By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
He is the man to credit. Or blame. For Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their black-gloved salute. For Colin Kaepernick coming to his knees. For the willingness of African-American athletes over the past half century to let us know a system’s imperfections.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The man who operates the elevator to the boxes at Levi’s Stadium said he tried to console Trent Baalke on the ride down. Nice of him, but who consoles the 49ers fans — the ones who showed up Sunday to watch another debacle — and the many who had tickets but didn’t show?
Empty seats. Empty hope. Another Niner season is down the drain, and we haven’t even reached Halloween.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
So we’ll get to the trivial stuff quickly, meaning you won’t have to wade through the material about the 49ers crushing the Rams and Carlos Hyde rushing for 88 yards just to find out that yes, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid knelt down during the Star Spangled Banner, next to an American flag literally as big as the football field.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
NEW YORK — A quarterback is in the hot seat because he refuses to relinquish his own seat when the national anthem is played. The Bay Area reacts — and overreacts. The sky is falling. At the least, jerseys are burning.
But back here, in New York, where the U.S. Open tennis championships have started and the only items involving a signal caller have to do with the Jets’ Geno Smith — “Bird brained QB boo-birds,” was the Daily News headline — they barely notice.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The head coach was hesitant to tell us, maybe even afraid to tell us, but the new quarterback certainly showed us. The position is Blaine Gabbert’s to lose because when finally given the chance to start he didn’t lose, and all the avoidance and equivocation by Jim Tomsula won’t make a difference,
Gabbert, a replacement for the beleaguered Colin Kaepernick, wasn’t the only reason the 49ers won a game, scoring a touchdown for the first time in nine quarters Sunday, then another, and stunning the Atlanta Falcons, 17-16, before some fans (70,799 announced) and a lot of empty seats at Levi’s Stadium.
The Niners' defense, reminiscent of the recent glory days circa 2012, and led by the resilient NaVorro Bowman, alternately stuffed the run and chased the passer, Matt Ryan, so a team averaging 414 yards a game was held to 302. And no less significantly was held to one touchdown and three field goals.
So if you want to contend as football people have for decades that defense was the difference — hey, if the other team doesn’t score, you can’t lose — you’ll get no argument here. But no less significant was the way the Niners (3-6) moved the ball when needed, and that certainly had to do with Gabbert.
When after their bye weekend the Niners resume the schedule November 22 at Seattle, Gabbert should once more be in the starting lineup. And will be. However, Tomsula, who is both uninformative and uninspiring, refused to make a commitment. His catch phrase is “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Of course. But the work has to be done by people on the field. And after throwing a couple of touchdown passes to Garrett Celek (and completing 15 of 25 for 185 yards, with two interceptions) and running for 32 yards, including a couple of bootlegs for first downs, Gabbert has to be one of those people.
This was a strange if rewarding day for the Niners, in a game that had a few spits of rain early on but mostly was played in dry, bleak weather — and so much for the complaints of fans on the east side of Levi’s having to flee downstairs to avoid sunburn.
The Niners had all sorts of backups, including running back Shaun Draughn (58 yards rushing, 38 receiving) and defensive back Marcus Cromartie, just activated, in their lineups. They also had a gift of sorts from Atlanta coach Dan Quinn, who went for a field goal from the San Francisco one on fourth and goal with three minutes remaining.
He went by the book, believing it’s sacrilegious to get that deep and fail to get on the scoreboard. “He was confident our defense would get the stop,” said Ryan, the Falcon QB. But the defense didn’t, and so the Falcons fell to 6-3. You need guys on the other side to make dumb decisions along with players on your side making smart ones.
Bowman was a major factor in the Niners success of 2012 and 2013 but had his knee ripped up in the 2013 NFC Championship loss at Seattle. Only now, almost two calendar years after the injury, does he feel like the line backer of yore — if 22 months can be considered yore.
“I’m getting there,” said Bowman, satisfied with much of his play, particularly a sack of Ryan on third and nine for a nine-yard loss early in the final quarter.
“After going through adversity at times you feel like you’re still going backward even when you’re making progress,” said Bowman. “At times we’re playing like we did in the past.”
Atlanta’s Devonta Freeman, leading the NFL in rushing with an average of 88 yards a game, was limited to 12 yards in 12 carries. That’s defense. “The coaches did a great job,” said Bowman about the game plan. “They said we had to get in his face.”
Gabbert hadn’t played in a league game since 2013 when he was with Jacksonville. He was prepared to make a return, physically — he had a broken thumb at Jacksonville — and mentally, treating the start with the calmness required.
“The biggest thing,” said Gabbert, echoing the appropriate comments of others in his situation, “is we got the victory. It wasn’t pretty at times, but our defense played well.”
It takes an honest man to sing an honest song.
“I felt great,” he said. Until in the fourth quarter when he was smacked, had to undergo a concussion check and was replaced for three plays by Kaepernick. “I was a little fired up,” said Gabbert about being replaced, even for so brief a time, “but that’s the protocol.”
Another type of protocol is to declare the quarterback who comes off the bench to get points and a victory your starter. Come on, Coach Tomsula. Your team and Blaine Gabbert deserve no less.
By Art Spander
SANTA CLARA — Nobody wants to broach the subject, wants to come forward and explain exactly why the 49ers can’t run or pass the ball. Or win.
Nobody involved is willing to admit that the Niners no longer have capable players, especially where it matters most, in the offensive line, and thus it doesn’t matter who is coaching or playing quarterback.
The late Al Davis, the Raiders' chief for years, would grab a journalist and tell him football starts with the O-Line. That guys who can block and open holes enable a team to move the ball, even if the runners aren’t Jim Brown or Walter Payton. Enable a quarterback to have the time to find an open receiver.
Colin Kaepernick was sacked six more times Sunday. You can’t pass from your back. You can’t run on your back. You can’t win on your back. All you can do is lose, and that’s what the Niners did, 17-3, to the Green Bay Packers at Levi’s Stadium.
Three points this game. Seven points last game.
The Niners can’t move the ball. The defense was effective, when you consider the Packers, still unbeaten in four games, had the ball 13 minutes more than San Francisco, gained 166 more yards than San Francisco. This one could have been 40-3, if not for the defense.
