2013 NFC Championship: 49ers comeback win sends San Francisco to a sixth Super Bowl

Hello! I am an Atlanta Falcons fan.

Here is a GIF that defines the second half of the 2013 NFC Championship. I didn’t make it, so don’t yell at me.

However, the 49ers wiped away a 17-point deficit and came back in the second half, devastating the Falcons. On the bright side, Atlanta has something special and it looks as if they’ll be annual contenders. Dave Choate of Falcoholics had this post-game reaction following Sunday’s loss:

As a second-year receiver, Jones is going to be a major building block for this franchise going forward.

The NFC Champion was determined early Sunday evening.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, only one team can advance. James Rael of Falcoholics provided the Atlanta fan base with a post-game reaction here:

White wanted a pass interference call, but he did not get it. Were the Falcons robbed?

That play ended a drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock, and the 49ers were able to burn most of the remaining time when they took over on downs.

LeBron James is so excited about the Super Bowl. If the 49ers win, he’ll have the hottest ticket in Miami ... and Cleveland.

Wait, what’s Arthur Blank think about this?

The turning point should have been back-to-back Atlanta turnovers by Matt Ryan. He threw an interception to Chris Culliver, trying to target Roddy White. He then fumbled on the following drive. However, the 49ers were unable to capitalize as David Akers missed a field goal (somewhat commonplace), and Michael Crabtree fumbled at the goal line (less commonplace). So those Ryan turnovers went for naught. An eventful third quarter didn’t reflect it on the scoreboard.

In just his second season as an NFL head coach, Jim Harbaugh now has the chance to lead the San Francisco 49ers to a Lombardi trophy.

Jimmy Johnson is a man of many talents, but sometimes even he’s left tongue-tied.

It’s okay Jimmy. It’s only a couple more hours until the game is over.

It’s 2 o’clock, on the dot, Michael Strahan’s head goes BOP BOP during the game.

I got really nice red boots and I think that Strahan is hurting my braaaiinnnn.

Even at age 36, Gonzalez hasn’t lost a step. He had another productive season with 93 catches, 930 yards and eight touchdowns.

Gonzalez has hinted that he may retire after this season. It would be all too appropriate if he gets that long-coveted Super Bowl ring in his final year.

Atlanta general manager Thomas Dimitroff made the gutsy decision to trade up and select Julio Jones in the 2011 draft, but thus far it’s looked like a sage decision. With 135 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, Jones has earned that price tag -- and then some.

His second touchdown was considerably more difficult than his first, as Matt Ryan threw a perfect pass in the end zone. It required some impressive footwork to remain inbounds, but that 20-yard completion looked to be the begin of another huge Atlanta first half team.

The Falcons have struggled with tight ends. Seattle’s Zach Miller had a carrer day with 142 yards last week.

Davis has 4 catches for 75 yards. Kaepernick is 9 of 12 for 99 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

However, Ryan had one more trick up his sleeve left for the first half. Atlanta got the ball back with 1:50 left in the half and Ryan drove them 80 yards down the field, hitting Tony Gonzalez for a 10-yard touchdown and bring the lead back up to 24-14. That is now the score at halftime.

So, the quarterback is really urging Brown on here, but what’s he saying?

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As Chattanooga television reporter Mike Costa tweeted this morning, the Chattanooga Times Free Press printed that Alabama, and not Atlanta, is facing San Francisco in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game:

In accidentally putting the Crimson Tide in the NFC Championship, the Times Free Press managed to anger fans of both Atlanta and Alabama. Falcons fans are understandably angry at being compared to a college team on the eve of the franchise’s first NFC Championship appearance since 2005, especially given the disrespect shown to their team by Vegas oddsmakers and the gambling public.

In an interview with Michael Irvin on NFL.com, Ryan said that the criticism can be both helpful and harmful.

“In a way, it motivates you,” Ryan said. “You want to prove everybody who doubts you wrong. But at the same time you can’t let it affect the way you feel about yourself.”

In Atlanta’s 13 wins during the regular season, opposing tight ends averaged 49.6 receiving yards per game. In the Falcons’ three losses, tight ends averaged 85.7 receiving yards per game. Davis has had big games before, topping the 100-yard mark eight times during his career.

Tony Gonzalez will get most of the attention leading up to the game, and rightfully so, future Hall of Famer and all, but if the Falcons don’t shore up the holes Seattle exploited last week it could be Davis, not Gonzalez, who has the bigger impact on the game.

Probably the most famous recruiting story from this game involves the starting 49ers quarterback. The 6’4, 172-pound Colin Kaepernick received only an offer from Nevada before committing to the Wolf Pack. Kaepernick was a three-star pro-style quarterback and was ranked 34th overall by Rivals.

Michael Crabtree was a four-star athlete from Dallas and top-25 recruit from the state of Texas in 2006. The 6’1, 190-pound Crabtree committed to Texas Tech over plenty of welcome suitors like Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Baylor and others.

Dunn was the most recent member of the Falcons, joining the team in 2002 and playing six seasons with it. Despite limited time with the team, Dunn accumulated 5,981 yards rushing and 30 touchdowns, finishing fourth on the all-time franchise rushing list, just five yards behind William Andrews.

Bartowski is the team’s all-time passing leader, although Matt Ryan is quickly approaching his mark, and played 11 seasons with the team after he was selected with the first pick of the 1975 NFL Draft.

I’m not going to try to convince you that the NFL is changing and that college style offenses that heavily feature the zone read option and/or the Pistol formation (and the myriad of wrinkles therein) are here to stay. Many believe that it’s a fad or gimmick, that teams will ‘figure out how to defend it this offseason,’ or that the threat of injury to quarterbacks will make that stuff fade into Bolivian (h/t to Iron Mike). Hell if I know.

As a Seahawks’ fan and writer, I’m obviously biased, and I like to think that my quarterback lives up to his nickname and Twitter handle ‘DangeRuss’ - he’s a threat to gouge you through the air, and if you don’t respect his ability to run, he’ll hurt you there, toying with defensive ends on the read-option, escaping pressure, foiling blitzes, and demoralizing a defense. This dual-threat type of player that can use his arm or legs is exactly that -- dangerous, and frankly, a real pain in the ass to prepare for and defend if you’re an opposing defensive coordinator. For these reasons, with a mixture of begrudging respect and admiration, Colin Kaepernick scares the hell out of me; both this season as the Niners’ Super Bowl run meets a Falcons team that smote Seattle’s ruin upon the mountainside last weekend, and beyond into next year and for the next decade of NFC West rivalry.

Harbaugh was asked about James on Thursday, and he had plenty of praise for the rookie, via the San Jose Mercury News:

Gore was also asked later about when he first saw the read option and Pistol style offenses. Gore’s first exposure came watching Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks (who don’t actually run Pistol, but do use read option). The Niners back didn’t like the offense at first, saying he thought it wasn’t “real football.”