Welcome back to The Booth Review. The San Francisco 49ers move into the Final Four after staving off Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. What lies ahead? Read on.
San Francisco's first offensive play of the day was an unsurprising handoff to Frank Gore.
What was surprising was the result.
Across the way, defensive end Charles Johnson cut past tackle Anthony Davis, barreled into the backfield, and speared Gore onto his back for a loss.
On the very next play, Colin Kaepernick rolled right and found Michael Crabtree by the sideline. Just as Crabtree caught the ball, he began to turn upfield but was met immediately by cornerback Captain Munnerlyn who swung him around backwards and headfirst into the ground.
Just two plays and 40 seconds into regulation, we found out exactly what type of game we were getting. From start to finish, it was hard hits, louder pops, and the kind of bad blood you would only find among the most heated divisional rivals.
As I wrote last week, many expected this game to be a defensive battle, and it more than lived up to its billing.
Take, for instance, San Francisco's first two offensive drives. On their opening drive, they got all the way down to Carolina's own 24-yard line, just outside of the red zone but still within striking distance. A sack by standout linebacker Luke Kuechly stopped the drive in its tracks, and San Francisco had to settle for a field goal.
Their second drive produced similarly underwhelming results. This time, they got to Carolina's 15-yard line, but still, San Francisco could only muster their second field goal of the game to put themselves up, 6-0.
The Panthers defense deserves plenty of credit for holding fast, but the Niners would not be outdone.
Towards the end of the first quarter, Cam Newton got his offense down to first-and-goal at the six-yard line. Read that one more time. First-and-goal at the six-yard line.
On their first attempt, Mike Tolbert rumbled forward for three yards. On their second attempt, Newton tried his hand with a designed quarterback keeper and got down to the one-yard line. On their third attempt, it was Tolbert again, but he got bottled up fast by Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman.
The Panthers faced fourth-and-inches at the goal line. What do you think a guy named 'Riverboat Ron' would do? Newton took the ball and fired forward trying headfirst for the endzone, but he dove right into the arms of one Ahmad Brooks who would stop him short.
Carolina faced another first-and-goal situation again halfway through the second quarter. Newton ran a bootleg left upfield and would have almost certainly punched it in for the score were it not for an exceptional play by Bowman. The 2013 All-Pro linebacker tracked Newton the entire way before splitting two Panthers' offensive linemen to make the tackle. Newton was taken down at the one-yard line with Bowman's arms around his waist.
Neither Newton nor Tolbert could cover the single yard over the next two downs. On fourth down, 'Riverboat Ron' folded and settled for the field goal.
Twice Carolina found first-and-goal and twice they were denied entry.
In last week's preview, I also mentioned how, in defensive dogfights such as this one, the outcome could very well come down to the performance of the quarterbacks. In that regard, Newton undoubtedly started the game as the stronger of the two. His passes were near-perfect (save for a deflected throw that was intercepted). His pocket presence was otherworldly. For the most part, he put the ball exactly where it needed to be, and when the window wasn't open, he knew when to take off with his legs.
Kaepernick, on the other hand, looked unsettled and unsure of himself. Passes were erratic and inconsistent. San Francisco found momentum early on, but it slowly bled out until the end of the second quarter.
Fortunately, the script was flipped in the second half -- Cam cooled off and Kap heated up. It was a difference of night and day. What happened after the inversion of quality quarterback play? Carolina was held to zero, zilch, nada points in the second half, and San Francisco dropped 10 more unanswered.
Onward!
Isn't this what we all kind of expected?
The Seattle Seahawks whooped the Niners back in September, 29-3. San Francisco evened the series with a narrow 19-17 victory last month. Now, the freshly-crowned NFC West champion Seahawks host the Niners in the dreaded rubber match for -- in Jim Harbaugh's words -- "the ultimate chance".
It's okay to be nervous. I know I am. Who wouldn't be considering the stage and, more importantly, the stakes? Seattle holds a staggering combined win/loss record of 16-1 at CenturyLink Field over the last two seasons including the playoffs.
Daunting? Absolutely. Impossible? Absolutely not.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as we head towards Championship Sunday.