The offense is bad, maybe awful, because the offensive line is bad. It wasn’t too swift last year, either. Colin Kaepernick was sacked 52 times in the 2014 season. And then Mike Iupati left as a free agent and Anthony Davis retired. In four games this season, Kaepernick, taking heat as well as feeling pressure, has been sacked 14 times, or more than three a game.
Is that Kaep’s fault? Is that the fault of new coach Jim Tomsula, as uninspiring as Tomsula seems to be? Is that the fault of GM Trent Baalke, who failed to bring in the linemen? “The responsibility (for pass protection) goes to me,” said Tomsula. OK, but if you don’t have the players, all the schemes in creation don’t mean a thing.
The Niners, the franchise of Frankie Albert and John Brodie, Joe Montana and Steve Young, the team that could always get points even if it couldn’t get victories, were simply embarrassing Sunday. With some six minutes left in the game, they had only 72 yards rushing and 72 yards passing. Balanced, but sad. At the same time, the Packers had 131 yards rushing and 200 passing.
“The Green Bay Packers played a heck of a football game,” said Tomsula, as if anyone would be surprised about a team favored to make the Super Bowl — which will be played right where the Pack played Sunday, Levi’s, and where the entire southeast section of the stands was filled with green-jerseyed fans chanting, “Let’s go Packers.”
As for the 1-3 Niners, who in the last three weeks have scored 28 points and allowed 107? “We felt,” said Tomsula, “like defensively the guys took a step. Offensively, obviously we’ve got to get some things ironed out.”
What they’ve got to get is an offensive line to give Kaepernick enough time to throw or Carlos Hyde or Reggie Bush the space to run. Hyde gained 20 yards on eight carries, Bush no yards on one carry. Kaepernick, as normal, was the leading rusher, 57 yards on 10 carries, and he completed 13 passes of 25 for 160 yards.
You want a comparison? The Packers’ Aaron Rodgers — yes, sigh, he could have been drafted out of Cal by the Niners, but he also would have needed a line — completed 22 of 32 for 224 yards and a touchdown.
“I’ll study as much as I can, work as much as I can,” said Kaepernick. “That’s only way I know how to fix it.” What he didn’t say was that improved protection would be the best way to fix it.
Three years ago, ironically, Kaep was sprinting through and around the Packers in the playoffs. Now he’s scrambling for his existence, and someone wondered of the QB if the Niner offense ever felt so out of synch.
“We have to find our rhythm,” said Kaepernick. “We have to get back on track and string plays together. When we do that, we have produced successful drives. It’s getting those plays to string together where we’ve struggled so far.
“To me, we have to get the ball out quick. We have to be able to get it into our playmakers’ hands as soon as we can. But I’m not going to throw the ball into traffic and risk this offense and this team and put them in a bad situation.”
Without a strong offensive line, the situation always will be bad.
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — He had the look of a man who had just swallowed a lemon. Or a huge loss. Colin Kaepernick stood at the podium with his headphones and without any meaningful answers.
The 49ers' season has gone down the drain, and it’s not unfair to suggest that Kaepernick’s career has also.
On the first play from scrimmage, Kaepernick threw an interception. On the last, in a finish that was all too symbolic, he was thrown on his backside, sacked.
In between, on this Sunday of tectonic shift, the Oakland Raiders climbed from their embarrassment of a week previous, a 52-0 loss, and stunned the Niners 24-13 at O.co Coliseum.
What a crushing, painful time it’s been for the Niners, battered on Thanksgiving night at their own venue, Levi’s Stadium, 19-3 by the Seattle Seahawks; caught in the constant tumult involving the future of head coach Jim Harbaugh; then getting embarrassed by a team that had won only once in 12 previous games.
And somewhere in the maelstrom was that tweet from team president Jed York, immediately after the defeat by Seattle, apologizing for the performance, or lack of same, against the Seahawks.
These are the conclusions one jumps to after the rapid flow of recent events: Harbaugh will not return for a fifth season as the man in charge of Niner fortunes. Kaepernick has been exposed as a quarterback who sees only his primary receiver.
Kaepernick was and is Harbaugh’s guy, chosen in the second round of the 2011 draft, a brilliant athlete who can throw a baseball more than 90 mph and in football can elude tacklers. Until, admittedly, they surround him in a well-planned pass rush.
When Alex Smith incurred a concussion midway in the ’11 season, Kaepernick took over, and with his speed and arm gained Harbaugh’s endorsement.
The following year, the two of them had the Niners in the Super Bowl, although San Francisco’s defense was the real reason, and in the game itself, the final play, Kaep demonstrated an inability to feather a pass, firing away an incompletion.
Over the last few games this season, Kaepernick and the Niner offense — one and the same — were ineffective.
Defensive coordinators in the NFL are well paid to develop designs that take advantage of every offensive weakness. It certainly appears they’ve figured out how to shut down Kaepernick.
The Raiders are in no way among the better defensive squads — on the contrary, they’re among the worst — but they sacked Kaepernick five times (including that ultimate play), picked him off once and limited him to 18 of 33 passing for 174 yards, a quarterback rating of only 54. Derek Carr, the Raiders' rookie QB, was 22 of 28 for 254 yards and a 140.2 rating.
Unsuprisingly. Kaepernick’s post-game comments offered little explanation of what was wrong and why. He has become notably reticent, almost as if being interrogated by an enemy solider rather than a few harmless journalists.
“We haven’t played well,” said Kaepernick, as if anyone holding a note pad or a microphone was under the impression they had.
Kaepernick did concede on that opening scrimmage play he was trying to find receiver Michael Crabtree, and the safety, Brandian Ross, “came over the top.” But he wouldn’t allow that the interception, so quick and jarring, had effect on the rest of the game.
“You leave that play behind,” said Kaepernick, an ironic choice of words because when Oakland’s Sebastian Janikowski kicked a field goal eight plays later the Niners were left behind, 3-0.
Although San Francisco would carve out a brief 7-3 lead, there was a sense the Raiders were in control and the Niners, about to fall to a record of 7-6, were in trouble. Once Donald Penn caught a touchdown pass from Carr on a tackle eligible play, the 49ers were out of the lead.
Harbaugh was hardly more illuminating than Kaepernick as the coach fielded questions equally divided between the game result and his own future.
When asked about Kaepernick, Harbaugh — a former quarterback himself — understandably was not going to toss his man under the bus, particularly on a day when Kaep had been tossed under the defensive line so many times.
“I look at it as a team effort,” a subdued Harbaugh said about Kaepernick’s failing, “and we didn’t get it done.”
