SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Despite struggling most of the night, Brock Purdy and the San Francisco made the plays when it matter and survived the upset-minded Green Bay Packers 24-21 in thrilling NFC divisional round game on Saturday night.
Trailing by four, the top-seeded 49ers mounted a 69-yard drive that was capped off by Christian McCaffery's second touchdown run with 1:07 to play to send San Francisco to their third-straight NFC title game
Purdy, who was off-target all game with many of his throws, went 6 for 7 for 47 yards on the decisive drive. Including a third down conversion pass to Brandon Aiyuk for 10 yards and throwing a 17-yarder to Chris Conley.
“We’re built for those moments,” McCaffrey said. “We didn’t play well at all but still had a chance at the end. To go out there and execute is a sign of a high character team.”
San Francisco will play the winner of Sunday's game between Tampa Bay and Detroit next Sunday for a berth to the Super Bowl.
The 49ers (13-5) found themselves in uncharted territory, trailing the Packers by a score entering the final quarter.
Green Bay (10-9) managed to take the lead in the third quarter, being set up by an 80-yard kickoff return by K Nixon to the San Francisco 20. Four plays later, Jordan Love hit his tight end Tucker Kraft on a two-yard touchdown pass to give the Packers the lead.
Love found Aaron Jones on the two-point conversion attempt to give the Packers a 24-21 lead.
Green Bay had a chance to extend their lead with a 41-yard field goal by Anders Carlson sailed just wide of the left upright, giving the Niners the ball with 6:18 remaining in the game.
McCaffrey finished off the game-winning drive with a 6-yard run on third-and-short.
Then the 49ers' defense held on from there, as Dre Greenlaw intercepted Love for the second time to seal San Francisco's fifth straight playoff win over Green Bay.
Purdy — who struggled with his accuracy early on a rainy night — finished with 252 yards passing and a touchdown. McCaffrey ran for 98 yards on 17 carries.
Jones finished with 108 yards on 18 carries for the Packers, and Love was 21 of 34 for 194 yards in the losing effort.
Baltimore 34, Houston 10
BALTIMORE — Lamar Jackson tossed two touchdown passes and ran for two more as the Baltimore Ravens pulled away in the second half to beat the Houston Texans 34-10 on Saturday in the AFC divisional round.
The win made history for the city of Baltimore, who will host its first AFC championship game since 1971 when the Colts beat the Oakland Raiders on their way to a Super Bowl championship. The Ravens will face either Kansas City or Buffalo next Sunday.
“Our fans are going to get a chance to cheer just as loud or louder than they did in this game, and they were amazing,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “I thought our fans were incredible. Man, it was deafening out there.”
Houston shocked the partisan Baltimore crowd when Steven Sims returned a punt 67 yards to send the teams into halftime tied up at 10.
Despite the game being tied, the Texans (11-8) struggled offensively in the second half managing just 58 total yards and were penalized 11 times for 70 yards.
The Jackson and the Ravens (14-4) flexed their muscle on offense in the second half, scoring on all four possessions.
Baltimore took the lead for good on their opening possession of the third quarter, driving 55-yards in the just six plays. Jackson capped the drive off with a 15-yard run to make it 17-10.
Houston took their ensuing possession and made it into Ravens territory, but the promising drive stalled out and the Texans were forced to punt.
From that point on, the Texans would never threat to score again.
Isaiah Likely caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Jackson early in the fourth make it 24-10.
Jackson sealed the victory with his final touchdown on an 8-yard run with 6:20 to play. On the play, he rolled out to his left, on play-action fake and followed left tackle Ronnie Stanley's block into the end zone. And reminiscent of Bo Jackson's famous run, the fired up quarterback kept running right into the tunnel in that corner of the field.
Jackson finished the game with 152 yards passing and 100 yards rushing, making him the first quarterback since 1948 with two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs, 100 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the same game.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud completed 19 of 33 passes for 175 yards and managed to avoid being sacked by a tough Baltimore pass rush.
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