They needed a half to kick into gear, but once the San Francisco 49ers got rolling, they showed why some consider them Super Bowl favorites.
The No. 2 seed 49ers rolled in the second half to crush the No. 7 seed Seahawks 41-23 on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium.
After trailing by one at halftime, San Francisco scored the first 25 points of the second half, quickly turning a nerve-wracking afternoon into a rout for the Faithful who came ready for rain … that never came.
In his first playoff game, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy completed 18-for-30 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns, plus added a rushing touchdown to give him four on the day. His best connection came to Deebo Samuel, who took a short pass and ran away from everyone for a 74-yard touchdown in the fourth.
Samuel finished with 133 receiving yards on six catches, plus 32 yards rushing. The other offensive superstar Christian McCaffrey tallied 119 yards rushing on 15 carries, plus two catches for 17 yards and one receiving touchdown.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say after the win:
Kyle Shanahan
On if he’s getting used to Purdy spinning out and scrambling:
No. He was great on some. That last one, it was very close. It was unbelievable, that throw he made in the corner to BA. He just missed that. He’s got a feel for it. Definitely makes me nervous on some of it, but he did a hell of a job getting away. He knows his body, he knows how close he is to those guys. He tries to never give up on a play and he’s been very smart with the ball so far, so I appreciate him doing it.
On if he thought Samuel would do something big after incident:
I was worried that he was hurt on it. I lost my mind a little bit on that. But yeah, I was really concerned that he got hurt on it. I didn’t like how that looked, I thought it looked pretty bad and the intent of the play. So I think that pissed a lot of people off, I think that pissed our team off and you could kind of feel our team react to that after. I wish we were like that from the first play always, but sometimes when some stuff motivates the guys. I think it’s cool to see us rally together. I know Deebo was bothered and it was cool that we came back and answered.
Defense:
They got on a couple of things early. The big play, obviously — DK is as good as anyone and Geno throws a hell of a ball. And Mooney doesn’t shy away from anything, he went up there and competed with him all game, just like he did last time. DK is gonna get some, I thought we got some too. But I think the key in the game was getting those turnovers in the second half. If we don’t come out and get those turnovers and we turn it over on offense at all. I think it’s totally different game and once we came out and got those turnovers, I think we settled down and got back and played pretty good football.
Thought Abram should have been ejected for Deebo play?
That’s what I thought I saw, and then he was hurt, so that allowed me to go out there. So I mean, I’ll see, we always see when you see the tape. Everyone’s emotional out there, but that’s what it looked like to us.
Talk to the officials about it?
Yeah.
Can you share what they said?
Not what I said [laughs]. But who knows, I was borderline blacked out at the time. We’ll see, you always have got to see it again, but that one bothered us a little bit.
Deebo Samuel
On Purdy’s scrambles:
When you think he’s sacked and his little slithery-ness of getting out of stuff. It kind of makes us a little tired, because we’ve got to run around and try to get open, but it worked. So as long as Brock’s doing his thing, we’re going to ride with him.
Brock Purdy
On first pass:
Honestly, the ball was a little wet and it was raining at the time and the ball got away from me. It wasn’t anything in terms of the game or what. It was just the balls were slippery. I was trying to rip it to Deebo and I was just mad that I could get it home.
Charles Omenihu
On mentality before his big play:
When the team gets in the red zone, your thought process and mentality is to hold them to a field goal. You just play the call and execute, it’s as simple as that. And when we do that, good things happen for us.
Fred Warner
On defensive mentality after giving up big play:
In my short time in the league so far, I’ve seen so much happen in a game – being up by a lot, being down by a lot. I know one play doesn’t define a game. Especially when it happens that early, there’s so much more football to be played. It’s more about keeping confidence within the guys and knowing that it’s a next-play-up mentality. Before the game, we talked about playing 60 minutes – not 15 or 30, you’ve got to play a full 60 in the playoffs. It’s playoff football, it’s not going to be easy.
Nick Bosa
On halftime energy level:
It was good. Myself, I was a little nervous, just how the tide was going. But I have great confidence in this team, and an entire half of football is a lot of football. We did exactly what we were supposed to do.
On what he’s seen from Omenihu:
A lot of improvement. He kind of revamped his preparation. He was more of a big interior guy when he came in, and in the time that he’s been here, he’s bought into the scheme. He’s a really good player for us and he can rush.
On if he talks with Omenihu:
For sure, yeah. We’re very different rushers, but there’s always similarities that we can talk about and I’m always trying to help him out.
On Omenihu’s strip sack and his own fumble recovery:
Yeah, I missed him by a little bit and [Smith] stepped up. And Charles, with his long arms, came through and knocked it out. That whole thing happened in slow motion for me, so I was just happy to get the ball.
On what kind of momentum changer turnover was:
Huge. We scored right before that, so the offended helped flip it. I think they’re doing a little dirty stuff to our offensive guys. I would not piss off the guys on offense, especially Deebo, because they’ll make you pay.
On that play:
It’s playoff football. It’s our rival, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. But yeah, don’t poke the bear.
On first half:
They came in with a really good game plan. And three times playing a team, it is real. It is tough. They had some different looks that threw us off in the run game, and No. 9 was being really patient, a little more patient than we were used to. So we had to adjust and really attack in the run game and knock back so he couldn’t find those lands and get those extra yards.
On Purdy:
I feel like he’s always got some good juice. For a rookie to come in and have that confidence is something that is gonna help us go a long way.
More on Purdy:
I’m kind of happy he had a couple of rough moments there just to get those nerves out. But he’s a really good quarterback.
On if he thought Purdy was nervous:
It’s hard to say. It’s playoff football, you make mistakes at any position. So for him to stick with it and not let any of those mistakes affect him says a lot about him.
Christian McCaffrey
On Purdy:
He didn’t hesitate … he’s no stranger to adversity and he responds really well. That’s a mature football player.
Mike McGlinchey
On weather:
How bout that? Four weeks in a row, they’ve been calling for rain on our game day and we got sunshine for two quarters today. That was pretty good. That’s awesome. I thought it could’ve been like a 10-6 game instead of the 40 points we put up. … I think we noticed it when we woke up this morning and it’s pouring outside and we’re like, oh OK, this is the day it’s gonna be, and then all of a sudden you’re starting to warm up, and there’s no rain. You’re like, OK, is this what’s going to happen? And then by the end of the first quarter, the sun’s starting to pop out. You’re like, well, the football gods are smiling on us. They want the best product on the field. So it worked out. We were ready for anything. We’ve been practicing. We don’t have an indoor (field). It’s been raining all week – actually the past month – so we’ve been getting a lot of practice in playing in the rain, so we were ready for it, but definitely thankful that we can just play football instead of worrying about that.
Jimmie Ward
On fumble:
Charles beat his one-on-one. That’s what this game is about. … We got a championship defense. A lot of guys are hungry. A lot of guys want to make plays too when they get out there. That’s what we have. We’ve got a lot of depth. This team is going to be very different next year, but we’ve got a special group this year.
On weather:
Yeah, I didn’t notice. It’s been raining the past month. … Bring on the rain, man. It’s working for us.
Dre Greenlaw
On fumble:
For us to be able to get that turnover, it was just a game changer. I think we were up by (one possession), they made that field goal, they got momentum. It was just a big play, man. A big play at the right time.
On weather:
I didn’t really notice it. It would rain and stop, but honestly I didn’t even think about it. I just played. … I slipped one time on the goal line. But I was still able to make the play.
This post will be updated.
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