Not at all.
Asked if York and general manager Trent Baalke want Harbaugh, under contract, to be coach of the Niners in 2015, Harbaugh responded, “My priorities are: No. 1 winning football games; No. 2, the welfare of our players, coaches and our staff; and lastly what my personal future is.”
When a journalist wanted to know if he had coached well the last month, Harbaugh said, “You have to take responsibility so it falls on me if we don’t win these games. That’s my No. 1 priority, winning football games.”
The Niners, who next face Seattle — all hope will be gone with what seems a certain defeat at the Seahawks’ place — are in a very tenuous spot. Maybe so is Harbaugh.
Asked if he wanted to be with the Niners next year, Harbaugh repeated a previous remark, “My priorities are winning games.”
Something that has become very, very difficult of late.
By Art Spander
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There’s something wrong. With the football team, which is evident. With the new stadium, which is apparent. The 49ers are showing up as a mystery, one that has coach Jim Harbaugh so perplexed he can’t even get angry with media questions.
The fans after halftime aren’t even showing up at all.
A new home, a $1.3 billion beauty of steel and class constructed in honor of champions of the past. The tickets are sold, but the people who hold them must not be sold on the Niners.
This is what happened Sunday. The nation returned to standard time. The 49ers, however, didn’t turn their game clocks ahead or back. They just stood figuratively still before all those empty seats at Levi’s Stadium, and they were upset by the St. Louis Rams, 13-10.
The Rams, 3-5, were not very impressive. The Niners, 4-4, were very unimpressive.
Niner quarterback Colin Kaepernick was sacked eight times — by a team that had six sacks total in its previous seven games.
“We have all the talent in the world,” said Niners left tackle Joe Staley. “We’ve been doing some dumb stuff, and they took advantage of it.”
Like not keeping the Ram defense out of the Niner backfield. Again. Two weeks ago, Kaepernick was sacked six times at Denver. Then, after a bye week to make fixes, he was sacked eight times.
“We prepared for this during the week,” said Kaepernick. Maybe the situation is unfixable.
Maybe Harbaugh is as distressed as he is bewildered. Usually, when he’s asked what went wrong, the competitive, combative man he is takes issue, as if the media doesn’t have a clue so just sit down and be quiet.
Not this game. Harbaugh was restrained, responding with generalities, not specifics, the old, “Not enough good football, we got beat.”
Old, except for Harbaugh, who normally is loathe to concede that his squad was outplayed. This was a new frontier for the Niners’ fourth-year leader. This took some swallowing.
Yes, as poorly as they played, the Niners could have won. They had the ball, third and goal on the Rams one, with nine seconds remaining. A field goal would have sent the game into overtime. Instead, Kaepernick bulled up the middle and fumbled. The Rams recovered.
“I was juggling the ball,” Kaepernick conceded. He also believed he had crossed the goal. A replay review verified he did not.
Could have won. But did not win, because now, at the midpoint of the season, when the Niners usually are becoming their best, priming for the playoffs, San Francisco is a mess. And the next game is against the Saints at the Superdome, where the Niners invariably have problems.
The Niner offensive line seemed confused, not only because rookie Marcus Martin was starting at center for the first time. The pressure on Kaepernick came from everywhere, from William Hayes at left defensive end, from James Laurinaitis at middle linebacker, from Robert Quinn at right defensive end.
“We’ve been talking up those things,” said Rams coach Jeff Fisher about harassing the quarterback, “and I said we’d been getting close. You’ve got to credit the guys up front. These were individual efforts.”
So in a way, as Staley confessed, were the Niner failures. “Penalties,” said Staley in review, “dumb blocks, dumb techniques and dumb schemes.”
By supposedly some very smart football linemen, certainly for the most part by veteran football linemen, who two years ago helped the Niners to the Super Bowl.
Could they have grown too old? Could they have grown complacent? Change is a constant in sports at any level. No team remains at the top all the time. No players remain the best forever.
They tell us O-lines have great staying power. Maybe this one has stayed too long.
“We’ve got to suck it up,” said Harbaugh, avoiding mention of individuals. “Got to play better.”
Of course they do, but how? Does the blocking have to improve? Does Kaepernick have to get rid of the ball quicker — and more accurately? And how much is attributable to the fact that the Niners, who like to set up the pass with the run, could rush for only 80 net yards?
“We had opportunities in both halves,” said Kaepernick, “and we didn’t take advantage.” Not when they score a paltry 10 points. Not when the quarterback is tackled eight times behind the line of scrimmage.
“That’s why I’m here,” said Kaepernick. “I’m here to make plays. I can make people miss. So that’s part of my job.”
They aren’t going to miss when they sweep in from every direction, and they didn’t miss. The Rams knew something about the Niner offensive line. And now everyone knows.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror,” said running back Frank Gore, the spiritual leader of the Niners, “and we’re going to try to get to this postseason. We’ve got to do it and stop playing around.”
Or, when the postseason arrives, they’ll be forced to stop playing. Period.
By Art Spander
SANTA CLARA — This one is summed up perfectly by Colin Kaepernick, who as most everyone on the 49ers was perfectly imperfect. “Terrible,” said Kaepernick.
Indeed. And maybe worse than that.
Another opening, another show. Another stunning letdown.
The first NFL game at billion-dollar-plus Levi’s Stadium, the jewel of Silicon Valley. A 17-0 lead over the Chicago Bears. And then?
Well, 16 penalties by the Niners. Four turnovers by Kaepernick. Ineptitude at the highest level, and finally, painfully, Sunday night a 28-20 loss.
“It stings,” said Niner coach Jim Harbaugh. Yes, and it stinks, in a figurative way. The new place, 70,799 fans paying some very high prices. A beautiful beginning, and then clunk.
This one belonged at Kezar Stadium, where in 1946, their inaugural season, the Niners lost their first game ever played. Or at Candlestick Park, where in 1971 the Niners lost their first game after the shift from Kezar.
Who even thought the script would be the same? Start like a klutz.
This is a Niner team headed for the Super Bowl? Please! Sixteen penalties for 118 yards. Absurd. Disgraceful. Impossible to overcome.
Harbaugh stood in the post-game interview room like a deer in headlights, giving the briefest answers in the softest voice. Either he was bewildered by what took place or appalled. Probably both.
