The San Francisco 49ers’ spectacular comeback to reach the Super Bowl: how they beat Detroit after falling behind by 17 points

There was a click play, a ball that changed the course of the game and, ultimately, the rival team. Kansas City Chiefs inside superbowl NFL 2024. San Francisco 49ers This Sunday they had a spectacular and unforgettable return beat Detroit Lions (34-31), after going 17 points less at halftime of the NFL National Conference (NFC) final in the United States.

With this win, the 49ers, who had lost back-to-back NFC title games the past two years, will play in Super Bowl LVIII against the Chiefs on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 49ers, favorites in this National Conference final, fell 7-24 at halftime but their stars Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk led a 27-0 run before the collapse of the Lions who still do not qualify for a Super Bowl.

The Gambusinos recovered from a nightmare first half with a dream second half in which they scored 27 points led “Mr. Irrelevant” Purdy, who had 267 yards and one touchdown passing. Christian McCaffrey also shined with 90 yards rushing and two scores on the ground.

Like last week against the Packers, the 68,000 fans at Levi’s Stadium had heavy hearts during the big game against the Lions, unexpected guests of these conference finals.

Detroit, which had reached this level only once (1991), offered a master class of running game in the first half against the famous defense of San Francisco, the first seed in the conference.

Experienced quarterback Jared Goff (273 yards and one touchdown passing) led two touchdown runs by Jameson Williams and David Montgomery that put Detroit within 0-14 at the end of the first quarter.

McCaffrey first appeared to close the gap, but Detroit continued to dominate the run and scored another Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown and a Michael Badgley field goal for a surprising 7-24.

The specter of a third consecutive elimination in the conference finals haunted the Santa Clara stadium (suburbs of Santa Clara) during halftime, where the rapper Eminem, a fervent Detroit fan, was having fun in the stands.

But luck and bad decisions from Detroit’s bench, which gave up two field goal attempts for touchdowns, caused a complete turnaround in the game.

The key action detailed at the beginning was a risky 51-yard pass from junior Brock Purdy that Brandon Aiyuk caught out of the air after slipping out of the hands of cornerback Kindle Vildor.

The play set up Purdy to connect with Aiyuk again for a six-yard touchdown. The pressure was on the Lions who quickly turned the ball over just 24 yards from their end zone, setting up another McCaffrey touchdown.

Detroit could no longer overcome San Francisco’s push and its own curse in the playoffs and soon found itself back on the scoreboard with a 33-yard field goal by Jake Moody and a touchdown by Elijah Mitchell.

Jameson Williams provided excitement late with a score with just 56 seconds left, but the Lions ended up suffering a heartbreaking loss that keeps them on the list of only four teams that haven’t reached the Super Bowl.