Dream On

I talked last week about the tradition of Champions the 49ers had created for themselves in the 1980s and 1990s, and how it's endured through to the next generation of the franchise. The 49ers had a chance to add to that heritage on Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVII, and place themselves alongside the legends of Super Bowls past. But after once again falling far behind their opponent only to charge back in the second half, they came up five yards short of one final miracle, falling to the Baltimore Ravens 34-31.

I don't know, for the non-football audience, if there's an equivalent Mets loss that can compare to this. Maybe Game 6 in Atlanta in 1999 is close, but it's impossible to compare Baseball and Football, and I'm too much of a carcass to attempt to do so. It's taken me this long to be able to form coherent enough thoughts to write out here. To call my feelings about this somber would be an understatement. After spending most of last offseason randomly thinking about their loss to the Giants in the Championship game and what might have been, I've now got to look forward to another offseason, thinking about a close game that came down to a few plays, a few missed opportunities, and a loss that will rankle me for the next several months. Yes, I'll cheer up in a day or two and everything will get back to normal. Yes, I'll also spend a lot of time reflecting on what a great season this was, and the wild ride that took the Niners all the way down to the Super Bowl, but they couldn't bring home that 6th title. The legacy of the 49ers, to have made it to the Super Bowl so many times and always managed to emerge victorious, is now tainted. And that sucks. Many people seem to have the prevailing thought that in many ways, it's better to not make it to the Super Bowl altogether than it is to go there and lose it. A loss in the Super Bowl, constantly the most-watched sporting event of the year, can brand you with a negative label, whether it's earned or not, that you'll constantly have to overcome. I've been through slews of shitty playoff losses, I've seen the Niners hang in and lose by a hair, and I've seen them get smoked. But I've never seen them lose quite like they did last night.

The 49ers came out and appeared ready to exchange punches with the Ravens. They fell behind early, but not so much that it concerned me. They'd been playing from behind every week. Nonetheless, they would have been wise to not let Baltimore get too far ahead. Their defense, even with their deficiencies, was better than Atlanta's. And Joe Flacco came out as strong as I'd expected. To win, the 49ers would have to move the ball and score often. But this appeared to fall apart in the 2nd quarter, when a pair of turnovers spelled instant disaster. First, LaMichael James' fumble, which killed a drive that appeared primed to end in points when he coughed it up struggling for yards in a scene similar to Michael Crabtree's fumble in Atlanta. That ended in a Baltimore touchdown. Then, Colin Kaepernick, who had been scintillating throughout the playoffs, made a rare mistake, tried to do a little too much and overshot Randy Moss and hit Ed Reed instead. That was when I started getting really worried. Kaepernick had just thrown the first Interception ever thrown by a 49ers Quarterback in the Super Bowl and it couldn't have come at a worse time. Baltimore's possession that time ended with a fake Field Goal that probably would have ended with a Touchdown had Patrick Willis not snuffed it out. But Baltimore got their touchdown the next time out courtesy of Jacoby Jones, who basically did an excellent job of making Chris Culliver look like even more of a chump than Culliver had made himself look on the way to a 56-yard score and a 21-6 Ravens lead at the half. Jacoby Jones followed with a haymaker after halftime, running back the opening kickoff 108 yards for another score that, as far as I was concerned, may as well have put the lights out on the game. They had committed far too many mistakes and minor as they may have been, they had begun to add up to disaster.

Down 28-6, the 49ers probably couldn't have been blamed for lying down. But true to the form that got them to this point, they did not. Following the bewildering power outage that did little more than give me time to stew over this mess, the 49ers regrouped, got their asses in gear, and began to fight back. And they fought back fast. Within mere minutes, 28-6 had become 28-23 and all of a sudden everyone was back into this thing. And it was all generated by Colin Kaepernick.

It wasn't so much that Kaepernick played particularly badly in the first half. He may have had moments where he didn't relax, which had been his undoing in certain instances, but I can't recall more than 2 or 3 bad throws out of him all day. He wasn't helped by a number of drops from his receivers. But there's just something about Kaepernick. When he gets the offense going, it appears to energize the entire team. You can see it happening. He hit Crabtree for the 49ers first touchdown and immediately, the 49ers Defense came to life and stopped the Ravens cold, even forcing a fumble from Ray Rice. The touch was back on his passes and the 49ers began ripping through the Baltimore Defense. You can say whatever you want about Kaepernick now, and I suppose people already have. Bill Cowher even went on CBS during the power outage and called for Alex Smith. That wasn't ever going to happen. If there was any Quarterback who could have led the 49ers back into the game, it sure as hell wasn't Alex Smith. Kaepernick had gotten them this far and he damn near brought them all the way back once again. As far as I'm concerned, Colin Kaepernick's performance bordered on Heroic. This team respects and loves him so much that when he kicks it into gear, it feels like the entire team kicks in with him. And that's exactly what happened in the 3rd Quarter Sunday night.

The game from there was the back and forth I'd expected. The 49ers got a Touchdown from Gore and a Field Goal from Akers (who shut everyone up by hitting all 3 Field Goals he attempted) before the Ravens finally responded. But by that point, the 49ers had begun to generate enough on defense to slow down, if not stop completely, the Ravens attack. Now, they were the ones getting the Field Goals. The 4th Quarter began with one for Baltimore, but the 49ers responded by zipping right down the field for another Touchdown, this one from Kaepernick himself on a 15-yard scramble that put the 49ers within a 2-point conversion of tying the game at 31. But the Ravens came on an all-out blitz on the conversion, forcing Kaepernick to throw the ball away.

