NFL playoffs: What We Learned from 49ers’ win over Lions in NFC Championship Game

1) Niners finally clear hurdle with legendary comeback. After falling in each of the last two NFC Championship Games, San Francisco carried a weight on its shoulders entering Sunday. This wasn't just about defeating Detroit to reach the Super Bowl, it was about exorcising past demons. And when the Lions took a 24-7 lead in emphatic fashion, things weren't looking great. Many were ready to happily bury Kyle Shanahan's team for a third straight January. But San Francisco persevered, wiping out the 17-point deficit with incredible swiftness, seizing the opportunities afforded it by a turnover on downs and a takeaway in opposing territory, and in the blink of an eye, the 49ers were tied at 24 with all the world's confidence on their side. That confidence morphed into an avalanche of good fortune, and the 49ers rode it to a scoring drive ending in a go-ahead Jake Moody (who overcame an earlier miss) field goal, a fourth-down stop and a dagger of a seven-play, 70-yard drive capped by a violent 25-yard Christian McCaffrey run to set up a 3-yard Elijah Mitchell touchdown run. Once the wheels started rolling on the 49ers' momentum train, there was no stopping it. They're now riding that train to Las Vegas and a return to the Super Bowl, where they'll meet a familiar foe in the Kansas City Chiefs, their Super Bowl LIV foil.

2) Prepare yourself for the Dan Campbell discourse. Folks on television and the internet will undoubtedly spend the next 24-48 hours rehashing each fourth-down decision made by the Lions coach on Sunday. It's fair to discuss, but they'll be willingly overlooking a fact regarding the Lions: They reached the NFC Championship Game by being stubbornly aggressive throughout the 2023 season. Campbell's team prided