The most logical conclusion we can draw from Sunday's, 34-31 NFC Championship win by the San Francisco 49ers is that there is magic afoot.
Take your film breakdowns and EPA analyses and discard them. Sunday's ethos was founded in a force beyond the realm of rules and logic. It was a masterful display of cosmic nonsense that can only be attributed to the magicianry of Brock Purdy. And no, magicianry is not a word.
Purdy has now pulled off two great escapes in back-to-back playoff games after having a reputation as someone who was incapable of them. This one, which flipped from a Lions blowout to the 49ers being firmly in control, happened in a blink.
Purdy seemed to be reveling in that sensation after the game.
He sat with his eyes closed, waiting for Kyle Shanahan's presser to conclude. It was a rare moment's reprieve from another comeback that punched the 49ers' ticket to a second Super Bowl (against the Chiefs) in five years.
The 24-year-old 49ers quarterback sat there with his left sock shredded, revealing battle bruises borne from laying his body on the line in unceasing moments of “hediditagain!?” magic.
Once he returned to the locker room, he found it mostly emptied. He was greeted by the entire McCaffrey clan, sans Christian.
Lisa McCaffrey was the first to embrace him, after jokingly echoing, “Purdy to the podium!” as a wave of media followed the young quarterback out of the locker room and down the hall. Asked at his locker about his wounds, Purdy shrugged them off as an homage to McCaffrey, whose left elbow seems to be perpetually bloodied.
None of this should have been possible. The last two games were downright dumb. The 49ers made as great a mess of things as they possibly could. Against Green Bay, they waited until the eleventh hour, relying on clutch catches from Brandon Aiyuk, Chris Conley and the power of Purdy's scrambles.
Sunday, it was a blitzkrieg of Purdy wizardry. He completed passes that should have been intercepted, and scrambled with the maleficence of a man who seemed to have a personal issue with the city of Detroit. Except, he does it all with a neighborly, polite disposition that is somehow more infuriating for the opposition.
“This guy? Him???”
Him.
Take a look at the photo above. Look at the faces of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch.
These men know they got away with something. They committed the legacy-damning, franchise-cratering, career-imploding sin of taking a Barry Bonds swing at quarterback and whiffed. Good grief did they miss.
Even if Trey Lance turns out to have a sterling NFL career, he was a monumental miss. They’ll probably turn the fourth-round pick they got from him into a running back who won’t make the team.
They should be on the hot seat, having lost the Divisional Round with Jacoby Brissett or Andy Dalton at quarterback. Instead, they lucked into Purdy, the final pick of the draft.
The fact that it was that final pick, with the “Mr. Irrelevant” title is suspicious. It’s too on-the-nose. He was just some kid from Iowa, dressed like your dad on a grocery run.
It just so happens that he seems to be possessed by the ghost of prime Russell Wilson.
Even Shanahan, who has so often — and so explicitly — stated that off-schedule playmaking is a bonus, not the default, credited Purdy’s scrambles as the 49ers’ key in a 17-point comeback.
“I thought it was the difference between winning and losing,” Shanahan said. “He made some big plays with his legs, getting out of the pocket, moving the chains on some first downs, some explosives. He competed his ass off today. Wasn’t easy for any of us. He kept grinding, was unbelievable there in the second half.”
Unbelievable is putting it lightly. Purdy, as Lions superfan and "I Think You Should Leave" creator Tim Robinson would say, is “not even supposed to be here.”
That’s to say, the 49ers should be here. We all expected them to be here. But not in the way they won the past two games, and probably not with Purdy helming them.
Everyone expressed some degree of shock after the game. Take Brandon Aiyuk’s response to the catch.
“I was surprised,” Aiyuk said. “I don’t even know.”
Everyone seemed to be surprised, that is, except for Purdy.
It has to be stated that he is Christian, and frequently credits god for his accomplishments, as he did in length Sunday night. Regardless of your religious beliefs, put yourself in Purdy’s shoes.
If you’re Purdy, it would be hard not to believe in a higher power.
That sense of providence was tangible. For as many logical explanations as there are to explain the 49ers’ comeback win, they do disservice to the sensation in the building.
The moment Aiyuk caught that ball, there was a loudly, but not explicitly stated feeling: this is happening. Trent Williams admitted that there was a legitimate sense of inevitability felt after those admittedly “lucky” moments.
“Yeah, I think so,” Williams said. “I was like, yeah, it's happening for us. It's supposed to be this way. The football gods are smiling on us, a couple situations where they wasn't. Could have easily got down on ourselves. Could have easily started thinking about what tomorrow looks like, what vacations we got to get ready to plan, but nobody batted an eye.”
Of course Tashaun Gipson Sr. forced an immediate fumble on an inside run from Jahmyr Gibbs, the Lions' running back who so often runs outside.
Of course Purdy scrambled three times, — or, as George Kittle said, "scampers," like a "water dragon" — for 52 yards and three first downs, setting up two touchdowns and a field goal.
Of course he ducked out of another sack with a magician's sleight of hand to convert an absurd toe-tap first down to Kyle Juszczyk. Of course he threw an on-the-run rainbow that Jauan Jennings caught with one hand. Of course he threw a would-be interception on a 50-50 ball that Brandon Aiyuk caught to snap the 49ers back to life.
Of course. If it happens again two weeks from now, it should no longer be a shock. Of course, it will be Purdy.