WR Brandon Aiyuk finds a way to stand out on 49ers offense - ESPN

WHEN BRANDON AIYUK runs — arms pumping, hair flying — everything in his 6-foot, 200-pound body says get out of the way. With 6:30 left in the third quarter of the NFC Championship Game, the Lions leading Aiyuk's 49ers 24-10, he shot off the line of scrimmage from the right side of the Niners' 45. He hit full speed within three strides and just kept going. No moves, no pretense.

Behind him, Brock Purdy took the shotgun snap, jiggled his feet a bit and heaved it in Aiyuk's direction. Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor was down there, too, all by himself, confronting this human blast furnace heading his way. The pass was slightly overthrown, a foot or two past Aiyuk's outstretched right hand but perfect for Vildor, who watched it fly through his hands and smack off his face mask.

By now, everyone knows what happened next: Aiyuk, head up, tracked the ball as it bounced off Vildor's head; his body horizontal and roughly three feet off the ground, he caught it as if this was the plan all along. «Felt like slow motion,» Aiyuk says in the week leading up to the 49ers' meeting the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. «When I close my eyes, I still have the picture in my head.»

It's rare that a game provides such an easily identifiable turning point; this one might as well have come with a siren. But what is less known is what happened after the catch, when Aiyuk returned triumphantly to the offensive huddle.

«Funny you should ask about that,» Aiyuk said.

It turns out there wasn't much triumph; he spent so much time attempting to get coach Kyle Shanahan to challenge the play — thinking he wasn't touched by Vildor and should have had a touchdown — that the only reaction he got from his teammates was to get his complaining butt in