Heartbreak at the 'Stick

What a shame. The NFC Championship game played out just like so many other games that the 49ers had won this season: win the battle of field position, ride a stellar defensive performance, and scratch out just enough points on the offensive end. And that formula paved the way to a lead in the 4th quarter with possession. And yet victory slipped away. Still, if the '9ers had came away with the W yesterday, you get the feeling that Giants fans would have been doing even more head scratching; asking themselves "how did this happen?" After all, the Giants did look like the better football team.

Eli Manning outplayed Alex Smith, and by a wide margin. Aside from the two big Vernon Davis plays, the 49ers did close to bubkiss on offense. Wide receiving was exposed as a major weakness for the Red&Gold, whereas it was shown off as an asset for the Giants -- Victor Cruz absolutely torched the '9ers in the first half. Although credit the '9er defense and coaching staff for righting that ship in the second half (Cruz had just 2 receptions after the break). [Side note: I think that a major metric for how NFL coaches are evaluated should be their team's 2nd half performance as compared to the 1st half. Halftime is where the most significant strategic adjustments are made in the chess match against the other coach. The 49ers have made major 2nd half improvements all year, which is one of the reasons I love Harbaugh.]

But just as turnovers did so much for this 49er team all season, turnovers are what did them in on Sunday. Or maybe you could say that Ted Ginn Jr.'s injury did them in. Kyle Williams looked lost out there on punt returns all day. He once signaled for a fair catch when no one was near him. He caught one punt by flat-out diving for it--a risky move with little upside. And of course he was the principal goat on the two plays that defined the game. And the Giants took advantage.

Any unlikely playoff run (such as the one the Giants are on now) requires a lot to go right. The team needs to get their breaks, and the Giants certainly cashed in a few yesterday. Most obvious is the Brooks-Conrad-esque performance by Kyle Williams. But there was also the Ahmad Bradshaw fumble-that-wasn't, after he was ruled down (unreviewably) by forward progress. There were 4 instances where a 49er DB had a great shot at an interception. Unfortunately, those 4 instances occurred over 2 plays, and each time the two DBs crashed into each other, canceling out each other's shot at the ball. On another day the 49ers may have won the turnover battle, and in turn the game.

'Twas still an incredible season. No one could have expected them to get as far as they did. I'm taking comfort in the fact that there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do it again next year. On the negative side, no one will be surprised by the 49ers next year. But they should be able to apply the same formula. Combine that with incremental improvements in Alex Smith and others, and they should be fine.