Raheem Mostert celebrated with his friends and family after he thought he made the Cleveland Browns’ roster at the end of the 2016 preseason.

Turns out, Mostert was released the very next day.

“I got immune to being cut,” Mostert said Sunday after the game of his life in which he ran for 220 yards and four touchdowns in the NFC Championship Game.

He became the only player in postseason history to rush for at least 200 yards and four scores — in what’s easily the most prolific rushing performance in San Francisco’s illustrious playoff history.

Mostert accounted for the majority of his team’s offense in a historic performance in the NFC Championship game that sent the 49ers to their seventh Super Bowl in franchise history. The 49ers beat the Packers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, 37-20, and will play the Kansas City Chiefs in two weeks in Miami, where they won their last Super Bowl following the 1994 campaign.

Ground attack leads 49ers to Super Bowl

San Francisco on Sunday ran the ball 42 times and called just eight passes. It was the Raheem Mostert show.

“I just wanted to show the world what I can do,” an emotional Mostert said postgame. “Honestly, it was just one of those things where I really had a talk with my wife and I was just like ‘Hey, what do you think should happen?’ after I got cut. She said ‘Hey, if you love your job, if you love this sport, you will do anything for it and if you love what you do, you will do anything for it.’ That was my philosophy from there on out.”

Mostert was the definition of an NFL journeyman. The Browns, back in 2016, were his fourth NFL team since entering the league primarily as a kick returner in 2015 after going undrafted out of Purdue.

The 49ers were his seventh team when he signed in 2016. And there was no guarantee he would stick around beyond that season because the team just hired Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, who gutted the roster to begin the rebuild toward this NFC Championship.

“They basically told me ‘Hey look, you know how it goes, everybody is going to clean house, have their own guys come in and stuff like that,’” he said. “And they talked to me and said, ‘Hey look, we believe in you. We’re going to give you an opportunity but it’s up to you how you want to spend that opportunity. I took that to heart.”

Mostert said he keeps track of all the dates of his releases from the Eagles, Dolphins, Ravens, Browns, Jets and Bears before making it to the 49ers.

“I was already on six different teams,” he said. “It was one of those things where I was just like ‘Hey look, if they believe in me like they say they do, I know they’re men of their word. All I gotta do is just show up and show out and that’s what I was able to do.

“Here I am today on this podium, just won the NFC Championship and doing what I did out there.”

Mostert emerged from depth chart

Mostert began training camp last summer near the bottom of the running back depth chart as Shanahan had designs of Jerick McKinnon and Tevin Coleman splitting the load while Matt Breida would also get work. Mostert earned his roster spot because he was the team’s best special teams player.

Now, he’s the team’s top running back heading into Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs.

His night began with a touchdown 36-yard touchdown run on a third-and-8 for the game’s first points. He burst threw the left side of the offensive line and beat the Packers secondary to the end zone with his world-class speed (Mostert was a champion sprinter in college).

Mostert got his second score, coming from 9 yards out, the play after Tevin Coleman left the game with a shoulder injury. It was a six-play drive that was all runs. Mostert had another impressive drive just before halftime that included runs of 34, 7 and 10 yards, that led to Robbie Gould’s second field goal to give the 49ers a 20-0 lead at the two-minute warning.

The 49ers took a 27-0 lead into halftime while Mostert had 160 yards and three touchdowns during the first 30 minutes of game time. His 160 rushing yards were the most in the first half of any playoff game since Chargers’ Keith Lincoln had 176 Rush in the 1963 AFL Championship against the Boston Patriots, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“That’s why we say this is a special team, a special group. It’s because of guys like him,” veteran left tackle Joe Staley said of Mostert. “Never complains about his role. ... Just continued to work as hard as he could, try to be the best player he could be for this team.

“To have a huge game like this on the world’s stage is awesome.”

49ers defense continues top play

San Francisco’s defense, meanwhile, continued its high level of play from last week against the Minnesota Vikings. The Packers had just 23 yards on their first 13 plays. They had just 93 net yards at the break.

They didn’t get into 49ers territory until their fourth possession. But after going 50 yards, to San Francisco’s 25-yard line, Aaron Rodgers fumbled the snap and DeForest Buckner recovered for his fifth recovery of the season.

Rodgers also threw an interception to cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, starting in place of Ahkello Witherspoon, that set up Mostert’s third score of the game. His fourth touchdown came from 22 yards to make it 34-7.

Green Bay made it respectable in the second half. They scored touchdowns on three straight possessions as Rodgers started to heat up. He had 262 passing yards after halftime. But the early deficit wasn’t enough to over come as the 49ers controlled the tenor of the game, for the second straight week, by running the ball at an extremely high rate to complement their elite defense.

Against the Vikings, San Francisco dialed up 47 runs to 19 passes. They called 36 more runs than passes on Sunday. It looks like the 49ers are back to their formula from early in the season, which could be what it takes to win the Super Bowl against the Chiefs.

After all, the defense that had the fewest passing yards allowed per game since 2009 (169) is healthy and clicking.

“We won the NFC Championship with it,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “That championship formula makes sense. I just think when we’re at full strength, this is what we want to do.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 9:35 PM.