The Quest for Six: The 49ers Are Back to the Super Bowl, By Chuck Strom

Going into this season’s playoffs, the biggest weakness of Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers seemed to be an inability to play from behind. This had rarely been a problem over the last two years, as the 49ers usually combined their defense with a strong running game to keep control of the ball, avoid mistakes, and win games with as little unnecessary drama as possible. On the occasions when an opponent managed to score on a big play or two and take a lead, however, the 49ers went helplessly into a shell more often than not and lost by scores more lopsided than they should have been. Analysts often blamed the problem on Alex Smith and his supposedly weak passing arm , but it seemed to persist with Colin Kaepernick under center, particularly last month in Seattle when the 49ers wilted quickly against the Seahawks and their crowd, one of the loudest in the NFL.

With this recent history, the NFC Championship Game should have been over at the end of the first quarter, with the Falcons up 10-0 and on the verge of another touchdown to add to their lead in the Georgia Dome, where the crowd was so loud even before the game that the Fox network hosts had to shout at each other to be heard. Mike Nolan, the Falcons’ defensive coordinator and former head coach of the 49ers, had clearly devised a game plan to keep Kaepernick from running wild as he had done against the Packers, and on offense the Falcons offensive linemen gave their quarterback Matt Ryan all day to find his tall receivers downfield for big gains and easy scores. Somehow, though, the game didn’t seem out of hand, and I kept thinking that Harbaugh and his staff would find the seams that Nolan would have had to leave in his defense to contain Kaepernick in the pocket. My faith began to be rewarded in the second quarter, when running backs Frank Gore and LaMichael James found running lanes on the inside and Kaepernick found tight end Vernon Davis wide open down the field. These adjustments produced two quick touchdowns, and despite the Falcons’ successful two-minute drill to make the score 24-14 at the half, the 49ers were much more in control of the game at that point.

At the start of the third quarter, the 49ers picked up where they had left off and scored another touchdown with a combination of inside runs by Gore and longer downfield passes, this time mostly to Randy Moss. The 49ers defense for their part shut down the Falcons, mostly due to a tremendous effort from the secondary, since Ryan still seemed to get plenty of time to throw. The game should have been decided long before the 49ers scored their go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but a missed field goal by the 49ers’ troubled kicker David Akers and a timely strip of the ball from wide receiver Michael Crabtree at the Falcon one-yard line kept the score close enough to allow Ryan one last chance to salvage a victory. For a time it seemed that he might succeed, but again the 49er secondary rose to the occasion by forcing incompletions on third and fourth down at their ten-yard line, the latter batted down at the last moment by linebacker NaVorro Bowman to seal the victory and send the 49ers to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995. With the Baltimore Ravens’ subsequent victory over the New England Patriots, it will also be the first time that a championship game in any sport, let alone a Super Bowl, will be played by teams coached by two brothers. Count on this fact to be beaten well into the ground by the media in the next two weeks.

The post-game festivities featured a curious moment in the 49er locker room, when former 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo presented the George Halas NFC Championship Trophy to the current owner, his sister Denise DeBartolo York. I’d love to know how this arrangement came to be, given how York had famously forced her spendthrift brother to relinquish the franchise at the end of the ‘90s. Outwardly Eddie DeBartolo says the right things and gives the appearance of having come to terms with his current fate, but anyone with a memory of Bill Walsh pacing the sideline knows the extent to which Mr. D. had reveled in the 49ers’ Super Bowl victories and defined himself by them—in contrast to his sister, who has stayed so far out of the NFL limelight that this is the first time I recall seeing her on camera. It would seem inhuman for Mr. D. not to feel some bitterness when handing over the trophy, but perhaps it would be well to take the generosity of his gesture at face value and believe in the capacity of people to heal past resentments.

Unfortunately it’s hard to feel as optimistic about the events that took place later in the Georgia Dome parking lot. Apparently a Falcons fan punched out a 49er fan, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed his assailant in the neck. Thankfully at the moment no fatalities have been reported, but it’s discouraging to say the least to see how appallingly people can behave. It shouldn’t be so hard to remember that even NFL football is just a game.

– Chuck Strom