Christian McCaffrey and San Francisco 49ers fall to Philadelphia Eagles in NFC Championship

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line and the San Francisco 49ers seeming like a team of destiny finding success "Mr. Irrelevant" at quarterback, their season did not have the magical ending that the 49er faithful were hoping for.

After falling behind thanks to an Eagles score and some controversial officiating on the first drive of the game, the 49ers saw their young star quarterback Brock Purdy go down with an right elbow injury that kept him out for the remainder of the half, and per a report after the game by ESPN left him unable to throw beyond 10 yards. In stepped the fourth quarterback of the year for San Francisco, journeyman Josh Johnson.

While it wasn't the most smooth transition for Johnson who led the 49ers to two punts on his first two drives in the game, San Francisco did end up tying the game at seven in the second quarter on a monster run from Christian McCaffrey.

HE IS HIM https://t.co/tfgn00S7g5
— Inside The Stanford Cardinal (@InsideStanford) January 29, 2023

The offense was stagnant after that drive however, and the 49ers would eventually go down two scores before Jonson would leave the game early in the third quarter with confusion. This was essentially the beginning of the end for San Francisco, who appeared to flirt with the idea of putting McCaffrey at quarterback but opted to put in the injured Purdy, who threw just two more attempts. Purdy finished 4-of-4 for 23 yards with an average of 1.5 air yards per attempt, which marked the lowest average by a starting quarterback in a playoff game since the stat was first tracked in 2006.

The Eagles would go on to pull away and win 31-7 ultimately ending what had the makings of a magical run for the 49ers.