Earlier in the day, at San Diego, the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, the team the Niners must overtake, lost to the Chargers. The score went up on those huge video boards. The fans cheered. The Niners would be ahead of the Seahawks.
Not on your life. They would be wallowing in their own despair. They would be flagellating themselves. They would be ruing what could have been, what should have been — but was not to be.
“When you’re up, and like you said, new stadium, with the fans, great fans,” agreed Frank Gore, the Niners running back and spiritual leader, “when you’re up like that, you’ve got to go for the kill. We let them back in the game. We didn’t finish, and they beat us.”
More accurately, the Niners beat themselves. They got called for defensive holding. They got called for illegal procedure. They got called for illegal use of hands. They got called for false starts. And most of all, at the end of the first half, still in front, 17-0, they got called for roughing the passer, with only a bit more than a minute to go in the half.
That moved the ball to the San Francisco 25, and in three plays quarterback Jay Cutler moved it into the end zone on the first of three touchdown passes to Brandon Marshall.
“He’s a tough guy,” Niners linebacker Patrick Willis said of Marshall. “He’s tough to cover by anyone on the field. It’s just him getting in the red zone. He’s a big body (6-foot-4, 230 pounds).
“The youngster (Jimmie Ward) was fighting his tail off and doing all we ask him to do. The plays just went their way on those.”
They didn’t go Kaepernick’s way. Three interceptions and a fumble. Arguably Kaepernick’s worst game since he became a starter two years ago in a game against, yes, the Bears.
“I think he was seeing things good,” Harbaugh said in support of his quarterback. “He threw some pretty darn good balls. The defense made some great plays.”
Kaepernick made plays that, to be kind, were very much less than great. He seemed flummoxed by a Bears defense that literally had him on the run.
“I saw the coverages,” said Kaepernick. “I didn’t make the plays.”
What we he made were mistakes, joining teammates in a universal effort.
The funny thing is the Levi’s Stadium field was for the third time in six weeks replanted. The grass had been coming apart. It didn’t on Sunday night. It was the Niners who disintegrated.
“Turnovers and penalties,” said fullback Bruce Miller, in what was becoming litany, “especially at the point in the game when they were made, that’s losing football.”
It was for the Dallas Cowboys a week ago against the Niners.
It was for the Niners on Sunday night against the Bears.
“Wins are tough to come by,” said Anquan Boldin, the Niners wide receiver. “When you have a team down, you definitely have to put your foot on their throat because nobody’s going to quit in this league.”
The Bears lost three key defensive players through injuries, including cornerback Charles Tillman. Yet it was the Niners who lost the game.
“It stings to lose,” Harbaugh said once again. “And we all have fingerprints on it.”
Do they ever. Someone get the furniture polish.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SEATTLE — It was going so well for the San Francisco 49ers, for quarterback Colin Kaepernick. They were in control. He was flying around, eluding tacklers, finding receivers, arguably playing the best game of his brief career.
Then it was as if both team and individual remembered where they were -- in their football purgatory, CenturyLink Field.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — While so many look ahead to Sunday afternoon's NFC divisional-round game at Carolina, the San Francisco 49ers, particularly quarterback Colin Kaepernick, will not forget the immediate past — a loss to the Panthers in Week 10 in which the Niners couldn't score a TD.
Carolina won that one, 10-9, on Nov. 10 at Candlestick Park as the 49ers had their fewest net passing yards (46) in eight years. They didn't score a point in the second half and finished with only 151 total yards.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe it wasn't the last goodbye.
Maybe the San Francisco 49ers, if circumstances are ideal, will hold a playoff game at Candlestick Park, a second farewell.
Regardless, the 49ers made a bit of history in their regular-season finale at the old stadium, beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-24 to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
Copyright © 2013 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — Time had gone backwards, unlike the persistent runs of Frank Gore. There we were, back in the 20th century, the fans at Candlestick Park doing the wave — in this final year of the old stadium, anything is acceptable — the 49ers employing a pound-it-out, eat-up-the-clock offense.
A fourth-quarter drive that covered 89 yards and nine and a half minutes, old-fashioned but wonderfully effective, as 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh agreed.
The sort of drive, with eight straight runs in one sequence, that Harbaugh’s coach at Michigan, the late Bo Schembechler, would have loved.
“Yes,” said Harbaugh, “he would have. He would have loved it very much. Somewhere, he’s up there smiling.”
And then Harbaugh, already feeling good after the Niners on Sunday won their third in a row, defeating the Arizona Cardinals, 32-20, began to smile himself.
“It was a huge win,” he said gleefully. “Grinded some meat, playing tough, hard-nosed football, grinding out the running game.
“That was a line coming off the ball, and Frank was determined, and the whole unit, they were determined to move the football and keep the defense off the field that had played so well in that ballgame.”
The Niners ran for 149 yards against the sixth-best rushing defense in the NFL.
They were playing smack-you-in-the-chops football that made Schembechler and Woody Hayes winners in the old Big Ten, a style defined as three yards and a cloud of dust.
Harbaugh, sure, was a quarterback, at Palo Alto High, at Michigan, with the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. But he despises finesse football. It is his nature. It is his training.
"When I got my first coaching job at the University of San Diego, I called Bo Schembechler and told him,” Harbaugh has explained. “Before he said congratulations, he said, 'Jimmy, tell me you are going to have a tight end that puts his hand in that ground on every snap. Tell me that you are going to have a fullback that lines directly behind the quarterback, and a halfback in the I-formation.'
"'Yes, coach, we will have that.' 'Good, congratulations on getting your job.'"
Now, with the Niners, Harbaugh also has a quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, who can run (18 yards on four carries) as well as throw (16 completions for 252 yards and two touchdowns).
He has a tight end, Vernon Davis, who doesn’t necessarily put his hand in the dirt on every snap but certainly puts his hands around the ball (eight catches for a career-high 180 yards and two TDs).
And most of all, in crunch time, Harbaugh has Gore, who carried 25 times in all, for 101 yards, and seven of the 18 plays on the drive, five of those in succession. That Kendall Hunter powered the final six yards was fine with all concerned, especially Gore, who doesn’t worry about personal statistics.
“Three years with Frank,” said fullback Bruce Miller, “and I just feel he’s getting better and better. He has a passion for the game. He loves the game. He loves the team.”
He definitely enjoys dashing through the gaps or going around the edges, whatever is needed to pick up yardage.
