In light of the thrilling nature of Saturday's victory over the New Orleans Saints, 49ers fans and media have been trying to come up with a name for Vernon Davis' catch that secured the victory. We have heard a variety of nicknames and I don't think anything has really settled at this point. The Catch III is easy enough and fits into the history of the team. The Dagger was an interesting one. I believe Vernon Davis has called it The Grab. There is some discussion already going on here about it.
I forget where, but somebody on Twitter suggested the Immaculate Redemption. The NFL has the Immaculate Reception, but the Immaculate Redemption could be a bit more all-encompassing. I have been pushing the Immaculate Redemption in part because I think it is a great description of the final two scoring plays for the 49ers. Alex Smith's rushing touchdown and Vernon Davis' receiving touchdown involved two players who have been through so much during their time in San Francisco and those two drives were sort of redemptive for them. You could argue Vernon Davis had redeemed himself to a certain extent before, but I still think there was a redemptive quality about it.
The question that is also being discussed is where the Davis catch fits in the 49ers postseason pantheon. Matt Loede of 49ers Gab took a crack at ranking the top ten greatest moments in 49ers playoff history. He has The Catch number one, Montana to Taylor number two, and and the Vernon Davis catch number three, one spot ahead of The Catch II.
At this point, it is hard to rank the Vernon Davis play in part because we don't know the end result of this postseason. While TO's great catch remains a great play, I would argue losing to Atlanta the next week took a little bit of the shine off the play. Had the 49ers gone on to win the Super Bowl, I think it becomes a bit more of a pantheon play. Saturday's Vernon Davis catch will be remembered for years to come and was a thrilling play. But if the 49ers were to beat the Giants and then actually win the Super Bowl, I think it becomes a pantheon-level play.
I think that as great as some of the plays on that top ten list were, there is a definite dividing line between plays during Super Bowl runs, and everything else. Maybe it's being a little bit picky given the context of the situation, but I still think it matters when we're talking big picture. It's a topic worthy of discussion, but a certain context is removed without the completed postseason.
What do folks think? Is this pantheon-level material yet, or worth waiting hopefully a few more weeks?