McCaffrey says NFC Championship feels ‘STOLEN’ after 49ers were forced to play with injured Purdy

Christian McCaffrey has said it feels like the NFC Championship was ‘stolen’ from the 49ers after the team was forced to finish the game with an injured Brock Purdy under center.

Purdy was replaced by backup Josh Johnson in the first quarter after suffering an elbow injury, but was forced to re-enter the game early in the third quarter when Johnson was concussed.

Purdy played out the rest of the game significantly injured – he was later diagnosed with a torn UCL – as the team limped to a 31-7 blowout loss behind dump-offs and run plays. 

‘It’s really tough,’ McCaffrey told Kay Adams on the ‘Up & Adams’ show. 

‘You don’t want to make excuses obviously. It just sucks because we wish we had a healthy quarterback for a full game. 

Christian McCaffrey says the NFC Championship game felt ‘stolen’ from the 49ers

Brock Purdy was forced to re-enter the game after suffering a serious shoulder injury

‘It’s a really good team that we played. But it feels like something got stolen from you.’

The full extent of Purdy’s injury was revealed after the game, as Purdy is expected to miss six months after the injury to his throwing elbow.

The rookie finished the game with just four completions for 23 yards, but it’s his resilience McCaffrey will remember, rather than his stat line.

‘I think it’s a testament to how tough he was to stay in that game and continue to do some stuff,’ the running back said.

‘Because that is a serious injury and a lot of people wouldn’t have done that.’

Meanwhile, Purdy and McCaffrey’s teammate Brandon Aiyuk also expressed the belief that Philly faced an extremely favorable path to the Super Bowl.

McCaffrey appeared on the ‘Up and Adams’ show prior to Sunday’s Super Bowl in Arizona

Brandon Aiyuk believes the Chiefs will not only win the Super Bowl but also expose the Eagles

‘I don’t know fully about [Philly’s] defense. They talk about them being a good defense. I’m not sure,’ Aiyuk said on the ‘SF Niners Podcast.’

‘I think the pass game, this Kansas City pass game will expose what we thought we would be able to expose before some unfortunate circumstances happened, so we’ll see.

‘But like I said, you got to get lucky to win the Super Bowl, and they got extremely lucky.’

The NFC champion Eagles will face the Chiefs in the big game on Sunday.