It has been a long road for the San Francisco 49ers this season and it all culminates this Sunday in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. Who knew that the 49ers which opened the season in Green Bay would be playing in the Super Bowl, much less be led by a quarterback not named Alex Smith?.
What might be even more impressive than Colin Kaepernick leading the team to a potential sixth Lombardi Trophy was doing so without some key players. Of course I am referring to Mario Manningham and Kendall Hunter, who played vital roles for this team. Manningham tore his ACL and PCL tendons late in the season against the Seattle Seahawks. At that time he was the third leading receiver behind Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis. Hunter tore his Achilles tendon against the Saints in last November, which was actually on the same play that Kyle Williams tore his ACL. This led to bigger roles for the aging Randy Moss and former Oregon Duck LaMichael James.
Now as you well know by now these weren’t the only changes that happened for the 49ers, there was this change at quarterback going with the second-year man over the veteran Smith. You may have heard of this bicep kissing guy, Kaepernick. During the November 11th game against division rival St Louis Rams, Smith went down with a concussion which would open the door for Kaepernick. Second-year head coach Jim Harbaugh would make his move, although it seemed to be a controversial one with all the media coverage. Kaepernick would go 5-2 over the last seven games and lead the niners to another NFC West Division Championship. I will get into what he meant to the team in the playoffs a little later on.
We can’t talk about this year’s run to the Super Bowl without mentioned the number three scoring defense. Led by middle linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis, this defense was able to slow down some of the top quarterbacks and teams in the league. Couple that with this year’s sack king Aldon Smith and Justin Smith wreaking havoc in the backfield and you have one of the most impressive front sevens in the league today. This defense would give up 17.1 points per game (2nd in NFL), + 9 in turnover differential (8th) and +7.8 point differential (4th) which is recipe for winning.
On one side of the ball you have a dynamic offense and a punishing defense on the other. The 49ers would finish 11-4-1 and win the division by half a game, which was good enough for second in the league and a home playoff game. They would host the Green Bay Packers in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. Kaepernick took over this game from the very beginning. He would rush for 181 yards, most of which came prior to contact. With the pistol offense that he ran at Nevada and the read option just proved too much for Dom Capers and the Packers' defense to handle.
When they went to Atlanta for the NFC Championship Game Kaepernick’s legs didn’t do as much damage as his arm did. Davis was able to find mismatches in the secondary and would catch five passes for 106 yards and a score. Falling behind by halftime the 49ers were down 24-14 when the defense shut them down for the rest half. Frank Gore being the workhorse back that he is put this offense on his back and carried them into the Super Bowl.
While some may think San Francisco had lady luck on their side, I tend to think that they are a team of destiny. Most recently San Francisco has been overcome with baseball fever having two World Series Championships in the last three years. It may be time for football to once again take over this city with the “Quest for Six” ending Sunday night in New Orleans.