I Think I Can Talk About The Lions Game Now

Nail Biter

The Lions had us. Did they let us go? Did we get lucky? Did we simply dominate the seconds half? Can all be true?

I’m gonna be honest - that game felt like we escaped it - not won it. Did Dan Campbell make some poor decisions? Yes. Did we clean everything up in the second half? Yes. Did the Lions play tight in the second half? You bet your ass. Did our experience carry us to that victory over a fresh Lions team? 100% yes.

None of that makes me feel better going into the Super Bowl.

The First Half

The Lions rushing attack did this to us the entire 1st half. It felt like the Lions were bullying us.

That was the second play of the game. Then two plays later after a pass to LaPorta this happens:

Where in the fuck was the 49ers defense in the first half? It was HORRIBLE. Two straight weeks the defense was the biggest liability on the field. We were shit defensively against Green Bay and again this game. It was hard to watch.

Now our offense comes out on the field. Here’s our first run play:

We go nowhere with the “best running back in the NFL”. The next play after that was a tipped pass by Hutchinson. At least we convert on 3rd with a pretty pass to BA. Then after that a beautiful pass by Purdy to Deebo where he takes a HIT!

Then a couple run plays that go nowhere including another tipped Purdy pass; a tipped pass,and we’re at 4th down and Moody misses the kick.

I’m done with the Gifs but that was the tale of the first half. Just like that. Outside of cutting the score to 14-7 the rest of that half was all Lions thanks to a Purdy interception and resulting Lions TD.

Re-watching 1st half our run game wasn’t terrible but our passing game was horrible.

Why it Turned Around

There has been some talk about the calmness in the Niners locker room at the half. That’s cool and is a good story but I have a theory. With 1:50 left in the first half, DC calls a run on 3rd and 12 where Gibbs converts for a first down, in Niners territory, and gets out of bounds.

They had been running all over us all half - but that run stung. That one was truly embarrassing. I believe that was the run where the pride of our defense woke up. The lack of respect in that play call tells the whole story. Some might say, but JP they didn’t want to turn the ball over 21-7 with almost 2 minutes left and if they don’t get the 1st the Lions can kick a field goal. Maybe but from that point on the Lions couldn’t run on us anymore. Not like they were.

Side note, Goff missed a TD throw to a wide open Gibbs. If he hit that pass I believe we don’t come back and win. That would have been devastating.

The rest is history - we go into the half down 24-7 and then make the best comeback I’ve seen from this team in I can’t even remember. I think I’d have to go back to the Mariucci/Garcia days.

The Chiefs

We can’t start slow against the Chiefs or it will be over before it begins. Our defense can’t come out flat. Our offense needs to score early and often. To win we’re going to need to get to 30 and no team this year has done that against the Chiefs.

I wish I could be excited going into the Superbowl but I’m not. I’m just filled with anxiety because the Chiefs are so scary. We’ve played two weeks of marginally good football and we can’t afford to do that in the Superbowl if we expect to win.

We beat the Lions because we’re a great football team. But some of that was luck - which every team needs - but luck runs out. We will need to put together 60 complete minutes of football if we want to hoist the Lombardy.