49ers couldn’t have planned it better: they just need to keep winning

Sometimes it all works out this way, last-minute victories, a schedule oh so perfect and expectations that even weeks ago bordered on the absurd.

The 49ers couldn’t have planned things better, other than along the way losing the great defenders, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. 

Here they are on the edge of the playoffs and maybe on the edge of the Super Bowl.

But let us take a deep breath. That’s the Seattle Seahawks the Niners play Saturday night at Santa Clara, and even though the Niners are a 1.5 favorite, there may be trouble ahead. Then again, the Chicago Bears were a great deal of trouble, but Sunday night in a game that will remain memorable for its excitement and lead changes, the 49ers managed to win 42-38.

What a game from the start—Chicago’s TJ Edwards, picking off a Brock Purdy pass only 5 seconds off the clock and returning it 34 yards for a touchdown—to the finish, knocking down a desperation pass by Chicago’s Caleb Williams with four seconds left in the game.

Home may not necessarily be where the heart is, but it’s where the Niners hopes are located.

They played the Bears at home, they play the Seahawks at home, and should they advance to the post-season, they would have every game through the Super Bowl at home.

That’s an advantage, no question. But before you get too confident, let’s go back to the 1990 season when the Niners had the home field advantage but were stunned by the New York Giants in the NFC Championship, one game from the Super Bowl.

Surely you are familiar with the oft-used quote by Jim Mora Sr when he was coach of the New Orleans Saints, “You don’t know, you can’t know and you never will know.”

What we do know is that Brock Purdy has become the quarterback the Niners wanted. Against the Bears, he passed for three touchdowns and ran for two.

A football man once told me that a great quarterback can win a game you didn’t expect to win.  Purdy seems to fit right there.

“Purdy made me nervous at first,” Niners coach Shanahan said of Purdy’s play, “but then made me very happy.”

After six straight wins, any coach would be.

“I feel like we have been getting better each week,” said Shanahan. “Last week was our best so far up to (Sunday).”

The whole idea is to play your best when the games matter most. The Niners certainly have been doing that. Lack of defense or not.

Still, you dare not presume too much in sports. Just when things apparently are going beautifully, well, as Mora reminded us, you don’t know. So hang on and hope Purdy will have Shanahan—and the fans—happier than ever.