“It felt good,” said Gore of the drive and his contribution. “Especially when their defense knew that we were coming to run the ball at that moment, and we did it. Our O-line made good blocks, our fullback made a good block, the receivers outside made good blocks, and I ran hard.
“When I get in rhythm, I just feel like I can do whatever I want.”
Early on, the Niners couldn’t do what they liked or wanted with the Cardinals, who came into the game with a 3-2 record, as did San Francisco. The Niners, without a first down until there was only a minute left in the first quarter, and then only on a penalty, led only 22-20 into the fourth quarter.
Then 9 minutes 32 seconds and 18 players later, they had the touchdown that meant the game.
“The score was 22-20,” said Darryl Washington, the Arizona linebacker. “We had a chance to get that momentum. We were stopping the run, getting pressure on Kaepernick, but those guys made more plays than we did at the end of the day.”
Kaepernick threw an interception, a tipped ball. Kaepernick lost a fumble when he was sacked. But when required — dare we call it crunch time in the sixth game of the season? — everything worked, especially on that long drive.
“It was huge,” said Kaepernick, a bit more talkative than he's been recently. “We drained the clock on that drive. We had a lot of third-down conversions, had the big fourth-down conversion (a yard by Miller). We said in the huddle, we have to go down and score right now.”
They did. Only in this situation, "right now" means 9 minutes 32 seconds.
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — One day changed everything. One day, and the 49ers were winners, the Seahawks losers and a championship, while still as far off as December is from September, became not only imaginable but very possible.
Things had started so poorly for the Niners, that rout in Seattle, that surprise at home by Indy. Three games into the season, and already the Niners were two behind the Seahawks, who seemed unbeatable if not invincible.
But Sunday there was a change. Sunday the Niners looked like the Niners, and the Seahawks dropped their first game.
That was in the afternoon, at Indianapolis, to the Colts, and Niner fans know how good the Colts can be, having stunned San Francisco at the 'Stick.
Niner coach Jim Harbaugh said he didn’t pay attention to what happened to Seattle. He certainly paid attention to what happened a few hours later to San Francisco.
The 49ers, as if shot out of a cannon, mentally if not physically, grabbed a 7-0 lead just 1 minute, 30 seconds after kickoff, when Tramaine Brock intercepted a pass by Houston’s Matt Schaub and turned it into an 18-yard touchdown.
Four straight games Schaub has thrown a “pick six.” The romp was on. Final score, Niners 34, Texans 3.
“A huge play,” said Harbaugh, emphasizing the obvious. “A great play by such a great guy. He was in perfect position. Played the coverage perfect and then finished the play.”
A play that helped re-establish an identity that the Niners, a Super Bowl team last year, may have lost, if only briefly.
“I think for us,” said quarterback Colin Kaepernick, “we needed to get back to playing our style of football. Hard-nosed football.”
Football that succeeded even though, from the end of the first quarter to the start of the fourth, Kaep had 13 straight incompletions. Then, as happens for excellent players on excellent teams, he hit one — for 64 yards and a touchdown to Vernon Davis.
Schaub is Houston’s problem. Schaub is Houston’s story. Still, he’s an important part of the mix for the Niners. Brock intercepted him a second time.
“I just came in and did my job to step up in the place of the nickel back,” said Brock, referring to Nnamdi Asomugha. “I’m not a guy to talk on microphones. I love football and just want to play football.”
Tony Jerrod-Eddie, another backup, at defensive tackle because Ray McDonald incurred a bicep injury earlier in the game, made it a third pick.
“We got points off all the turnovers,” said Harbaugh.
It’s a given that you'll win, or at least tie, when the other team doesn’t score a single touchdown. When’s the last time an NFL game ended 3-0?
The last time someone asked Schaub, who had a passer rating of 32.2 (Kaepernick’s, even with the misses and drops, was 89) about his confidence was immediately after the game.
“It’s tough right now,” said Schaub, not explaining exactly what he meant.
Three weeks ago we were questioning Kaepernick about his confidence, about the team’s confidence. No longer, and after consecutive victories (the Niners are 3-2) the familiar question arises: Does winning breed confidence or does confidence breed winning?
The Niners again are who they used to be, and in this case the past very well may be future.
“The season is forged by how you play in these early games,” said Harbaugh. “I don’t know if it just necessarily picks up from one year to the next. Every year is a new year in establishing what your identity is.”
Even if for a while the most identifiable players are missing.
Patrick Willis, the all-pro, was out. Asomugha, once an all-pro, was out. These Niners, spurred by the quiet man, Brock, storm on. It was defense that won for the Niners in Harbaugh’s previous two years, and — along with Frank Gore and Kaepernick moving the ball — it will be defense that will win again. If the Niners are to win again.
“When we get everybody back,” said Michael Wilhoite, who started in place of Willis, “we are going to be two, three deep at every position. That’s what you need.”
The Niners also need a sharper Kaepernick, yet in the NFL no one — Peyton Manning perhaps the exception — is great every week.
Tom Brady struggled Sunday, in a downpour at Cincinnati. Colin Kaepernick appeared to struggle Sunday, in rare high 70-degree weather at Candlestick.
Kaep completed only 6 passes in 15 attempts, four of them on the first drive.
“We have a great defense and a great running game,” was his response. Then, asked if he was aware that he didn’t have a completion in either the second or third quarter, he said, “No, I was aware that we’re up, and that we needed to run to keep our offense on the field.”
Did he notice the Seahawks lost?
“We,” he said sternly, “are worried about us winning.”
That is the essence of focus.
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — Jed York gave the straightforward answer. Jed York, who doesn’t draw up game plans or carry the ball, but in effect as 49ers team president carries the responsibility of having everything done properly, explained what would be done about Aldon Smith.
Neither head coach Jim Harbaugh nor quarterback Colin Kaepernick could be, or would be, as forthright, about another problem: the way the Niners have been playing football.
San Francisco lost another on Sunday, this time at Candlestick Park, where the crowd of 69,732 appeared more bewildered than irate. Maybe the 29-3 defeat at Seattle a week ago could be understood. But not getting beat, 27-7, by the Indianapolis Colts at home.
Two losses in a row for the first time in Harbaugh’s two-plus seasons as the Niners' coach. Offensive ineffectiveness for a second consecutive week. An indication that defensive coordinators around the NFL have figured out how to stop the read-option and thus stop Kaepernick, who was sacked three times, fumbled once and was intercepted once.
