SANTA CLARA — The 49ers’ 10th straight win ushered them to the NFC playoffs as the No. 2 seed Sunday. Now comes the heavy lifting: another four wins in a row to capture the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy in 28 seasons.
The NFC West champion 49ers wrapped up a 13-4 regular-season record by racing past the last-place Arizona Cardinals 38-13 at Levi’s Stadium.
That home field is where the 49ers will open up in the wild-card round, and, if they advance, the divisional round. Shortly after the 49ers finished up this win, the Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage through the NFC Championship Game by virtue of a win Sunday against the No. 6 seed New York Giants.
The 49ers’ wild-card guests will be either the division rival Seattle Seahawks or the Green Bay Packers, the latter of whom would advance with a win in Sunday night’s game against the eliminated Detroit Lions.
“I feel real good. I felt real good when we won the division about a month ago and I feel better about them now,” said coach Kyle Shanahan of his players, referring specifically to their run blocking and how Christian McCaffrey “is more used to our style.”
Brock Purdy, after throwing a career-high three touchdown passes Sunday, now seeks to become the first rookie quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, though the 49ers obviously must first reach that Feb. 12 grand finale in Glendale, Arizona, an hour drive from Purdy’s childhood home of Queen Creek.
“He’s playing consistent and making good decisions with the ball,” Shanahan added. “He avoided bad turnovers and has done a good job getting good players the ball. Overall the guys played real well.”
“I’ve got so many playmakers around me, I don’t have all the weight of the world on my shoulders to make something up,” Purdy said. “… I just have to distribute it to guys and they come up with all the yards, which is fun to watch.”
The 49ers have not lost since a 44-23 home rout Oct. 23 to the Kansas City Chiefs, who secured the AFC’s No. 1 seed Saturday. Of the eight teams who’ve finished a regular season with at least 10 straight wins in the last 25 years, only one has won the Super Bowl, the 2003 New England Patriots, who were a No. 1 seed and required three wins to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
“We knew what we were capable of, and we’ve won 10 in a row. We’ll try to make it 14,” said Deebo Samuel, who returned Sunday from a three-game absence forced by an ankle sprain.
For the seventh time in this 10-game win streak, the 49ers scored over 30 points, and they did so after staking the Cardinals (4-13) a touchdown on the game’s second snap (77-yard touchdown catch by A.J. Green).
Thus, the 49ers enter the postseason with plenty of offensive firepower, with Sunday’s touchdowns coming from tight end George Kittle (two) and running backs Elijah Mitchell (two) and McCaffrey, whose first-series score gave them a 7-6 lead they would not relinquish.
The 49ers’ defense, after yielding 34 points in last week’s overtime win at the Las Vegas Raiders, rebounded nicely. Well, at least after giving up the trick-play touchdown to Green on this game’s second snap. The defense produced four takeaways, including two interceptions from safety Tashaun Gipson Sr.
Defensive end Nick Bosa locked up the NFL’s sack title, raising his total to 18 ½ — one shy of Aldon Smith’s franchise record from 2012 – when he dropped Cardinals fill-in starter David Blough for a 5-yard loss in the second quarter.
“It would have been nice to get the franchise record, too, but Aldon did a hell of a job, and Nick is pretty happy with leading the league this year,” Shanahan said.
Bosa concurred: “I talked to (Shanahan) early in the week and my main goal was to lead the league (in sacks). We’ve got a lot more important things to do. I’m happy about that.”
Bosa, Purdy and other key starters were pulled by early in the fourth quarter.
Kittle called for Purdy to be in the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation after improving to 5-0 as a starter and delivering six wins overall since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo. Purdy finished this one 15-of-20 for 178 yards with no turnovers but a career-high four sacks. One sack cost them 17 yards and Shanahan wished he threw the ball out of bounds.
Kittle’s two touchdown catches gave him a team-high 11 touchdowns this season, as it was the third time in the past four games he’s caught two touchdown passes from Purdy.
Kittle credited Purdy for keeping his eyes upfield when plays break down, and that led to their second score Sunday.
“You can just see his hunger,” Kittle added. “He’s disappointed in some of the plays he made today. He was talking about the game and he’s like, I just want to be better. So we win, like ‘Well, you’ve done a great job of winning so let’s just keep getting better.’ ”
Here are other quick notes from this lopsided finale:
PURDY’S PRE-HALFTIME SHOW
Purdy has thrown two touchdown passes in his six games since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, a streak last accomplished by a rookie quarterback in Justin Herbert’s 2020 season for the Chargers.
Purdy’s second scoring strike Sunday – a 4-yarder to Kittle – came 19 seconds before halftime, with Kittle making a nice grab in the back corner of the end zone. It was the fourth game in which Purdy has directed a touchdown drive in the final seconds of a first half, having also done so in Week 13 against Miami (McCaffrey run, 4 seconds to go), in Week 14 against Tampa Bay (Aiyuk catch, 15 seconds to go), and in Week 15 against Seattle (McCaffrey run, 47 seconds to go).