Baltimore kicked another Field Goal on their final drive, aided by a Pass Interference penalty on Chris Culliver and an offsides call. Little things that hurt. So with the score 34-29, and about 4 minutes to go, the 49ers had one final chance to get the ball into the End Zone, erase the deficit, erase the Ravens and bring home a Title. Colin Kaepernick had done it all to this point, and now here was his Joe Montana moment. As he had all second half, Kaepernick threaded passes with precision. Frank Gore, suddenly energized in the second half, came up with a pair of key runs. The Ravens defense was gassed. It was all coming together, just as I saw Joe Montana do it so many years before. Colin Kaepernick was going to pull off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl History and put his name alongside the NFL's elite...

...They came up five yards short.

There were many questions after the game, and it may be some time before they get answered. The 49ers committed a myriad of mistakes that offset the fact that they out-gained the Ravens by over 100 yards of offense, and offset the fact that Colin Kaepernick threw for over 300 yards, Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree caught over 100 yards worth of passes and Frank Gore ran for over 100 yards. When that kind of production happens and you lose, you probably screwed up badly in other places.

The 49ers defense was abysmal through the first half, and when they really needed a stop in the 4th Quarter, they couldn't get it. The problem isn't the players, it's the depth. The 49ers have made it through the season rarely substituting on defense. The guys were just gassed. And without experienced backups, that becomes a liability.

The play calling, both early and late, was terrible. The final series for the 49ers will probably be scrutinized for weeks to try to figure out what they could have done differently to make up those 5 yards that they couldn't get. The final 3 plays were all passing plays. That probably shouldn't have happened. Where was Frank Gore? Gore had run up 110 yards for the game, most of them in the 4th Quarter. The 49ers had particular success running Gore on misdirection plays away from the action, and besides the point, Gore's strength is his ability to weave his way through tacklers. Where was a designed roll out for Kaepernick? Where was Vernon Davis (Bill Barnwell on Grantland noted that this would have been a perfect spot for the same Vernon Post play that won them the Saints game last year), who had been similarly unstoppable? Three consecutive pass plays directed at the same receiver, Michael Crabtree, though perhaps high-percentage, didn't play to Kaepernick's particular strength and also really wasn't the kind of play calling that got the 49ers to that point.

Whether or not Crabtree was the victim of a helmet-to-helmet hit on 3rd down, or held on 4th down is immaterial. Bad officiating and non-calls are a regular occurrence in the NFL. The 49ers were also done in by some penalties that they richly deserved. The referees did a bad job, but the play on 4th down—Crabtree was held by Jimmy Smith—is almost always never called. It wasn't called on NaVorro Bowman in the Championship game, either. My feeling is that the 49ers are less sore losers than simply frustrated from how close they came to winning this game. Or maybe that's just what I'd like to believe. Either way, them's the breaks. I can't get too bent out of shape about it because it shouldn't have come down to that. There's plenty of other things to be bent out of shape about.

For the second season in a row, the 49ers have made a deep playoff run that ended with an excruciating loss. That it's come after so many years of losing is a testament to what Jim Harbaugh has brought to the team—yes, often at the expense of classiness, but the NFL is about winning games, not pleasing the press—and they have the pieces in place for continued success. The 2012 season brought Colin Kaepernick to the forefront as the future of the 49ers at Quarterback. Though he was up and down in his first half-season as a starter, he showed his stuff on the biggest of stages and although last night wasn't his time to shine brightest, he proved he belongs. He's got limitless potential and clearly, he's the future of the 49ers. The remaining core pieces of the team, Gore, Crabtree, Vernon Davis, Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Aldon Smith, Anthony Davis, Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Delanie Walker, DaShon Goldson and Andy Lee will all be back. Many of them are still young and entering the prime of their careers.

But youth and talent doesn't guarantee continued success. That's the nature of the NFL. That's why I said every Championship season is special and precious and the opportunity to be in the Super Bowl shouldn't ever be taken for granted. The 49ers were perilously close to not even winning the NFC West this season, or being stuck without a 1st round bye. Who's to say that the Seahawks, who were up the Niners' asses all season, don't continue to ascend and prove an even tougher opponent than last year? The St. Louis Rams also improved by leaps and bounds. Outside the division, there's plenty of other teams that can cause plenty of headaches. That doesn't even account for injuries and other teams adjusting to the 49ers style of play. Sometimes, making the Super Bowl is the worst thing that can happen to a team, win or lose. It leads to the assumption that you're probably good enough. The hope is that the 49ers realize that they're only good enough to compete for a Championship. There's still pieces that can be added, particularly for depth, something that's often overlooked.

No, there's nothing to be ashamed about. They just fell behind too far too early and ran out of time. Their defense couldn't account for the buzzsaw that Joe Flacco had become and their play calling lacked variety at a key moment. They were behind 22 points and damn near made it up. The point is, it's a bitch and a half to have come all this way for two years in a row, battle hard through two seasons, overcome a really bitter playoff defeat, stay mostly healthy and make it all the way back, get to the Super Bowl and lose. Last year, the 49ers used their defeat in the Championship Game to rally them all the way back and into the Super Bowl. But 5 yards away from bringing home the ultimate prize, they fell short. And for the second year in a row, I'll have to spend the offseason thinking about what might have been.

Bring It Home

It shouldn't be that difficult to figure out who I'm picking to win Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday, but the reason for my selection goes deeper than my allegiance. The 49ers and the Ravens appear pretty evenly matched, much moreso than most Super Bowls tend to be.

