San Francisco 49ers vs New Orleans Saints 2012-01-14

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Event
San Francisco 49ers vs New Orleans Saints

Date
Sat 14th January 2012 UTC
Sat 14th January 2012 Local

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

Timezones
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24-05-14 17:00 (PST Los Angeles)
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24-05-14 19:00 (CST Chicago)
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24-05-14 20:00 (EST New York)
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24-05-15 01:00 (GMT London)
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24-05-15 02:00 (CET Paris)
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24-05-15 04:00 (GST Dubai)
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24-05-15 05:30 (IST Kolkata)
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24-05-15 09:00 (JST Tokyo)
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24-05-15 10:00 (AEDT Sydney)

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League
NFL

Season
2011

Round
19

Status

Location
San Francisco
USA

(69,732 Attendance)

		vs
	36 No timeline found..		32 No timeline found..

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Description

Alex Smith's 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Vernon Davis with nine seconds left gave San Francisco their first playoff win since 2002 at the end of a wild, back and forth final quarter which featured four lead changes in a span of 3:53.

New Orleans started off the game with a 78-yard drive to the 49ers 2-yard line, but came up empty when defensive back Donte Whitner forced a fumble from Pierre Thomas that was recovered by linebacker Patrick Willis. Thomas was injured on the play and did not return. Later on, San Francisco opened up the scoring with Smith's 49-yard touchdown pass to Davis. A few plays into the next drive, Dashon Goldson intercepted a pass from Saints quarterback Drew Brees and returned it 41 yards to the 4-yard line, setting up Smith's touchdown completion to Michael Crabtree and giving the 49ers a 14–0 lead. Then Courtney Roby lost a fumble on the kickoff that San Francisco linebacker Blake Costanzo recovered on the Saints 13-yard line. This time New Orleans managed to keep them out of the end zone, but David Akers kicked a field goal to give the 49ers a 17–0 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.

Brees led the Saints back, completing seven consecutive passes for 65 yards and rushing for five on an 80-yard drive that ended with his 14-yard scoring pass to tight end Jimmy Graham. Then after a punt, he threw a 25-yard touchdown completion to Marques Colston, cutting the deficit to three points. Later on, Brees threw his second interception, this one to Tarell Brown, but San Francisco could not convert and the score remained 17–14 at the end of the second quarter, despite three Saints turnovers.

Early in the second half, Costanzo forced a fumble from Darren Sproles on a punt return and Colin Jones recovered it, leading to Akers' second field goal. In the fourth quarter, the Saints managed to close the gap back to three points with a franchise postseason record 48-yard field goal from John Kasay. But a 42-yard run from San Francisco's Frank Gore helped put the margin back up to six on Akers' third field goal of the day.

With 4:02 left in the game, New Orleans took their first lead of the game at 24–23 with Brees' 44-yard touchdown pass to Sproles. But it lasted less than two minutes before San Francisco took it back, with Smith hitting Davis for a 37-yard gain before taking the ball into the end zone himself on his career long 28-yard run, making the score 29–24 after the two-point conversion failed. Not to be outdone, Brees matched the score with his fourth touchdown pass of the day, a 66-yard completion to Graham, and then threw the ball to Sproles for a successful 2-point conversion, giving the Saints a 32–29 lead.

San Francisco got the ball back on their own 15-yard line with 1:37 left in the game. Smith started the drive with two completions to Gore for 18 yards. Then after an incompletion, he connected on a 47-yard pass to Davis, advancing the ball to the Saints 20-yard line. A 6-yard completion to Gore then moved the ball to the 14, where Smith spiked the ball to stop the clock. On the next play, he threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Davis with nine seconds left, who managed to hang onto the ball despite a hard hit from Roman Harper while he was still in mid-air, earning San Francisco their first conference championship game since 1997.

Smith threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, while adding 28 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He was the first quarterback in NFL playoff history to lead two go-ahead touchdowns in the final three minutes of a game. Davis caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, breaking Kellen Winslow's NFL postseason record for receiving yards (166) by a tight end. Gore rushed for 89 yards and caught seven passes for 38. For the Saints, Brees completed 40 of 63 passes for 462 yards and four touchdowns, with two interceptions. His top target was Sproles, who caught an NFL playoff record 15 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown, while adding 59 more yards on rushing and special teams returns. Graham caught five passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns, while Colston caught nine passes for 136 yards and one score.

Davis' game-winning touchdown catch occurred four days after the 30th anniversary of The Catch – Joe Montana's touchdown pass to Dwight Clark – known as the most famous play in 49ers history. San Francisco had another famous playoff win in the 1998 season on a last second touchdown pass from Steve Young to Terrell Owens known as The Catch II. Sports writers and 49ers fans have taken to referring Davis' catch as The Catch III.