Steelers Daily Links: Purdy Stays Hot, Kingsbury Out on OC Jobs

After trailing 17-16 at halftime, the San Francisco 49ers out-scored the Seattle Seahawks, 25-6, in the second half to advance to the divisional round. Over in the AFC, the Jacksonville Jaguars came back from a 27-point halftime deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers, 31-30. The Jaguars’ 27-point comeback was the third-largest in playoff history.

49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy continues to turn heads, as the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft is now 6-0 as a starter. Against Seattle, Purdy completed 18 of 30 passes (60%) for 332 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 131.5. He also had a 1-yard rushing touchdown. Purdy is the first rookie quarterback with four total touchdowns in a playoff game, according to NFL Research.

In large part, the Jaguars trailed 27-0 at halftime due to awful quarterback play by Trevor Lawrence. He turned things around drastically in the second half, however. In the first half, Lawrence completed 10 of 24 passes for 77 yards with one touchdown, four interceptions, and a woeful 24.5 passer rating. In the second half, Lawrence was pretty much flawless, completing 18 of 23 passes for 211 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 144.5 passer rating. Lawrence joins Ben Roethlisberger as the only player with four touchdown and four interceptions thrown in a playoff game. Roethlisberger’s four touchdown/four interception performance came in the 2020 wild-card loss to the Cleveland Browns.

According to Warren Sharp, the Chargers are the first team in NFL playoff history to be +5 in the turnover margin and lose the game. Per Jordan Schultz of The Score, several league sources felt Chargers head coach Brandon Staley was coaching for his job on Saturday night and that a loss to the Jaguars would result in him potentially getting fired.

Al Michaels and Tony Dungy were heavily criticized on Twitter for their dullness in calling the Jaguars-Chargers game. With it being the playoffs and one of the best games of the season, it was pretty bad. You can listen to one of the calls here.

Cam Heyward thinks Kenny Pickett has that hunger to be the next great Steelers quarterback. 

The 49ers had the third-most YAC yards (10.3) by a team in a playoff game in the last decade. The Steelers have the most during that span, as Pittsburgh compiled 12.1 YAC yards in their 2016 wild-card win over the Miami Dolphins.

Ben Roethlisberger and co-host Spencer Te’o will have a live Footbahlin podcast recording on Jan. 27 at Cinderlands Beer in the Strip District. The event starts at 6 p.m. and Bob Pompeani will be the guest.

According to Pete Schrager, multiple teams have contacted former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury for their vacant offensive coordiantor job. Following being fired by the Cardinals last week, Kingsbury bought a one way ticket to Thailand and has told teams (respectfully) that he’s not interested at the moment.

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STEELERS, NFL SCHEDULE

🏈 The Seattle Seahawks will play the San Francisco 49ers at 4:30 p.m. and the Los Angeles Chargers will play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 8:15 p.m.

AROUND THE NETWORK

 Pitt’s Calijah Kancey and Israel Abanikanda were on the ESPN Top 100 college players list.

 The Winnipeg Jets grounded the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1.

 Towson transfer FB/TE Luke Hamilton committed to West Virginia.

 Safety Keaton Ellis is returning to Penn State for 2023.

 Could the reunion with the Pirates be the last chapter for Andrew McCutchen?