Purdy details the NFL’s wake-up call in the 49ers vs. Lions NFC title game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
With the 49ers’ 2023 NFL season on the line in the NFC Championship Game against the Detroit Lions, Brock Purdy came to an important realization.
San Francisco was just one win away from a trip to Super Bowl LVIII, but the team took a 17-point deficit into halftime, where Purdy reflected on what mentality would emerge for the second half.
“All I remember is it was, ‘Okay, just one play at a time, man.’ And everyone believed it,” Purdy said Thursday night during a 49ers QBs panel at the Dwight Clark Legacy Series event at San Jose’s California Theater. “We had the guys to do it, but I remember the first play of the second half, I threw it to Deebo [Samuel] on a twenty meter route and from that moment on I thought: ‘Okay, this is us. We have to play like us.”
‘And to make a long story short: [we] scored touchdowns to come back, the defense punched out, got a couple crucial stops, and then I remember there was one drive near the end, I scrambled for the first down, got the first, and then Christian [McCaffrey] I had a good run and I think Elijah Mitchell knocked it in. But at that moment I was like, ‘Dude, this is team football.’ It’s not just one guy putting the whole team on his back. Everyone is needed. Everyone in the organization.
“And at that moment I thought, this isn’t easy. This is tough. The NFL is tough. To get to the Super Bowl, to do all these things that you want to do. There’s going to be these crazy, nasty wins .” So that’s what comes to mind how tough it is, but man is it worth it.”
Brock Purdy shares what was going through his mind as the 49ers came back from a 17-point halftime deficit in the NFC Championship Game pic.twitter.com/gYuksw4u5x
— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) May 17, 2024
The NFC title game consisted of two halves.
From offensive struggles to defensive inconsistencies, the game did a complete 180 halfway through.
And after Purdy threw a deep pass to 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who was tied with Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor but still somehow managed to bobble and secure the ball, the young quarterback — and the rest of the 49ers Faithful at Levi’s Stadium – – felt a momentum shift in the win-or-go-home game.
Purdy and the 49ers continued to build on that momentum, eventually pulling off the unimaginable victory that has become a memory Purdy will never forget.
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