dan Campbell elected to stick with Detroit’s on-brand philosophy in the third quarter and go on 4th-and-2 on San Francisco’s 28-yard line — while already ahead 14 points. Instead of going ahead, 27-10, the Lions inadvertently did the 49ers a favor.

And it backfired.

Detroit quarterback Jared Goff failed to convert on fourth down, and the Lions didn’t score again until their winning chances had plummeted. Campbell and Detroit’s sideline didn’t know it at the time, but they had squandered their chances at taking the organization to its first-ever Super Bowl.

The 49ers relished in being led by San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy, who completed 13-of-16 attempts for 174 yards with one touchdown in the second half.

“We all felt it. Like, ‘All right, this is it. We have to do something. We gotta step up. Nothing’s gonna be given to us, we have to go and take it,'” Purdy said postgame, per NBC Sports Bay Area. “We all felt it. There wasn’t really much said. Fred (Warner) said some stuff, but other than that, everyone was like, ‘We know what we gotta do,’ and so we came out, we did that, found a way. We knew it was gonna be a tight game all the way until the end, and sure enough, we found a way.”

San Francisco will next take on Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.