SANTA CLARA, Calif. - San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan received the NFC championship trophy from his Super Bowl-winning father Mike and raised it to the sky.
The 49ers have gone on a surprising journey from picking No. 2 in the draft to being one of the last two teams standing - and they have one of the most unlikely playoff heroes to thank for it.
Journeyman Raheem Mostert rushed for 220 yards and four touchdowns to make quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo mostly a spectator, Nick Bosa harassed Aaron Rodgers from the start and San Francisco beat the Green Bay Packers 37-20 for the NFC championship on Sunday.
San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert scores in front of Green Bay Packers free safety Darnell Savage during the first half of the NFC title game Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif. / AP photo by Tony Avelar"I did have a lot of doubters and naysayers," said Mostert, who has been cut seven times in his NFL career. "Now I get to actually tell them, 'Look where I'm at now.' I never gave up on my dreams."
The 49ers (15-3) also had their skeptics after winning just 10 games in the first two seasons under Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
They put pieces and systems in place during those rough two seasons, though, and now have advanced to the franchise's first Super Bowl in seven years. The 49ers will play the Kansas City Chiefs (14-4) in Miami Gardens, Florida, in two weeks, when Shanahan will try to join his father as coaching champions.
The Chiefs took the AFC title earlier Sunday by winning 35-24 against the Tennessee Titans (11-8).
"It was pretty special," Shanahan said of his dad being involved at the postgame ceremony. "To get a trophy handed to you by anyone is really cool. It was pretty cool it happened there at the end."
After giving a second thorough beating of the season to Rodgers and the Packers (14-4), the 49ers are the third team to make it to the Super Bowl a season after winning four or fewer games. The others are the 1988 Cincinnati Bengals, who lost to the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII, and the 1999 St. Louis Rams, who beat the Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.
The franchise is going to the Super Bowl for the seventh time.
"It's still kind of surreal," San Francisco linebacker Fred Warner said. "With the stuff this team has gone through, this organization, it's special. Its the pinnacle of football right here."
Bosa, the prize for last year's rough season as the No. 2 overall pick, helped set the tone when he ended Green Bay's second series of the game with a 13-yard sack of Rodgers.
San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa tries to get into the backfield of the Green Bay Packers during Sunday's NFC title game in Santa Clara, Calif. / AP photo by Tony AvelarMostert, a former special teams standout, did much of the rest in a remarkable redemption story for a former surfer who carried the ball only eight times in his first three seasons in the NFL while bouncing from team to team.
He has become a key part of the NFC's top team this year, though, leading the 49ers with 772 rushing yards in the regular season and delivering a performance for the ages in the NFC title game. He had the second-most rushing yards in a playoff game to Eric Dickerson's 248 for the Los Angeles Rams on Jan. 4, 1986, and was the first player to rush for at least four touchdowns and 200 yards in a playoff game.
He got started when he burst 36 yards on a third-and-8 trap play to open the scoring on San Francisco's second drive and kept ripping off long runs behind impressive blocking.
"He's so fast," San Francisco tackle Joe Staley said. "He's incredibly fast. He's fearless going through the hole. He has trust in the linemen to block it up. He's a great running back."
He added scoring runs of 9 and 18 yards in the second quarter and had 160 rushing yards by halftime, becoming the only player in NFL history to rush for at least 150 yards and three touchdowns in the first half of a playoff game.
Mostert added a 22-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
"The lanes that we saw and the way he was running, we just wanted to keep feeding him," Shanahan said. "I know he was feeling it. That wasn't too hard to see."
Rodgers and the Packers were unable to match that performance as they got overwhelmed by San Francisco's dominant front for a second time this season. Rodgers had a career-low 3.15 yards per attempt in a 37-8 loss to the host 49ers in November and wasn't much better in the first half of the rematch.
He lost a snap from center to end Green Bay's only promising drive of the half, threw an interception to Emmanuel Moseley late in the second quarter and didn't convert his first third down of the season - in 18 attempts - against the 49ers until connecting on a 6-yard pass to Aaron Jones on the opening drive of the quarter.
"We just weren't very consistent the first half," Rodgers said. "Made a couple of mistakes personally that hurt us and kind of let it get away from us."
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers sits on the bench during the second half of the NFC title game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif. / AP photo by Ben MargotRodgers capped that drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jones, but the game was too far out of hand by that point.
He led Green Bay to two more touchdowns and finished with 326 passing yards, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Packers lost the NFC title game for the third time since their most recent Super Bowl trip to cap the 2010 season.
"Right now, they are the gold standard in the NFC," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of the 49ers.
Even with San Francisco running back Tevin Coleman leaving in the first half with a shoulder injury, the 49ers asked very little of Garoppolo, who threw only eight passes thanks to the big-play running game and lopsided score. He went 24 minutes of game time between his sixth and seventh passes and finished with six completions for 77 yards, which tied for the second-fewest passes thrown in a playoff game.
The Miami Dolphins completed six of seven passes while beating the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII to cap the 1973 season.
Rodgers' two touchdown passes gave him 40 in his playoff career, breaking Brett Favre's franchise record of 39. Rodgers also has seven straight playoff games with at least two touchdown throws, one shy of Joe Flacco's NFL record.