Eight 49ers players who will have a decisive influence on the NFC Championship Game vs. Lions
The San Francisco 49ers are just 60 minutes away from the Super Bowl. Standing in their way in the NFC Championship Game, the Cinderella story of the Detroit Lions. The 49ers are the clear favorites to progress to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. However, against a Detroit team coming with huge momentum after successive […]
The San Francisco 49ers are just 60 minutes away from the Super Bowl.
Standing in their way in the NFC Championship Game, the Cinderella story of the Detroit Lions.
The 49ers are the clear favorites to progress to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. However, against a Detroit team coming with huge momentum after successive postseason home wins, they will need a series of big-time performances to justify that status. Here we look at eight players who will be crucial to San Francisco's fortunes.
QB Brock Purdy
The easiest and most obvious place to start. Purdy is firmly in the spotlight after an extremely shaky performance in the 49ers’ divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers.
Purdy turned it around when it mattered most, showing accuracy and composure that had belied him for much of a rain-soaked contest to lead the Niners on a game-winning drive capped by a six-yard touchdown run from Christian McCaffrey.
Against the Lions, Purdy will not have to deal with the rain, and he will have the chance to attack a Detroit defense that gave up a league-high 69 plays of 20 yards or more in the regular season.
Detroit will surely attack Purdy with the blitz, as they did Baker Mayfield in the divisional round, but that plays right into a key strength of Purdy, who averaged a league-leading 10 yards per attempt when blitzed in the regular season.
With conditions perfect and all his weapons in tow, it’s seemingly a perfect situation for Purdy to dispel his doubters. The momentum from last week’s final drive simply must carry into the biggest game of his still young career.
WR Deebo Samuel
Speaking of weapons, the one whose status was in question for much of the week was Samuel, who suffered a badly bruised shoulder in the divisional round.
His absence for most of that game was a key factor in Purdy and the 49er offense looking out of sync for long periods against Green Bay.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has had a week to plan around having Samuel and for the contingency of him getting hurt again.
Still, how Samuel’s shoulder holds up will be a key storyline of the game, especially with the do-it-all wideout vowing he will make no effort to protect it after being cleared to play. If it is unaffected by his physical style of play and he remains in the game, that will bode extremely well for the 49ers’ hopes of putting together a huge offensive performamnce.
WR Brandon Aiyuk
Samuel and the equally versatile running back McCaffrey will be crucial to the 49ers putting Lions defenders in conflict, but the primary beneficiary of the window-dressing they help apply could well be Aiyuk.
Aiyuk came up huge on the game-winning drive against the Packers, winning against man coverage to convert a key third down, and his ability to consistently win against both man and zone should produce much higher numbers than he put up versus Green Bay.
He went for just 32 yards on three catches, however, the Lions’ have allowed at least 119 yards to opposing number one receivers in each of their last seven games.
Aiyuk may not be seen as the 49ers’ number one option, but he finished the regular season second in yards per route run. He was fifth against man and eighth against zone.
In other words, this is a receiver who can defeat any type of coverage against a secondary that struggles to cover anyone. It’s a huge mismatch Aiyuk must capitalize on.
OT Colton McKivitz
McKivitz was in the spotlight last week against the Packers as the apparent weak link on the 49er offensive line. Though he gave up five pressures, it was the interior of the offensive line that was the primary issue as Green Bay’s defensive front regularly unsettled Purdy.
But after holding his own relatively well against Rashan Gary, McKivitz will be under scrutiny again as he gets set to face Detroit’s star pass rush Aidan Hutchinson, who had 101 pressures, the second-most in the NFL, in the regular season.
Hutchinson is the player on the Lions’ front who can derail the 49er offense, and McKivitz has a huge challenge on his hands to try stop him.
DE Chase Young
The 49ers’ midseason trade acquisition, Young came in for significant criticism in the wake of the 49ers’ porous performance against the run in the Green Bay game.
While the Niners did an impressive job stopping runs up the middle, they were gashed on the edges, with Young and Nick Bosa struggling against blocks from wide receivers when the Packers ran pin-pull.
Such outside runs have the potential to do huge damage with the Lions possessing a runner with 4.3 speed in the form of rookie Jahmyr Gibbs.
Young’s display in setting the edge will have a substantial influence on the 49ers’ hopes of containing the Lions’ high-powered offense, while it will be interesting to see if the 49ers deploy him inside on pass-rushing downs to take advantage of a banged-up Detroit interior offensive line missing guard Jonah Jackson.
LBs Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw
The Lions’ success on offense has been predicated on them attacking the middle of the field but, in Warner and Greenlaw, the 49ers’ defense is blessed with two linebackers who thrive at taking that area away.
Both were exceptional at restricting the intermediate throwing windows over the middle against the Packers, whose quarterback Jordan Love went just one of four for 15 yards on throws between 10 and 20 yards over the middle.
Facing an offense blessed with a stellar rookie tight end in Sam LaPorta, Warner and Greenlaw will have a significant task on their hands to prevent Jared Goff excelling attacking the middle, but their history suggests they should be up to it.
CB Deommodore Lenoir
One of the most underrated players on the 49er defense, Lenoir has been integral to San Francisco’s success on that side of the ball in 2023.
Playing outside on base downs and in the slot on nickel downs, Lenoir plays physical man coverage and consistently plays with excellent eyes to the ball in zone.
He gave up just eight yards on two receptions against the Packers and will need to be similarly stingy against the Lions’ top receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who rotates consistently between the outside and the slot. If he and Charvarius Ward can help contain the first-team All-Pro, the 49ers should prevail.
49ers’ Kyle Shanahan under biggest pressure of his career
He must rise to the occasion.
