‘Twas the day before Christmas, the afternoon in LA, and the San Francisco 49ers had a game to play. Many of the Faithful wanted to sew up the number one draft pick with a loss; the game they wanted to toss. But come Kap and Streater and Robinson and Chip, and that 13 game losing streak was over with a Niner pick.
After losing 13 straight games and faltering in second half after second half, the 49ers, led by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, mounted a fourth quarter comeback against the Los Angeles Rams to celebrate Christmas with a victory.
“I’m just really happy for our guys,” said head coach Chip Kelly. “They competed, and they’ve competed for a while. I think they’ve done a great job of just focusing on the task at hand. That’s what we’ve asked them to do, to concentrate on what they can control – they control their attitude, they control their efforts. They had a really good week of training this week, and I’m just happy for them that they had a chance to win the football game.”
Kaepernick proved once again that he is a pretty solid comeback kid.
After running back Carlos Hyde fumbled and was knocked out of the game with a knee injury, which hopefully is not too serious, the Rams scored a touchdown and it was 21-7 in the fourth quarter. Zane Beadles, who was making his first start at center, got the offensive line together and gave them a pep talk.
According to Kaepernick, Beadles told his teammates, “Forget everything that’s happened up until this point. Let’s play football the way we know how, let’s go get this win.”
Kap proceeded to go 8 of 12 on the next drive that ended with a 13-yard rushing touchdown by the quarterback. The Niners got the ball back with 3:10 and after a 10-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Rod Streater, Kaepernick ran in the two-point conversion.
“We had a bootleg or slide coming across with a couple of overs, they jumped the slide, sank off on the overs and I saw an opportunity to get in there,” said Kaepernick. “[A]nd in my head I was just, ‘I have to get in. I have to get in for this team, we need this win.’ I was very excited to be able to do that.”
He was not alone. The team erupted into cheers and after Rashard Robinson sealed the victory with an interception, the 49ers looked like they won the Super Bowl, and for them, they kind of did.
“It’s a big relief because we had so many games that we just came a play short, a yard short,” said Robinson. “And finally, to put everything together – even though we had all these injuries and stuff – buy in as a team and just go out there and just execute…[W]e’ve been facing adversity this whole year and we finally just overcame all that and to come back out and play how we played that second half, that was something major. That’s going to stick with me. Just me alone, I’m never going to forget this game, for sure.”
It was a Chistmas miracle, or at least a good Christmas present. They’re still 2-13, they’re #2 in the draft order, and the team is a mess, but we saw fight in the red and gold today. We saw a group of guys who came to play, no matter what their record said. And I think we maybe saw Kelly solidify one more year, and I’m good with that.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Go Niners!