The 49ers’ Super Bowl hopes were hanging in the balance as they stepped into the locker room at halftime on Saturday. In their wild-card playoff game at Levi’s Stadium, they were surprisingly trailing the Seahawks. To survive, they needed to flip the script. Any concern was a thing of past two quarters later. A strong second half propelled San Francisco to a 41-23 home victory, advancing the team to the NFC divisional round. Kyle Shanahan’s team not only survived, but it also flexed its muscles and demonstrated to the rest of the league why it could be considered a major Super Bowl contender in the future.
As expected, NFL Twitter was burning as the 49ers crushed the Seahawks after the break. After the first two periods, the score was 17-16 in favor of Seattle, but San Francisco turned it up in the second half. They outscored their opponents 7-0 in the third quarter before scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter to Seattle’s 6. The 49ers won the game by a score of 41-23.
Beat Seattle again! (and again and again) pic.twitter.com/W0SDouv35c
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 15, 2023
There was a lot of admiration for Niners rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, who had a tremendous effort in the biggest game of his NFL career to date. The 23-year-old completed 18 of 30 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns. He also had four rushing attempts for 16 yards and a touchdown. Twitter was full of appreciation for the young quarterback.
What a playoff debut for the rook đź‘Ź pic.twitter.com/AIwPfArHXI
— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) January 15, 2023
Holy efficiency, Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense — that was an eruption pic.twitter.com/1U48dkLXn0
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) January 15, 2023
The Seahawks had a poor season, but making the playoffs was a remarkable accomplishment for Pete Carroll’s youthful team. With a lot of draft cash available, this is a team to keep an eye on in the coming years. The focus now moves to the divisional round, where San Francisco will host the highest remaining seed next weekend.