It’s been a rotten few days for the Niners, who last season went to the Super Bowl. First the whipping by Seattle. Then, early Friday morning, around 7 a.m., the arrest of Smith, the defensive end, on charges of DUI and possession of marijuana. Management decided he would play Sunday — a doubtful decision — and he did play.
The defense was satisfactory, to a point, although it never really could stop second-year quarterback Andrew Luck, who Harbaugh coached at Stanford. The offense, outgained 336 yards to 254, was unsatisfactory, out of synch, worrisome.
Smith is headed to a rehab center after his fourth arrest and maybe a fine and suspension by the NFL. He won’t be in uniform Thursday when in this loony-tunes schedule, the Niners, 1-2, will play at St. Louis. Some thought he shouldn’t have been in uniform Sunday.
There was an apology from Smith after the game, with the comment, “I also wanted to let it be known that this is a problem, and it’s something that I will get fixed, and that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that this never happens again.”
York said Niners executives, realizing there could be outrage from beyond, still “decided that sitting someone down and paying him didn’t seem like appropriate punishment.” As if playing him and paying him is?
The Niners, players and coaches, contended that they were not distracted by the Smith situation. That wasn’t the reason they lost, said the chorus. This leaves only one accounting. They were outplayed once more.
Kaepernick was brilliant most of the time last year as a mid-season starter. The flaws, maybe a failure to call an audible, perhaps a pass flung too hard, were acceptable. He could run. He could throw, and opponents — with the exceptions of Seattle and, in the Super Bowl, Baltimore — didn’t know how to react.
Now, after months of scheming, they do. The serve-and-volley game evens out. First, the offense has the advantage. Then, given time, the defensive coaches create their own edge. So the offensive coaches go to the grease board and devise something else.
Athletes are only part of the equation, if the major part. When the defense swarms here or drops three men there, the offense may be stymied. The Niner offense certainly has been.
“I think they ran a couple of read-options,” said Colts coach Chuck Pagano, “and our guys did an unbelievable job on (those) . . . We talk about plastering so guys don’t come out free on the back end once he starts to scramble. The pass rush was just relentless.”
Kaepernick, never very informative, retreated behind the obligatory “it wasn’t them, it was us,” or in his words, “The fact is we didn’t execute.” Why doesn’t anyone ever admit he/they didn’t execute because the other team wouldn’t let them?
“They put a spy on me,” Kaepernick said about a defender who follows the quarterback, “so they have one more to account for me. I have to be able to make throws downfield.”
Not an easy task when under ferocious pressure.
Harbaugh said he didn’t believe there was something technically wrong with Kaepernick.
“We didn’t make the plays,” said Harbaugh, sticking to the format.
Then a bit of honesty snuck in: “There wasn’t enough opportunity to make plays.”
Because of the Indianapolis defense. Because perhaps the Niners were without their best receiver, Vernon Davis, and already had lost another receiving star, Michael Crabtree, on an injury before the season began. Still, every team has injuries. The best overcome them.
“We got to be real,” said Harbaugh, “got to look how we can improve. We have no choice but to find our way.”
No choice except losing games.
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — The coach even smiled. That told you as much as his words. Jim Harbaugh knows what he has. And now we know he has a second-team quarterback. Just in case.
And in the NFL, you never can get too far away from “just in case.”
The 49ers are an excellent football team, a statement not formulated after watching San Francisco beat the Minnesota Vikings 34-14 Sunday night, but in no way negated, either.
Preseason football, in truth, is exhibition football. In international soccer, they call it a “friendly,” because the results don’t count. In the standings, that is.
They count in the way a coaching staff and management determines what it has.
The Niners, who made it to the Super Bowl last year, have plenty.
“I saw a lot of good things,” said Harbaugh, who handled the questions with the ease that, well, the Niner defense handled Minnesota. “I was pleased the way we worked.”
When Colin Kaepernick, getting his first significant playing time of the summer, was at quarterback, the Niner machine was efficient and effective. It was 2012 all over again, six straight completions at one point, and eventually 7 of 13 for a touchdown and 72 yards. Hardly a surprise.
Then on came Colt McCoy, and he was a surprise. A delightful one. A week that in the minds of many skeptics began with McCoy, the new kid in town, about to be traded ended with McCoy firmly set as No. 2. Or is that just a ploy to get rid of him? You never can be sure in the Byzantine world of the NFL, but it was hard to believe Harbaugh wasn’t telling the whole truth and nothing but.
The kicker in all this is that until Sunday night, when he was 11 of 15 for 109 yards, and directed a 91-yard touchdown drive — if also throwing an interception — McCoy had been, well, "a bust" may be too strong, so we will say "disappointing."
San Francisco picked up Seneca Wallace a few days ago, and with Scott Tolzien still around and B.J. Daniels seeming like the man of the future — the new Kaepernick, if you will — McCoy was a question mark. The Niners got McCoy before the April draft. He hadn’t shown much. If anything.
The problem, McCoy said as he stood in front his locker in the Niner locker room, was he hadn’t learned the system well enough to feel at ease. “I was staying up late,” he said. “It just took a while.”
McCoy said everything finally began to click a few days ago, and he and Harbaugh had conversations that reassured Colt he would not be sent packing up if something happened to Kaepernick but rather sent in move the team.
“I wasn’t ever scared or nervous,” said McCoy, a third-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2010 draft. “I saw a lot of improvement this week. This was my best week with the 49ers. I’m glad everyone liked tonight, but give credit to the other guys on the offense.”
Reports are that McCoy restructured his contract, dropping the base salary to the minimum $630,000 — he had been owed $21.5 million. Both Harbaugh and McCoy refused to discuss money.
Candlestick was maybe only half full, the usual for preseason games, but the crowd was edgy. Two men wearing Niner jerseys ran onto the field, halting the game, and then after security hauled them away a third, in an Indianapolis Colts jersey, bounded out of the stands. Go figure.
Also go figure Lavelle Hawkins, a Niner rookie wide receiver and return man from Cal. He zoomed 105 yards for a touchdown with a kickoff in the second quarter, which was beautiful. However, he strutted the final 20 yards or so and then, in the ultimate showboat move, whipped off his helmet, drawing two penalties on the one play.
He wasn’t done, eventually picking up two more big penalties. Surely he didn’t learn this from former Cal coach Jeff Tedford. “He’s got to do a better job of not getting hijacked emotionally after doing something great,” Harbaugh said of Hawkins.
