The 49ers won the NFC championship 37-20 and are headed to their seventh Super Bowl. They dominated most of the 60 minutes, and only threw eight passes. They became the first team since the 1974 Miami Dolphins to win a playoff game with eight or fewer pass attempts.
Here’s what we took away from the 49ers’ romp over the Green Bay Packers:
From 4-12 to Super Bowl
The 49ers a year ago finished 4-12 and picked second in the 2019 NFL draft. Questions swirled during the offseason about hot seats for the general manager and head coach, and the viability of Jimmy Garoppolo as a franchise quarterback. Now they’ve won 15 of the 18 games they’ve played this season and are headed back to the Super Bowl. San Francisco wasn’t a four-win team last year, and only won four games because of Garoppolo’s torn ACL in Week 3. They got a huge advantage picking like a 4-12 team, they nailed their draft picks, made a couple savvy offseason moves and catapulted themselves from fringe playoff contenders to Super Bowl participants
Raheem Mostert’s world
There wasn’t a better player on the field Sunday than Raheem Mostert. He was a monster with 160 yards in the first half, then continued to dominate in the second half to finish with 29 carries, 220 yards and four touchdowns. With Tevin Coleman down with a shoulder injury, Mostert had to put together a huge game, and the former special teams ace come through with an all-time great performance. He’s the only player in NFL history with 200 yards and four touchdowns in a playoff game.
Jimmy Garoppolo’s day off
The 49ers won with their quarterback tossing eight passes. He completed six throws for 77 yards, and went the entire third quarter and most of the fourth quarter without a pass attempt. He completed a throw to George Kittle late in the fourth quarter to convert a first down, then threw one more to Kittle that drew a penalty, and another swing pass for 10 yards to Mostert. Garoppolo in this postseason has 17 completions on 27 attempts for 208 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Pass rush needs to be A+
San Francisco’s pass defense faltered a few times Sunday, and it always came when their pass rush didn’t get home. Aaron Rodgers connected on deep throws to Davante Adams and Jimmy Graham when the 49ers’ pass rush didn’t get a lot of push. That’s fine in a game where they were ahead by multiple scores for most of it, but going into the Super Bowl against an explosive offense like Kansas City, they have to be better in that regard.
Emmanuel Moseley pays off
The decision to start Moseley over Ahkello Witherspoon paid off early when Moseley came up with a stop on a second-and-short pass to the flat that he read and stacked up for a loss. Then he came up with maybe the play of the game when he intercepted Aaron Rodgers at the end of the first half. That ended the Packers’ drive, and gave the 49ers the ball deep in Packers territory. They capitalized with a touchdown to go ahead 27-0. That’s an enormous swing in a game that wound up getting decided by two touchdowns.
Richard Sherman repays 49ers
Sherman’s tipped pass from Colin Kaepernick to Michael Crabtree ended the 49ers’ last hopes to go to the Super Bowl. He repaid them Sunday night when he ran under Rodgers’ deep shot for Davante Adams and hauled it in for a game-sealing interception. He ran a few yards away from the 49ers’ end zone, then fell to the Levi’s Stadium turf with his arms and legs spread out.