RUSHING ROTATION
The 49ers got three touchdowns out of their renewed backfield tandem of McCaffrey and Mitchell, the latter of whom scored his first two touchdowns of the season while coming off injured reserve again.
McCaffrey made his 10th straight start, and he not only got a 9-yard gain on the 49ers’ first snap, he finished the opening drive with a 21-yard catch-and-run for a go-ahead touchdown. McCaffrey had 45 yards on 10 carries and 34 yards on three receptions.
Mitchell, in his return from a Nov. 27 knee sprain, put the 49ers ahead 14-6 when a 5-yard run produced his first touchdown. Mitchell, playing just his fifth game this season, finished off the opening drive after halftime with a 6-yard scoring run that was set up by a 37-yard, sideline jaunt for a 28-13 lead. He had just five carries, for 55 yards.
GIPSON’S INTERCEPTIONS
Gipson, a surprise starter at free safety when the season opened, finished as the 49ers’ interception leader this season with five. He recorded two interceptions Sunday against Cardinals’ No. 4 starter David Blough, a week after an overtime interception set up a winning field goal at the Las Vegas Raiders.
“He’s been such a good player for a long time. He’s come in here and he’s been kind of the wisdom of our defense,” Shanahan said. “I mess around with him sometimes and call him dad. He’s been so consistent, the backstop on our defense and has such great ball skills. The big thing is it’s allowed us to use Jimmie (Ward) in nickel, too.”
Mired in a 7-6 ballgame, the 49ers got a boost early in the second quarter when Gipson’s first interception set them up at the Cardinals’ 18-yard line and set up Mitchell’s first touchdown for a 14-6 lead. The 49ers’ third interception this game came from safety George Odum in the fourth quarter.
WARNER’S TACKLE TITLE
Fred Warner finished as the 49ers’ leading tackler for the fifth time in as many seasons. He needed six to surpass Dre Greenlaw, who did not suit up because of a back injury suffered last week. The 49ers’ linebacker depth took a further hit this game with injuries to Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (neck) and Greenlaw’s replacement, Azeez Al-Shaair (ankle).
SAMUEL’S RETURN
A minute until halftime, Deebo Samuel got his first touch and it went for a 9-yard reception to the Cardinals’ 9-yard line. The home crowd followed with “Dee-bo!” chants in his return from a three-game absence, having been carted off with ankle and knee sprains in the Dec. 11 home win over Tampa Bay.
Samuel finished with 20 yards on two receptions, giving him 632 yards on 56 receptions with two touchdown catches this season. He totaled 232 yards on 43 carries, three of which went for touchdowns.
AIYUK 1K
Brandon Aiyuk endured hard hits Sunday en route to securing the first 1,000-yard season of his three-year career. Aiyuk reached that milestone with a 20-yard reception to open the second half. It was his fourth catch of the game and gave him 59 yards (1,015 on the season).
WATT’S FINALE
Purdy became the 50th and final quarterback J.J. Watt sacked in a storied career that ended this game. Watt, on his second defensive series, split blocks by Spencer Burford and Jake Brendel to drop Purdy for a six-yard loss. Watt’s first-ever sack against the 49ers marked No. 113 ½ in his 12-year career, where he’d never played before Sunday. Watt notched his second sack of the game on the opening series after halftime, giving him 12 1/2 this season. He exited at the two-minute warning, with fellow Cardinals defenders respectfully applauding in his wake and a chant in support of him echoing through the opposing crowd.
JJ WATT TAKE A BOW 😭 pic.twitter.com/ns40I35Vk5
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) January 8, 2023
EARLY SCORING
Trailing 6-0 after only 42 seconds, the 49ers needed less than four minutes to take the lead, doing so on Purdy’s 21-yard touchdown pass to McCaffrey. That capped a 75-yard drive that chomped away at the Cardinals’ defense for big gains (McCaffrey 9-yard run; Kyle Juszczyk 26-yard catch; Purdy 13-yard scramble; Aiyuk 6-yard reception).
The 49ers truly staked the Cardinals to a 6-0 lead, when, on the second snap, Deommodore Lenoir and Gipson surrendered a 77-yard, razzle-dazzle touchdown pass from Blough to Green. The Cardinals missed the ensuing point-after kick.
INJURY WATCH
Flannigan-Fowles, a special-teams ace and backup linebacker, sustained a neck injury early on and did not return to the game.
Al-Shaair was dealing with an ankle issue after an 11-yard catch by Trey McBride in a second-quarter touchdown drive. Oren Burks replaced Al-Shaair at linebacker next to Warner; Dre Greenlaw did not play with a back issue.
Source: www.mercurynews.com