Brock Purdy, 49ers rally from 17 points down, beat Lions 34-31 to advance to Super Bowl
Associated PressSANTA CLARA, Calif. — Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers were on the brink, needing a spark to overcome a big deficit and avoid a third straight loss in the conference title game. Purdy’s 51-yard pass that deflected off a defender’s facemask into Aiyuk’s hands helped the Niners rally from 17 points down at halftime to beat the Detroit Lions 34-31 on Sunday and reach the Super Bowl. We were just like, ‘We have to do our job.’” San Francisco mounted the fourth comeback ever from 17 points down or more in a conference title game thanks to some big plays by Purdy and bad mistakes from the Lions, including two failed fourth downs in field-goal range. It was hard at the beginning, but the character we have in our team, the type of guys we have, we can’t wait to get to Vegas, man.” The Niners blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter of the NFC championship game against the Los Angeles Rams two years ago and then were forced to play much of last year’s title game loss at Philadelphia without a functioning quarterback after Purdy injured his elbow on the opening drive and fourth-stringer Josh Johnson left with a concussion early in the third quarter.