Usually, when the 49ers have been in the Super Bowl, I've felt fairly confident that the 49ers are going to win the game. Super Bowl XXIX was a pretty good example of this. The 49ers were far and away better than the San Diego Chargers, and the 18 1/2 point spread was indicative of that. Basically, come game day, I felt that there was no earthy way the 49ers wouldn't win, and I was right. The Chargers never posed a serious threat and the 49ers cruised to a 49-26.

This season, I believe the 49ers are a better team than the Ravens, but they're not so much better that the game is a mismatch. Just about everything I've read and seen and heard over the two weeks of hype leading up to the game has proven that although the 49ers are favored by 3 1/2 points, it's really anyone's game.

The Ravens come into this Super Bowl riding an emotional high that's been centered around their retiring superstar Ray Lewis. They've overcome some pretty heavy obstacles to get here. I didn't pick them in any of their 3 playoff games, and they shut me up by winning all 3. Prior to the Wildcard Round, I ridiculed their Quarterback, Joe Flacco, as a wimp, and he's shut me up by playing some of the best Football of his life. They beat the Colts at home pretty convincingly. On the road in Denver, in an impossible situation, they won again thanks to a miracle Touchdown pass from Flacco to Jacoby Jones and their defense's ability to force Peyton Manning into making a key mistake in Overtime. They capped off their journey with another impressive road victory in New England, where they just laid down the hammer on Tom Brady in the second half of the game and coasted home from there. Flacco has proven himself capable of any challenge and unflappable in a difficult situation, and his play is really the reason they've made it to the Super Bowl. He's going to be a major challenge for the 49ers. Ray Rice has played well, but it's been the play of their receivers, specifically Jones and Torrey Smith, and Anquan Boldin, who has really raised his game to another level after a subpar regular season.

They'll be facing a 49ers defense that really got lit up by Matt Ryan and the Falcons in the Championship game, and took a half to really get going against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Their pass rush holds the key to this game. Ever since Justin Smith injured his triceps against New England, it hasn't been the same. Aldon Smith, who set a club record with 19 1/2 sacks this season, hasn't had one since Smith got injured. Though Justin Smith is back, he's clearly not 100%, and it's allowed opposing Quarterbacks to put up some gaudy numbers against them. However, in spite of this, the 49ers have been able to get stops when they absolutely had to. Though they were in a real dogfight in the Green Bay game, they eventually wore down the Packers' offensive line in the 3rd quarter, slowing down Rodgers enough for the offense to put the game out of reach. In Atlanta, they barely laid a hand on Ryan, but come the second half, they forced him into a pair of turnovers, and once they got the lead, they came up with a huge 4th down stop in the closing minutes to seal the victory. Even with their pass rush suffering, guys like NaVorro Bowman, Ahmad Brooks, Carlos Rogers, Dashon Goldson, Donte Whitner and Tarell Brown raised their game enough to compensate. Patrick Willis, of course, has always been on another level. One huge thing the 49ers have been able to do all season has been that even when they allow a receiver to make a catch, they've usually tackled him right there and prevented a bigger gain.

Though the 49ers have built their reputation on defense these past two years, it's been the offense that has stolen the show in the Playoffs. It's all revolved around Colin Kaepernick, who has proven himself a serious threat no matter what he does with the ball. The Packers tried to muscle up against their running backs, so Kaepernick simply ran around them. The Falcons tried to cut off the edges of the field to prevent him from running, so instead he handed off to Frank Gore and LaMichael James and let them do the damage. And neither of those teams did a very good job of stopping him from throwing the ball, whether it was to Michael Crabtree, Randy Moss or Vernon Davis.

The Ravens defense did a good job against all of their playoff opponents, particularly New England. But all of their opponents had problems running the ball against them, which allowed them to key in on stopping the Quarterback. They haven't faced someone quite as multifaceted as Kaepernick, and the 49ers tandem of Frank Gore and LaMichael James (who has emerged as a star-in-waiting this postseason). The Colts didn't have it with Donald Brown and what's-his-face, the Broncos backs were unimpressive, and they just knocked Stevan Ridley out cold in the Championship. Gore and James will prove a bit more formidable a test. The other problem they have is that, unlike the 49ers, who boast a lot of youth and speed on defense, the Ravens defense is comprised mostly of veterans who are entering the latter stages of their careers. Ray Lewis doesn't have the sideline-to-sideline speed he once had, and if he matches up one-on-one with Vernon Davis, that's going to be a problem. Their pass rush has been spotty, too. The key for the Ravens on defense, much like for the 49ers, will be if they can generate a pass rush against a 49ers Offensive Line that's been great all season. The other key will be if their Linebackers and Secondary can prevent the 49ers from turning the short pass into the big gain. Though the 49ers were able to open up a much more vertical passing game with Kaepernick at the helm than they were with Alex Smith, they still rely on the quick passes and short routes an awful lot.

Special Teams is something else that could rear its ugly head on both sides. The Ravens kick coverage team has had its share of problems. They allowed a pair of kick returns for Touchdowns against Denver. Though Ted Ginn, Jr, hasn't been as explosive as he has been in years past, he's still a threat, and LaMichael James has also performed well returning kickoffs. Jacoby Jones on the Ravens side has been very solid. But the biggest wildcard of the game is David Akers for the 49ers. An elite Kicker for years, Akers has struggled with injuries and inconsistency all season, to the point where he's now a major liability. He missed an eminently makeable Field Goal in Atlanta. His confidence appears completely shot and the 49ers already attempted to bring in another Kicker to compete for the job, but that didn't work. Many have questioned why Akers wasn't cut outright, but the real reason is that most out-of-work Kickers are out of work for a reason: They're not very good. If the game comes down to a Field Goal, that's a sticky situation. If Akers misses a Field Goal early, it calls the way the 49ers play out the rest of the game into question. I have the feeling that the 49ers may go for it on 4th down more than once in this game. The hope is that it won't come down to that. One thing that the 49ers have done well, particularly with Kaepernick at Quarterback, is finishing off their drives with Touchdowns rather than settling for Field Goals.

One intangible thing I've noticed amid the hype-fest is the focus of the two teams. Ever since the 49ers won the Championship, the focus has been on prepping and planning to win the Super Bowl. That seems to be the singular focus across the team, outside of an ill-advised comment from Chris Culliver, and an outrageous statement from Randy Moss that may have been done to draw attention away from his teammates so they can focus and prepare, and onto himself, since he's used to all sorts of media attention anyway. On the other hand, the Ravens appeared to be more interested in junking the Patriots and complaining, be it Flacco talking about next year's Super Bowl in New Jersey, or Bernard Pollard whining about fines, rather than discussing the game, and what's besides the point is that Ray Lewis is the only player anyone seems interested in saying anything about, whether it's good or bad. As a team, their focus has come off really weird. This may be another one of my ridiculous observations, and may mean nothing, but it's something worth noticing.

Putting it all together, I think this is the 49ers game. They have the players that can control the tempo of the game, and the kind of rhythm on both sides of the ball that, when they're working well, can slowly but surely wear down their opponent. This is how they've won in the Playoffs, by wearing down their opponent. Even when they've started slow, they haven't panicked, they stuck to their game plan and remained patient enough for the games to work back into their favor. Two major things that can't be coached, youth and speed, are on their side. Two weeks ago, I said that they played this entire season to get to the Championship game and win, so that they could go forward and win the Super Bowl. The chance is right there for them, and I believe they will go out on Sunday and grab it.
Prediction: 49ers 30, Ravens 23

Champions Endure

Between 1981 and 1994, the 49ers won 5 Super Bowl Championships. Though this isn't the most among NFL franchises, it does represent perhaps the greatest string of extended success in league history. Under the stewardship of former Owner Eddie DeBartolo, and two coaches, Bill Walsh and George Seifert, the 49ers won titles in 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1994, placing themselves among the elite franchises in the league and making legends out of some of the great players who won with them, players like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Steve Young, Brent Jones, Dwight Clark, Fred Dean and Roger Craig, and even some of their lesser-known players like Dwight Hicks, Freddie Solomon, Randy Cross, Jesse Sapolu and John Taylor grabbed a piece of the spotlight.

The 49ers have only won Super Bowls. If they didn't win it, they never got there in the first place. These seasons usually ended with disappointing playoff losses, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were bad years. The 49ers had some marvelous seasons during the 80s and 90s, years like 1983, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997, and even several others where they made the playoffs, only to get picked off before reaching their ultimate goal. Most teams would be envious for a string of success. Hell, the current incarnation of the Jets appears to be trading high on losing consecutive AFC Championship Games.

But for the 49ers, getting close hasn't been good enough. The 49ers lost consecutive Championship Games to Dallas in 1992 and 1993. Great seasons for the team, but rarely, if ever, discussed, because for the 49ers, bringing home a Super Bowl Championship was the only thing that mattered. It holds true a generation later. Getting to the NFC Championship in 2011 after so many losing seasons was sweet, but they lost. Going back to the NFC Championship in 2012 was, again, sweet, but they couldn't lose it again. Another loss would not only have hurt, as every one of those losses does, but it would have killed the legitimacy of this recent string of good fortune that the 49ers have had. But they won.

2011 could have been like 1981 for the 49ers. The 49ers, for the majority of the 1970s had been bad, embarrassingly bad, to the point where they suffered through 2-14 seasons in both 1978 and 1979. But in 1979, Bill Walsh was brought in as head coach, and he rebuilt the team, piece by piece. In 1980, they jumped to 6-10. But their meteoric rise to 13-3 in 1981 was completely unexpected. Much like in 2011, the 49ers found themselves hosting the NFC Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys. Unlike 2011, the 49ers made it through victorious, in a game that lives on in NFL Lore thanks to The Catch. Two weeks later, the 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals to win their first title.

Three seasons later, the 49ers won another Super Bowl. The 1984 49ers were, arguably, the finest team the 49ers had assembled. Buoyed by a Championship Game loss the year before, the 49ers rampaged through the season losing only once, finishing with a 15-1 record, coasted through the playoffs and pasted the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX.

It's probably the 1988 Super Bowl that everyone remembers most, as Super Bowl XXIII culminated with Joe Montana orchestrating a 92-yard drive in the closing minutes of the game, throwing the winning touchdown to John Taylor with :34 seconds left as the 49ers beat the Bengals once again, 20-16.

The 49ers rode the momentum of their 1988 Championship right through 1989. Despite Bill Walsh retiring and George Seifert taking over as coach, the 49ers never missed a beat, going 14-2 and steamrolling their way to their second consecutive Super Bowl Championship. Joe Montana cemented his place as one of the best Quarterbacks ever, throwing a then-record 5 Touchdown passes in a 55-10 demolition of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV.

The following years brought more transition and a lot of frustration. Primed for an unprecedented 3rd consecutive title, the 49ers found themselves back in the NFC Championship against the New York Giants. Though the 49ers held a lead in the 4th quarter, Joe Montana was knocked from the game after a crushing hit from Leonard Marshall. The Giants would capitalize on a fake punt and a Roger Craig fumble to push across the winning points on a last second Field Goal, ending the 49ers run and effectively ending Joe Montana's career with the 49ers. Steve Young, who had spent several seasons as a more-than-capable backup for Montana, was now given a chance to start. The 49ers missed the playoffs altogether in 1991, with Young missing part of the season due to injury, but in 1992, the 49ers were dominant once again, going 14-2 and once again in the NFC Championship game. But they were knocked off at home by a young and opportunistic Dallas Cowboys team, and in 1993, the Cowboys beat them in the Championship again. Though Steve Young had some fine seasons, he was in an impossible position, having to live up to the shadow cast by Joe Montana.

By 1994, the 49ers and Cowboys had clearly established themselves as the two dominant teams in the NFL. They would surely meet in the NFC Championship, and the winner was a mortal lock to win the Super Bowl. After losing the past two seasons, the 49ers had re-tooled themselves with an eye towards one goal: Beat Dallas. Many new faces, such as Deion Sanders and Rickey Jackson were brought in, but many of the main characters remained the same as the two teams followed the collision course everyone had expected. The 49ers were once again hosting Dallas in the Championship. A third loss would have been catastrophic. Everyone knew that. Lose again and the team would blow itself up. But the 49ers were so keyed in on this game and attacked Dallas with ferocity, forcing 3 turnovers and running out to a 21-0 lead less than 7 minutes into the 1st Quarter. Though Dallas gamely hung around, they couldn't overcome the early deficit, falling 38-28, as the 49ers advanced to, and ultimately won, Super Bowl XXIX, a 49-26 victory over the San Diego Chargers, who may as well have been sacrificial lambs. Steve Young broke Joe Montana's record with 6 Touchdown passes, won the game's MVP and finally stepped out of the shadow and grabbed some of the spotlight for himself.

Though many of the 2012 incarnation of the 49ers weren't even alive in 1981, and were in their formative years in 1994, the mission that was established in the 1980s still holds true for them. The 49ers go to the Super Bowl and Win. Patrick Willis was one of the first to say this during the week. Losing in the Championship game hurts badly enough, and the 49ers have certainly played with thoughts of last year's loss in their minds all season long, and I think it's one of the things that has carried them into the Super Bowl this year. But now, they have to win that final game. The team that loses the Super Bowl is forgotten rather quickly, and for the 49ers, who knows how that would sit among their history. The years that the 49ers played well and didn't win tend to be treated like footnotes. That's the fine line between winning and losing, especially for a team with the winning tradition like the 49ers have established. Few teams have even been to the Super Bowl 5 times, and fewer still have won 5 Titles. The 49ers are the only team that has been there 5 times and won it each time. That's the way the 49ers have done it. And it's this team's turn to continue that tradition. When you win, your Championship will endure forever.

Out Of The Fire

It is incredibly difficult to reach the Conference Championship Game in the NFL in any given year, let alone two years in a row. It's tough enough to get that far and then lose, and to lose it twice in a row is not only painful because of the work you put in as a team to get there, but because of the knowledge that all that work has gone for naught two years in a row. After making it to the NFC Championship Game last year, the 49ers, determined from day 1, made it all the way back to this game, amid the controversy of a midseason Quarterback switch designed to get them to this game and beyond. I mentioned on Friday that Jim Harbaugh went to Colin Kaepernick with an eye to getting them further than Alex Smith had last season. Sunday, Harbaugh got his vindication and the 49ers made it through to the Super Bowl with a spirited 28-24 victory on the road against the Atlanta Falcons.

That's not to say it was perfect, easy or very pretty at all. In order to win this one, Colin Kaepernick would have his mettle tested like never before, and the team would have to rally together to overcome a deficit in a hostile environment.

I anticipated a breathless day, and really, I was about as tense as I can ever remember being before a 49ers Playoff game. For as many years as I've been following this team and for as many Conference Championship games as they've made, it's never an easy game to wait for, and as I've grown older and learned to appreciate the fragility of the NFL season a bit more, it creates that much more tension. And then the game started and the 49ers got off to about as bad a start as you could have in a big game. The game started out frighteningly similar to the Seattle game a few weeks ago. Atlanta took the opening kickoff and Matt Ryan rocketed down the field, hitting his dangerous array of receivers like clockwork and keeping the 49ers instantly on their heels before striking Julio Jones for a 46-yard Touchdown. Both Dashon Goldson and Tarell Brown appeared to get mixed up in coverage, and Jones was simply off to the races.

This wasn't so concerning. The 49ers were down last week against Green Bay and Kaepernick led them right back for a score immediately. But instead, the 49ers went 3 and out, the final play a pass to Vernon Davis that appeared on target, but was broken up by an Atlanta defender at the last minute. They punted the ball back to Atlanta and Ryan went to work right again, once again spreading the ball around between Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez in a drive that ended up in a Field Goal. Now, I was starting to get a little worried. After the 49ers went 3 and out again, I was concerned. And when Atlanta tore down the field again for another Touchdown in just 4 plays, I was beginning to Freak. The. Fuck. Out. Ryan was torching the Niners, they'd been outgained 182 to -2 in yardage, down 17-0 on the road and the crowd was bouncing off the walls, sensing the kill. The 49ers had made it all the way back to the NFC Championship, battled through a long season with all the crap they have to put up with only to get their doors blown off?

Was this really how it was going to go down?

The answer was a resounding no. Though the 49ers hadn't managed a damn thing in their first two possessions, it wasn't as though they'd looked especially bad. They just needed to find a rhythm on offense. Colin Kaepernick, who struggled so mightily with the noise on the road in Seattle, seemed calm and collected. Even in a raucous Georgia Dome, Kaepernick was poised. The 49ers consistently got to the line in plenty of time, Kaepernick appeared to go to a system of hand signals and movements to specific players in formation, and eventually the 49ers began to inch their way back into the game. When all the chips were down, Kaepernick got tough and led the 49ers down the field on a 11 play drive that ended with a LaMichael James Touchdown to get the 49ers on the board, get their defense some rest and restore some control.

But there was more to this drive than simply Kaepernick. It was what he did with the ball in his hand. Last week, Kaepernick picked the Packers apart using the deception of the read option to throw the Green Bay defenders onto the scent of a Running Back who didn't have the ball, or a receiver who wouldn't catch the ball, and instead running it himself. On Sunday, Kaepernick again ran the read option to perfection, only this time, with the Falcons charging off the edges to prevent him from running, he was instead handing off and letting Frank Gore or LaMichael James run up a generally vacated middle, or zipping passes around to Michael Crabtree, Randy Moss and Vernon Davis. On that first Touchdown drive, Kaepernick completed 5 consecutive passes before James scored on a nifty 15-yard run off the right end.

Finally rested, the 49ers defense was able to slow down Ryan and the Falcons, allowing one first down before stopping Atlanta and forcing a punt. The ensuing 49er drive was conceived much like the prior one, with Kaepernick spreading the ball around, only running once, for 23 yards, when an intended pass play started to break down. Kaepernick's preferred target on this drive was Vernon Davis, who caught a key pass for 19 yards on 2nd and long, and had another key catch for 25 yards to set up his 4-yard Touchdown grab that brought the 49ers back from 17-0 to 17-14. For Davis, who'd become a lost man in this Kaepernick-led offense, it was a re-emergence of a great player at the right time. Davis had been averaging a catch a game, startling for an elite Tight End who had been a favorite target of Alex Smith's. But he never complained, he never quit on plays, and today he found himself playing a major part of the 49ers comeback.

But with the Falcons now back on their heels, they responded from the 49ers charge with a perfectly executed 2-minute drill. Matt Ryan has made a name for himself for years being able to conduct this drill, and he put on a clinic once Atlanta got the ball back with 1:55 to go before halftime. Ryan covered 75 yards in just 1:30, hitting Tony Gonzalez in the end zone for a huge Touchdown right before halftime to get Atlanta's lead back to 10 points at 24-14, and perhaps restoring some order to a game that clearly wasn't going to be as easy for them as the first 15+ minutes had appeared. The 49ers kneeled on the ball to end the half, but clearly this was going to be anyone's game. Kaepernick proved himself unfazed. The key was whether or not the 49ers defense could slow down Ryan, keep Atlanta off the scoreboard and perhaps force a couple of turnovers.

By all accounts, the answer would be yes, though much like the whole of the game it wouldn't be very pretty. Unless it involved Colin Kaepernick. Then, it was downright gorgeous.

Kaepernick started the second half of the game right where he left off with the first half, by attacking the Falcons with a series of precision passes, most of which came on 1st and 2nd down, leaving the 49ers with manageable, short-yardage situations that were easily picked up by Gore and James. Kaepernick hit Randy Moss on a pair of long passes, setting up a 5-yard Touchdown from Frank Gore, cutting the Atlanta lead back to 3 and putting the pressure squarely back on Matt Ryan to make a big play.

The following sequence involved a steep shift in momentum that might have broken a lesser team, but the 49ers proved that on this day, though they might have bent, nothing was going to break them.

Ryan began to smartly move the Falcons down the field, as he had all day. The 49ers defensive line, that was eventually able to wear down the Packers front and get pressure on Aaron Rodgers, was having no such luck against the Falcons. Ryan consistently found himself with plenty of time, so the only hope for the 49ers defense was if they could just get him to make a mistake...which he did with just over 7 minutes to play in the 3rd Quarter. Roddy White slipped while running a short pass route just inside the San Francisco 40 yard line, and Chris Culliver stepped in front of him to pick off the pass. It was the key play the 49ers were looking for on defense and set up Kaepernick and the offense with a chance to at least tie and possibly take the lead. Kaepernick immediately responded with a long strike to Vernon Davis, immediately setting up the 49ers in Field Goal range. Kaepernick's second, and last, run of the day netted -2 yards, and ultimately David Akers came out for an eminently makeable 38 yard Field Goal attempt. But, Akers has been a liability this year, and there really hasn't been a better option to replace him (another kicker, Billy Cundiff, was signed and then released during the playoffs without ever being used), and this bit the 49ers in the ass when his kick clanged off the top of the upright and bounced backward, no good, and keeping the game at 24-21.

With a chance to grab the momentum back, Ryan again got Atlanta moving on offense, but his fine drive once again short-circuited when he took his eyes off a snap just inside San Francisco's 30 yard line. Ryan never got a handle on the ball and lost it. Aldon Smith, who had intended to blitz, alertly jumped on the loose ball, giving the 49ers yet another chance to grab the lead. Once again, Kaepernick put the 49ers in position to score, this time firing the key strike to Michael Crabtree to put the 49ers in position. At the Atlanta 5, Kaepernick hit Crabtree on a slant, the same play on which Crabtree scored 1 of his two touchdowns last weekend. Crabtree was met by a pair of Falcon defenders at the 1, and when he struggled to try to reach the ball into the end zone, one of them managed to knock the ball out of his hands for a devastating Fumble that Atlanta recovered. Once again, the 49ers had a golden opportunity to grab a lead go by the wayside. This was most frustrating, because you knew the 49ers weren't going to get many more chances like that, and Ryan had been hot all day.

But, taking over at his own 1-yard line, Ryan couldn't move the Falcons out of their end, resulting in their first 3-and-out of the game. Ted Ginn, Jr, conspicuously unavailable in last year's Championship game, got his hands on the punt and got a good return well inside Atlanta territory. With one more opportunity, Kaepernick and Frank Gore made sure to finish the drive this time. In a drive mostly conceived on the ground, Gore, James and Anthony Dixon pounded out the necessary yards, with a short pass to Crabtree mixed in, culminating with Gore's second Touchdown of the game, from 9 yards out, giving the 49ers the 28-24 lead they'd been chasing all second half with 8:23 to play. Upon reaching the end zone, Gore began mocking Atlanta fans by starting to do the old "Dirty Bird" dance, before giving up and waving everyone off. But it would be fitting that on this day, Frank Gore, the old veteran and one of the last holdovers from a really dark era of 49ers Football, would get the Touchdown that put the 49ers ahead to stay.

They still had to stop Atlanta one more time, though. With 8 minutes left, Matt Ryan had loads of time with which to work, and work he did, slowly moving the Falcons down the field, spreading the ball around as he did all game. The 49ers still had little luck getting much pressure on Ryan, and he spread the ball around as the clock ticked down. The 49ers caught a break when Harry Douglas slipped while catching—or not catching—a pass when Carlos Rogers had fallen down in coverage. With under 2 minutes left, the Falcons had worked themselves down to the 49ers 16-yard line. On 2nd down, Ryan hit Jason Snelling for a 5-yard gain, but when he released the ball, Ahmad Brooks hit him, then landed on him, separating his non-throwing shoulder. In pain but undaunted, Ryan got back to the line. His 3rd down pass was intended for Roddy White, who seemed primed to score had Ahmad Brooks not batted the pass away.

So it came down to one last play, on 4th down. Ryan  looked for White again, over the middle. But his pass was behind White, who may or may not have been held by NaVorro Bowman, and Bowman knocked the pass down. I leapt out of my chair and started jumping around the room, which startled the cat a bit. Rejoice! Maybe...Not yet...There was still 1:09 to go, and Atlanta still had two Timeouts. The 49ers couldn't run it out just yet. And they didn't, because after doing such a masterful job of working through the crowd noise, only now did Kaepernick commit a Delay of Game penalty. Gore got some of the yards back, but the 49ers still had to punt with :13 seconds left. But an injured Ryan couldn't get much on his desperation pass, and Julio Jones was tackled before he could start a circus lateral play. The clock finally hit :00. The 49ers had finally broken through! Finally! Back to the Super Bowl!

The postgame was the predictable elation. Jim Harbaugh disappeared, deferring the moment to his players. Eddie DeBartolo, the great former owner of the 49ers, handed the George Halas trophy off to his nephew, current owner John York. Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore and Patrick Willis did some interviews—what they said, I couldn't tell you, I was busy reveling—and at some point I guess the other game had started, but I didn't care. How could you not be happy for guys like Gore and Willis and Davis, who played for years on teams that did nothing? After the game, after everyone left, Gore was still walking around the field, drinking it all in. He knows what this is all about. I've rode with the 49ers for a long time, just about as long as I've been with the Mets. Most of the 49ers glory years came when I was young and they were in these games on a regular basis. It's taken several down years, several years where the 49ers were being humbled and embarrassed, through  years of coaching changes and coordinator changes, and the revolving door of bad Free Agent signings and draft picks that never panned out to finally get back to this moment, where the 49ers had a chance to recapture those great glory days of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and all the other great names, and add some of the names from this era to that list of luminaries. And in two weeks, they'll have their chance.

Not To Be Denied

Several years ago, I talked about how Conference Championship Sunday in the NFL is a rather breathless day, and that was how I felt when the 49ers weren't involved. There's a bit of finality to the day. It's the NFL's last pure weekend, and even then it's not really a true weekend since they moved the game times to 3pm and 6pm from 1 and 4. That doesn't remove the importance from any of the games, mind you. But, suffice it to say, with the 49ers involved last season, I basically had to just pass time during the AFC Championship until the 49ers took on the Giants, something I did through clenched teeth. This year, the 49ers are back in the NFC Championship. Even though it's the early game, I'm quite certain I will have whipped myself into quite the frenzy by time 3pm rolls around. I'll probably be burned out by time the AFC Championship game starts at 6:30. It just doesn't even rate with me. Predictions, half-informed, nonetheless. 2-2 last weekend brought me to 5-3 overall.

 Sunday, 3:00pm
San Francisco 49ers (12-4-1) at Atlanta Falcons (14-3)

So, for the second consecutive year, the 49ers find themselves in the NFC Championship game. This is the 14th time the 49ers will have played in the NFC Championship (their 9th since I've been watching). For all the success the 49ers have had as a franchise, they're actually 5-8 in NFC Championship games. Last year, they hosted the game and fell painstakingly short in a the kind of game that I think about a year later and still get rankled. This mission this season, though it's never been widely discussed, was clearly with the mission to make it back to this game and win it this time. But, they'll have to go on the road to Atlanta in order to do it.

The 49ers and Falcons don't meet all that often anymore, unless the schedule falls that way. This wasn't the case for many years, when the Falcons bizarrely resided in the NFC West and these two teams met twice a year. Though the 49ers lead the all-time series 44-30-1, they haven't beaten Atlanta since the divisions realigned and the only time they met in the Playoffs, the Falcons won 20-18. Needless to say, I've never cared for the Falcons much, which is just as well since I have no particular affection for Atlanta's baseball team, or the city in general, either.

That the Falcons are here is a bit of a miracle. In spite of the fact that they got off to a hot start and went 13-3, nobody really gave them any kind of credit for their strong season. Faced with a matchup against the red-hot Seahawks, most predicted that the tandem of Matt Ryan and Soupy Sales would fall for the 4th consecutive time in the Playoffs. They almost did in excruciating fashion, running out to a 27-7 lead, then blowing it all in the 4th Quarter before Ryan rallied the Falcons back and put them in position for the winning Field Goal. Basically, Atlanta won in spite of doing a lot of things wrong and my feeling about them, outside of being glad that they kicked the Seahawks in the nuts, was that they don't really play complete games.

This was in stark contrast to the whipping the 49ers laid on the Packers. Yes, I'm biased, but let's face it. Everyone was on the Packers' jock going into the game, and the 49ers wore them out. The Packers kept the game close for the first half, but come the second half, Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers offense just overwhelmed them with a barrage of different formations, different looks and plays they just weren't equipped to defend. The Packers had no answer and what was a 24-24 shootout turned into a 45-24 pasting. The 49ers contained Aaron Rodgers and the potent Packers offense by pounding out 323 yards on the ground, controlling the clock and keeping Rodgers off the field. The 579 yards they generated represented a 49ers Postseason record.

All things considered, I still have some concerns about this game. Colin Kaepernick had the ultimate "I'll Show You" game last weekend, shaking off an early interception before catching fire. His performance has launched him into the national spotlight, and even on the (regional) cover of Sports Illustrated. The concern is that he won't sneak up on the Falcons quite the same way he did on the Packers. Then again, the 49ers mix up their offense enough that, in general it may not be too much of a concern. In spite of the fact that the Packers defense got more hype (based more on Clay Matthews, III's hair than actual talent), Atlanta probably has a better unit, but it depends mostly on the effectiveness of John Abraham, the former Jet standout who has a history of no-showing big games.

Also, the game is in Atlanta. I said this already, but it's worth taking note. The 49ers history in NFC Championship games is checkered, and their history in Playoff road games is also pretty checkered (although because of the years of success they've had, they also haven't had to play that many road games). In fact, the 49ers haven't won a Playoff road game since 1988, when they beat the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship to go to Super Bowl XXIII. Since then, they've gone 0-5. But, at the same time, the 49ers have lost their fair share of Championship games on their own home field, so this could all be another one of my illogical concerns.

Although Atlanta has been very good all season, and they showed their intestinal fortitude by getting up off the mat and rallying to beat Seattle last weekend, they're going to have their hands full with the 49ers. They'll give the 49ers problems of their own, in the same respect that Green Bay gave them some problems, but the 49ers create the same kind of matchup issues that they did against Green Bay. The Falcons boast a better running game than Green Bay, and they have a pair of lights-out WRs in Julio Jones and Roddy White, but Matt Ryan isn't Aaron Rodgers. On the other side of the ball, I don't really know a great deal about Atlanta's defense (again, they don't have beautiful people like Clay Matthews, III, so nobody pays attention to them), other than they didn't really do anything especially impressive against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. Wilson shot himself in the foot a few times, but when push came to shove, Wilson was able to run and throw as he pleased. I expect Kaepernick will have the same success.

Ultimately, I believe the 49ers will win. I firmly believe that they're the better team on both sides of the ball, but that's not why I think they're going to win. Championship games often come down to desire. I said it before and I'll say it again. The 49ers got this far last season and lost. They have the crucible of knowing what it's like to go this far only to come up short. Patrick Willis set the tone for this season after their opening game, saying "People don't understand. We're on a mission." This season hasn't been perfect for the 49ers, but when it's mattered the most, they've come up with the victories they had to get to bring them right back to this game. Jim Harbaugh made the calculated gamble to switch from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick with an eye towards getting back to this game and beyond. Given another opportunity, the 49ers will not be denied.
Prediction: 49ers 34, Falcons 24

Sunday, 6:30pm
Baltimore Ravens (12-6) at New England Patriots (13-4)

 After a miracle comeback in the last minute of regulation that led to a heart-stopping victory in the 6th Double Overtime game in NFL History, the Baltimore Ravens have all the look of a team of destiny, rallying behind their retiring hero, Ray Lewis. On the other side, the Patriots are basically doing what they always do, just sort of rolling on like the machine they usually are. Admittedly, I really haven't bothered to form much of an opinion on this game. I've devoted the entirety of my thought process to the 49ers and the NFC Championship, to the point where I'm not really sure I care who wins, and I really don't know if I have an accurate idea of who will win. I know it's going to be close, and it may come down to a similar instance as last year, although I don't think it's going to be quite as spectacular as Billy Cundiff's shanked Field Goal.
Prediction: Patriots 24, Ravens 20

I guess you could call this a half-well-informed set of predictions. I say I don't care about who wins in the AFC not to be funny or to blow it off, I legitimately don't care who wins the AFC game. My head is wrapped solely around the 49ers right now.