Torturous conclusion came in Seattle end zone
Colin Kaepernick had three open receivers.
At the 16-yard line, running back Kendall Hunter was all alone, clapping his hands in a futile attempt to get his quarterback’s attention. On the other side of the field, along the left sideline, wideout Quinton Patton stood near the line of scrimmage, the closest defender 10 yards away. Finally, tight end Vernon Davis, who ran a short out route, was open at the 12-yard line.
Kaepernick didn’t look to Hunter, or Patton, or Davis. Instead, with two timeouts and 30 seconds left, he took the shotgun snap on 1st-and-10 from Seattle’s 18-yard line and immediately turned his focus to the right corner of the end zone to make a predetermined throw.
Eleven months after that ill-fated move, Kaepernick was asked: Did he still believe he made the correct decision?
“Very much so,” he said. “Once again, if I
throw that ball a little bit further, we’re going to the Super Bowl. So it’s not something I regret.”
Others, however, believe differently: One of the top plays in Bay Area sports in 2014 doubled as one of the most torturous in the 49ers’ history.
Kaepernick’s pass intended for wideout Michael Crabtree, of course, was tipped by the left hand of All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman and corralled by linebacker Malcolm Smith to seal the Seahawks’ 23-17 win in the NFC Championship Game.
The Sherman-inspired moments that followed added to the 49ers’ nightmare ending. Sherman extended his hand to Crabtree, gave Kaepernick the choke sign from across the field and ranted on the field after the game to Fox’s Erin Andrews: “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get!”
Kaepernick’s counterpart in that game, Russell Wilson, recently said he sensed such a result was coming before Kaepernick took that shotgun snap.
“I believe I was on the sideline jumping up and down,” Wilson said. “You can ask (wide receiver) Doug Baldwin. I’m on the sideline and I’m usually trying to guess when we’re going to make a big play; I’m right most of the time. I just have a feeling sometimes and sure enough, Sherm made a big-time play, tips it to Malcolm Smith.”
It’s premature to say authoritatively, but it appears the Tip-and-Pick — similar to The Catch — could have altered the long-term fortunes of the two franchises.
Nearly a year removed from their first Super Bowl title, the Seahawks will enter the playoffs as the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Meanwhile, the 49ers, as if they couldn’t recover from the knockout blow, have wobbled to a nonplayoff 8-8 season that marks the end of the once-glorious Jim Harbaugh era.
This season, Seattle went 2-0 against the 49ers, beating them by a combined score of 36-10. Sherman, again, won his confrontations with Crabtree, who had six catches for 29 yards in the two games while Sherman had two interceptions.
After Sherman had those two picks Thanksgiving — and celebrated by eating turkey at midfield at Levi’s Stadium during NBC’s staged postgame interview — Crabtree insisted his tormentor benefited more from Seattle’s system than individual skills.
“I’m not worried about that dude,” Crabtree said. “It’s more scheme. It’s not one-onone.”
Before the 49ers returned to Seattle this month for the first time since the NFC Championship Game, Sherman was selling sweatshirts online depicting the play with silhouettes of himself and Crabtree. The message: Denied by RS25; Here’s A Tip: Don’t Test The Best.
“I watched the play like everyone else,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said. “I was just cheerleading from the sidelines. I had a pretty good view. I knew the moment the ball went up (after it was tipped) and Malcolm’s trying to make the grab on the ball: That’s it. That’s an extraordinary moment.”
Extraordinary for one franchise; excruciating for the other.