The job Kaepernick did was solid. “When you get out there,” said Kaepernick, who had played only briefly the first two games, “and you find your rhythm, that’s how you want to be playing.”
Someone wondered if Kaepernick, who started last year second team and then replaced Alex Smith, was paying close attention to the quarterbacks behind him, especially McCoy.
“I’m always watching the other guys,” said Kaepernick, “seeing what they’re doing, seeing what the defense is doing and how I can help them during the game.”
Colt McCoy didn’t need much help. Neither did Colin Kaepernick.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
NEW ORLEANS – He was angry. He was proud. The call went against him, went against Jim Harbaugh, went against the 49ers. They had lost the Super Bowl. The unblemished record was no more. The dream was finished.
And yet Harbaugh saw what we saw, a football team, a 49ers team, which was dead in the water, which trailed by three touchdowns and came within a play of victory.
“We were right on the brink of winning it,” said Harbaugh. He’s not a could-have, might-have sort of guy. He’s absolute, unforgiving. This time he also was correct.
Right on the brink. Right where a Joe Montana or a Steve Young might have pulled it. Right where a Colin Kaepernick could not quite do it.
Harbaugh, after again losing to his brother John, the Ravens coach -- in 2011 in a regular season game, this time, Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31 -- was frustrated and disappointed, honest and, yes, angry.
They say never to let a game or tennis match, any sporting event, come down to an official’s call, because then you’re at the mercy of someone making a judgment. Yet that’s exactly what occurred.
Fourth down and goal. Fourth down and five yards from probable victory, although with 1 minute 46 seconds remaining and Joe Flacco – the game’s MVP – at quarterback for the Ravens, who knows?
Kaepernick, rolling hot after a mediocre start, a start echoed by the supposedly efficient 49er defense, threw toward Michael Crabtree in the end zone. Crabtree couldn’t get to the ball, couldn’t get there because TV replays showed he was seemingly held by Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith.
Harbaugh went ballistic. He yanked at his cap. He screwed up his face in a grimace beyond description. He shouted at the official. He went unheard, and the 49ers went winless, incurring their first loss in a Super Bowl after success the previous five times.
“We want to handle this with class and grace,” said Harbaugh, not exactly the epitome of either when displeased. “We had several opportunities to win the game. We didn’t play our best game. We competed and battled back. Yes, there’s no question in my mind that there was pass interference and then a hold on the last one.”
This was not a game we expected the 49ers to play, to get beat by Flacco on third-down passes, to turn the ball over on a fumble by LaMichael James and an interception by Kaepernick, to give up a 108-yard kickoff return to open the second half and fall behind, 28-6.
Yet, conversely, this was the game we did expect the 49ers to play, to hang in, to hold on, to wake up the echoes, and the 49ers fans among the 71,024 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. There was Kaepernick finding Crabtree, there was Frank Gore slipping into the end zone, there was David Akers kicking his third field goal of the game. Suddenly, 28-6, was 28-23.
Kaepernick, with 302 yards, joined Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have completed more than 300 yards passing in a Super Bowl game. Kaepernick, with 62 yards rushing, did not join Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have won Super Bowls.
There was a touch of the surreal to the game, and not only because the Ravens had the ball some five minutes more than San Francisco or because Flacco picked apart the Niners' secondary.
But because late in the third quarter there was a power outage at the Superdome, half the lights over the field and all the television sets and Internet connections going out for 34 minutes. It was similar to what happened Dec. 19, 2011 at Candlestick Park before and during a 49ers-Steelers game.
When power was restored for a Super Bowl game which would last 4 hours 14 minutes – but was one play short for San Francisco – the Niners started their rally. “We got a spark,” said Harbaugh, “and we weren’t going to look back after that.”
Others will. They’ll wonder why, after a two-week break and numerous practices, on the first play from scrimmage, a 20-yard pass from Kaepernick to Vernon Davis, Davis was penalized for lining up in an illegal formation. They’ll wonder why the final sequence was composed of three straight incomplete passes from Kaepernick.
And, as Harbaugh, they’ll wonder about the non-call. But Crabtree will not, to his credit.
“It was the last play,” said Crabtree, “and I’m not going to blame it on the refs.”
Neither will Kaepernick. “We had to score,” said the quarterback. “The fourth down play wasn’t the original option. It’s something I audibled at the line, based on the look they gave us. I was just trying to give (Crabtree) a chance.”
He gave him one. He gave the 49ers one. They were unable to take advantage of it.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
NEW ORLEANS -- He is a 25-year-old with biblical tattoos on his arms and a sense of purpose in his manner, a man who in a matter of weeks has gone from a place on the bench to a key position in the biggest NFL game of any season.
Colin Kaepernick is a star, a mystery and, as the man in control of the pistol offense, the primary weapon for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
The elements of the formation are basic. The man who is directing things is not. The Pistol works. Colin Kaepernick makes it work.
Chris Ault just stepped down as head coach at the University of Nevada in Reno. That after proving he could design a scheme which would help his team and then many others take the steps they wanted on a football field.
“We’ve had more fun with this thing,” said Ault. So have the Niners.
“It is the next big thing in the NFL,” said Trent Dilfer, the ESPN analyst, and appropriately with the Super Bowl matching those teams, a former quarterback for both the Ravens and 49ers.
Ault had coached at Nevada, where he graduated in 1965, from 1976 to ’95, then became athletic director. “We used the one-back offense,” he said, “and were the No. 1 throwing team in the nation.”
When he returned as coach, his philosophy changed. “In this day and age, if you’re going to win a championship, you’ve got to run the ball better,” said Ault.
He wanted the quarterback off the line of scrimmage but not as far back as the five yards or so in the shotgun formation because that makes for too much side to side running.
He moved the QB up and the running backs directly behind him so that the backs could run right at the line of scrimmage. It was the spring of 2005.
“My assistants were getting their resumes ready,” said Ault, 67. “They thought it would never work.”
It worked when Nevada went 13-1 in 2010. It worked when the Niners beat Green Bay and Atlanta to advance to Super Bowl XLVII. It worked because the defense isn’t quite sure how to play. It worked because Kaepernick, with great speed, with a great arm, is at the controls.
“There is so much more to the Pistol,” said Ault. “You can run anything you like. With a quarterback being in a position where he can carry, that’s a dimension they haven’t had in the NFL.”
