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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The thunderheads have been in all places you looked — but the least of them were within the sky over Levi's Stadium. The San Francisco 49ers opened the NFL postseason Saturday with a doomlike explosiveness: They had been a crackling electrical storm of a team that offered no respite. The Seattle Seahawks had been simply an excellent group, a lot good, yet they got break up open during this first-circular game like a naked tree in a lightning field, forty one-23, simply unable to contain the outbursts from one massive playmaker after one more. You are looking to beat the 49ers in need of the tremendous Bowl? carry your storm look after.
That young Brock Purdy, along with his Romeo face, half-smooth-cheeked boy and half-man, became the main bolt hurler. He turned into all of 23 years old and acting in his first playoff game — and obviously 71-12 months-historic defensive ball train Pete Carroll would discover some way to distress him. however there become just no approach to do it. After a first ball that sailed on account of the rainwater on it and a couple of neglected opportunities in a primary half that left the 49ers trailing 17-sixteen, Purdy all started firmly planting his toes and flashing the ball to an enormous array of long striders. there were simply too many areas for Purdy to go together with the ball, too many gusting abilities on this huge gale of a squad accumulated by means of Kyle Shanahan.
tracking the multiplicity of the 49ers' attack was a neck-wrenching task: Whom do you follow of their a variety of movements? was wideout Brandon Aiyuk their largest hazard, having had a 1,000-yard season? Or operating back Christian McCaffrey, with whom they don't seem to be coincidentally on an eleven-online game winning streak, given his 12 touchdowns in that stretch? Then once more, you didn't dare take your eyes off Deebo Samuel or Elijah Mitchell, both, or George Kittle together with his seven ratings in his outdated four video games. "Who do you stop?" Carroll asked rhetorically.
however for all of that, the greatest X-factor was Purdy, who became the first rookie to account for four touchdowns in a playoff video game with the aid of throwing for three scores (along with 332 yards) and dashing for one. He was so calm and certain yet so charged with his means to shimmy out of difficulty and hold plays alive along with his legs, then hit a person in the fingers with an off-script strike. "His slitheriness," Samuel called it. "It variety of makes us tired as a result of we should run round so a whole lot."
by way of all rights, the inexperience of Purdy, the closing participant chosen in ultimate year's draft, may still had been a problem for the 49ers to work round after losing Trey Lance after which Jimmy Garoppolo. as an alternative, his ordinary aggregate of calm and swagger has best weaponized them the entire extra. When McCaffrey went bowling off on that sixty eight-yard run halfway during the first quarter, it install the play that dependent Purdy's presence within the video game. On 2nd and aim, Purdy shoulder-twisted far from two fast-closing defenders, and as an alternative of panicking and going blind or sideways, he climbed up in the pocket and located an off-script throw to a slanting McCaffrey, who became up into the end zone from three yards. identical to that, with five minutes nevertheless to go in the opening quarter, the 49ers led 10-0.
within the second half, wherein he changed into a close-ideal 9-for-eleven passing, Purdy made similar performs time and again. The 49ers' pressure of seven minutes 45 seconds to open the third quarter acted like a punch within the mouth and returned the lead to them at 23-17. after which they capitalized on a turnover.
On third and 14, 49ers protecting lineman Charles Omenihu walloped Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and stripped him of the ball, and Nick Bosa covered it up. "The ball changed into on the floor for ages, and i became like, 'Please jump on it,' " Shanahan talked about.
again, it become Purdy who tore open the scoreboard — after wriggling out of catastrophe. because the 49ers have been poised on the Seahawks' 7-yard line, linebacker Bruce Irvin clutched at Purdy's jersey. Purdy spun, made a jagged move to his right and slung it to Mitchell, hitting him square in the arms for the rating. ("It changed into my last study," Purdy observed.) On top of it, he achieved a two-element conversion with a nifty false to McCaffrey adopted with the aid of a bullet to Kittle. unexpectedly it became into an unpleasant runaway.
For a last little bit of fairly execution, how about Purdy on that bare rollout to his left to locate Samuel by myself, with the entire Seahawks defense and the entire stadium considering all of the motion became on the opposite facet? Samuel hit his otherworldly acceleration for a seventy four-yard scoring play, installation via a large block from Aiyuk that walled off the sideline.
just as thunderous for the 49ers had been their most effective protection and brute operating video game (181 yards). "there are such a lot of playmakers, it doesn't even need to be headliners," fullback Kyle Juszczyk observed.
There was one more persona in all of this: the exact storms. The weather changed into a participant in its own right, looming over the lip of the stadium in clusters of dark drifting clouds. At one point during pregame, the container seemed as although it become coated with the aid of a bathe curtain. All week the "atmospheric river" took huge dragon bites out of local coastlines, but the 49ers practiced backyard in an exhibition of prideful, defiant hardihood. protecting coordinator DeMeco Ryans bragged: "They didn't let the aspects of the climate dictate how they were feeling. ... It's a very decent signal when your guys are made from the right stuff." Kittle, the tight end who went 4 days without vigor in his home, definitely observed after one midweek workout, "We had fun today out in the rain and the bloodless."
The climate ebbed and surged by means of the hour. box workforce used huge dryers and tarps to are attempting to offer protection to the natural grass, but a riding sideways rain pelted down for tons of Saturday morning, changed through thick misting fog and shifting wind that blew the banners straight in one course and left them limp in one more, most effective for patches of daylight to appear. Uncertainty ruled on every thing from what classification of cleats to put on to reports that the teams should be prepared for lightning to interrupt the fourth quarter. on the other hand, the 49ers trustworthy pitched tents in the parking plenty and flew bedraggled flags on metallic poles. essentially the most briskly selling black-market gadgets have been plastic ponchos.
however via the closing quarter, the weather seemed simply a gentle backdrop to the tempestuous assault of the 49ers themselves.
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