Which answers the question whether a unique college offense – do not call it a gimmick, insists Ault – could find a place in the pros, who are notoriously rigid in their beliefs how to play offense and what a quarterback should do.
As Ault pointed out, with Robert Griffin III of the Redskins, with Kaepernick of the 49ers, the Pistol is a perfect alignment.
“You have a thrower who can run,” said Ault, “or a runner who can throw. The Pistol provides opportunity along that line. And because the quarterback may run, as Colin did in the playoff game against the Packers, or may hand off as they did to (Frank) Gore against the Falcons, the (defensive) rush against the offensive line may be slowed down. The Pistol is not just a read-option formation.”
Kaepernick was a redshirt freshman in the fall of 2007. “I had seen him at a high school quarterback camp we had,” said Ault. “He had run the Wing-T in high school, so he hardly ever carried the ball, but I saw what he could do.”
When Nevada’s starter was injured early on that season of ’07, Kaepernick stepped in – as five years later he would step in to replace an injured Alex Smith with the 49ers. “It was a great marriage,” said Ault of player and plan.
In his four seasons at Nevada, Kaepernick passed for 10,098 yards and ran for 4,112, becoming the only player in the Football Bowl Subdivision to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 three times in an undergraduate career.
As we know, Niners coach Jim Harbaugh went to Nevada to scout Kaepernick. As we know, Niner offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was at Stanford with Harbaugh in 2010, “loved the downhill element” of the Pistol.
"Sure, it can be defended,” said Ault. “Any formation can be defended. But it’s a matter of personnel and execution.”
So far, the personnel who have executed have been on the 49er offense, as in 2010 they were on the offense at Nevada, when the school not only made it to the Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T but also upset then unbeaten Boise State.
“It isn’t predicated on the quarterback running,” Ault told the NFL Network about the offense. “The defense will take away some of the runs, but that leaves the middle open.”
As it did Sunday in the NFC Championship, when Gore scored two touchdowns.
Because the running back is directly behind the quarterback, the linebackers do not have a clear view, making it harder to key on the running back.
While Colin has copyrighted his touchdown gesture, “Kaepernicking,” Ault unfortunately never through about a copyright of his formation, which he calls “my baby.” And it is.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
You watched, as much in dismay as disbelief. The 49ers were down by 17 points early in the second quarter.
Down against the Falcons, a team with the best record in the conference.
Down at the other team’s home, a domed stadium full of hysteria and great passing by the other quarterback.
Down but, despite the way many of us thought, not even close to being out.
“It’s hard to break us,” said Niners running back Frank Gore, the nonpareil. “We’re tough.”
Tough mentally, which is where it starts.
“We still had confidence we could beat those guys in their house,” said Carlos Rogers, the cornerback.
Tough physically, which is where it continues.
“There had been breakdowns in communication and coverage,” said Dashon Goldson, the free safety. “We did a good job of tightening up some things.”
A great job of holding the Falcons scoreless in the second half and, in the process, recording the third-biggest post-season road comeback in the 90 years the NFL has been in existence.
A spectacular job of defeating the Falcons, 28-24, in the NFC Championship at the Georgia Dome and reaching the Super Bowl a sixth time – where the Niners, coached by Jim Harbaugh, will face the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his brother, John.
Coaches talk of players who make plays.
Players such as Joe Montana and Dwight Clark who three decades ago combined for The Catch and altered the path of history for San Francisco football.
Players such as Ahmad Brooks who, on third down, and NaVorro Bowman, on fourth, broke up consecutive fourth-quarter pass Atlanta pass attempts.
Players such as Vernon Davis, suddenly rediscovered in an offense quite capable of adapting to the moment, who caught five passes for 106 yards. “It’s bigger than me,” insisted Davis. “It’s not about me. It’s about the team.”
Players such as Gore, who, with Atlanta having schemed to stop the expected running of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, ran for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
Players such as Kaepernick, the second-year quarterback, who after last week, when he rushed for a record 181 yards, this time carried only twice for 21 but completed 16 passes in 21 attempts for 233 yards and touchdown.
“The Falcons put a spy on Kaep,” said Gore, using football language for a defender assigned to keeping the quarterback from running. “We kept hearing all week how they were going to pound Kaep. He made the right decisions. I got the opportunities.”
On the CSN Bay Area post-game show, Clark, pointed out. “I thought it was a brilliant game plan. They came out in the read-option, and Colin made the right decisions. Even when they got behind, they didn’t panic and try to pass a lot.”
Atlanta certainly passed a lot. In the first half alone, quarterback Matt Ryan threw 24 times, completing 18, three for touchdowns. The Falcons appeared unstoppable.
“We had the jitters,” said Niners cornerback Tarell Brown. (So did Niners fans). “We knew it would be a challenge. We just settled down.”
Once they did the gloom started to settle in on Atlanta. A week earlier the Falcons had squandered a 20-point lead to Seattle but rallied to win. This time they squandered a 17-point lead, but it was to the Niners. To a franchise which after 18 years is back in the championship game.
The post-game locker room offered not only athletes in celebration but a glimpse into the past. There was Eddie DeBartolo, who owned the Niners when they won their five Super Bowls, presenting the NFC Championship trophy to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, who owns the team today. And right there were Denise’s husband, John, at last a happy man, and his and Denise’s son – and Eddie’s nephew – Jed York, the Niners president.
There was a sense of solidarity and tradition, a feeling that after the lean years the restoration of the Niners franchise is all but complete.
“This is fun to be a part of,” said Justin Smith, the defensive tackle. He is playing with a torn triceps. He will need surgery. But he wasn’t going to miss being a part of scene. And he was a very big part of the success.
“We knew Atlanta had weapons all over the place. We knew they started fast. But we never got down and we won. It’s an awesome feeling.”
At halftime, Harbaugh, the coach was simply businesslike. It was Davis, the receiver, who was emotional, giving the motivational speech. Later he would shout out, “Kaepernick is the man.”
The 49ers are composed of a lot of men, symbolically as well as literally, a lot of people who never concede.
“Everybody goes through adversity,” reminded Patrick Willis, the All-Pro linebacker. “The way we came back makes it so more captivating.”
Donte Whitner, the safety, would say, “When we had to stop them at the end, there was a lot of pressure. We knew what was at stake.”
In three words, the Super Bowl.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle