(Image via Sportsgrid.com)

We’re obviously a little late to the party on this, but the San Francisco 49ers took down the New Orleans Saints 36-32 in the game of the Divisional Playoff weekend, with Alex Smith delivering the game-winning TD to Vernon Davis on what will undoubtedly forever go down in San Francisco sports history as “The Catch III”. 

Both Smith and Davis turned in career-making performances and Smith finally delivered on his #1 pick expectations by out-dueling the NFL’s all-time single season passing leader (Drew Brees) in a game that saw four lead changes in the final 5 minutes! Smith had his NFL bar mitzvah and became a man on Saturday, finishing with 299 yards and 3 TDs passing, 0 INTs and one 28-yard rushing score to pus SF ahead late in the 4th.

For his part, Vernon Davis cemented himself in Niner lore with 7 catches for 180 yards and 2 TDs, including the game winner on a 14-yard strike from Smith with nine seconds remaining. After dominating all day long and when his team needed him most, Davis delivered a huge blow to Saints safety Roman Harper in the endzone and managed to hang onto the ball for the win.

On what was very nearly the 30th anniversary of the original “The Catch” – Dwight Clark‘s infamous touchdown grab in the 1981 NFC Championship game (1/10/82) – Davis’ play more closely resembled “The Catch II” by Terrell Owens in 1999, right down to crying on the shoulder of head coach Jim Harbaugh as he ran to the sideline (pic above).

VIDEO OF ALL THREE 49ERS “CATCHES” AFTER THE JUMP

But after the game, rather than embrace the obvious connection to his predecessors, Davis insisted that his catch go by a different name:

“You’ve got to call it “The Grab,’ ” Davis said of his play. “We were down. I had to make it happen to take my teammates where we want to go.”

“This is huge for us … It’s history, legendary, anything you can describe.”

Yeah … good luck with that, Vern.  It’s “The Catch III”. Get used to it.

The high-powered Saints offense also contributed five turnovers to the Niners’ cause, including 2 Brees interceptions, but give credit where credit is due. Much like their adopted team mascot the honey badger, Jim Harbaugh’s team took what it wanted and proved themselves the better team on this day. The win gives SF their first playoff win in nine years, and they’ll next play host to the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

Now thanks to the wonders of Youtube, here are all three of the historic 49ers “Catches” in chronological order – Clark>Owens>Davis:

(Image via ninersnation.com)

As the San Francisco 49ers prepare for their upcoming Divisional Playoff showdown with the New Orleans Saints, head coach Jim Harbaugh is using a rather unusual motivational tactic to get his players ready for battle. It seems that the crazy, nastyass Honey Badger has become the unofficial mascot for the Niners during their 13-3, NFC West championship run.

In addition to being the world’s most fearless animal, the Honey Badger is also the subject of a wildly popular (and hilarious) viral video. Apparently, prior to a recent game, Harbaugh spliced the video together with 2011 49ers highlights and showed it to the team. You see, much like their ferocious weasel-esque inspiration, the San Francisco defense “just takes what it wants”, leading to a league-high 35 takeaways this year. And since then, the “honey badger don’t care” mentality has taken over the locker room.

Check out this report from CSNBayArea:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

We can dig it, but the Niners better hope they do better against the Saints than LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu, who had previously adopted the Honey Badger nickname, and got shut down by Alabama in the national championship game on Monday.

It's a good thing we're not the betting type (Image via Reddit.com/r/nfl)

And so it was that bizarro NFL Week 15 ended the quest for both the perfect and winless seasons in 2011.

Packers lose, Colts win. Up is down, in is out, bad is good … except for the Saints crushing the Vikings, not much from the early round of games made sense today.

Let’s see if Tebow can restore some sense of normalcy by pulling out a miraculous win against the Patriots.

UPDATE: Nope. Not only couldn’t Denver summon the late-game magic today in their 41-23 loss, but “Tebow Time” actually came during the first quarter instead of the fourth, with the Broncos scoring on their first three possessions and New England forced to mount the comeback.

Bizarro Sunday remains fully intact.

(AP Photo via MLive.com)

This season, the Detroit Lions have been working hard to change their image from perennial NFC North doormat to the new bad boys of the league. And along the way, part of this new image has included getting busted for dirty play and – as exemplified by Ndamukong Suh – committing all sorts of foolish personal fouls that ultimately hurt the team.

Well, following their week 13 loss at the hands of the Saints, in which Detroit committed 11 penalties for 107 yards, including several critical unsportsmanlike conduct calls, Lions’ veteran center Dominic Raiola had finally seen enough.  Check out this profanity-laced, post-game diatribe from the Lions’ captain, in which he delivers a fairly singular message to his fellow teammates: “Grow the f@#k up!”.

Audio below (Curses are bleeped out, so its relatively SFW):

(Image via Imgur.com)

Packers rookie WR/KR Randall Cobb made a pretty strong impression on his new team last night with this record-tying 108-yard kickoff return in the 3rd quarter, which helped Green Bay on to a thrilling season-opening 42-34 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

The most impressive part of the play came as Cobb crossed the 20 yard line and got seemingly upended by Saints CB Leigh Torrance. Cobb then performed a “barrel roll” maneuver and managed to put down a hand as one of his teammates helped prevent his fall and keep him moving forward.  The 2nd round draft choice then burst from the pack and used his speed to do the rest.

Since the NFL seems determined to have all kickoffs go into the endzone, it’s nice to know that there’s still plenty of young kids with no fear who are willing to eschew taking a knee in favor of taking one to the house.

WATCH THE VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

Sean Payton sees a future where kickoffs might be kicked out. (Cox Sports TV)

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton spoke with ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio on Tuesday about the future of kickoff returns.

Payton understands that fans — and many players — are miffed about kickoffs moving from the 30 to the 35, effectively reducing chances for big kick returns. He also knows that with the information the league had about  injuries, kickoffs were a central target for change.

“Then you have to be able to take steps, so that 10 years down the road when someone is asking you, ‘Hey at this time, when you knew it was such a dangerous play and you continued on with the kicks from the 30 — and now you have someone who is seriously injured.’”

Payton acknowledged that kickoffs could eventually vanish from the landscape of football.

“Sitting in on John Madden’s coaches committee, and discussing this topic, this is a tough one, in regards to trying to reduce collision speed.  There are a number of things you can do offensively and defensively, but when it comes to kicking that ball and these guys are running down the field (at) a pretty good rate of speed, even if they have a five-yard start as opposed to, last year, the 10-yard start.  I wouldn’t be surprised, Mike, if down the road that’s where it was headed.  Unless we come up with some good answers.  And that’s the trick.”

Payton is clearly not on board with the league removing onside kicks.

PFT did the hard work on this one, so here’s the link to the story.

Alabama RB and former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram found himself waiting the longest to hear his name called in the draft’s green room, as he slid farther and farther down the board. But after being selected #28 overall by the New Orleans Saints, Ingram was overcome with a sense of relief and emotion, as ESPN’s Suzy Kolber shared an email she received from Ingram’s father, Mark, Sr.

Ingram, Sr was also selected #28 overall back in 1987 by the New York Giants, and went on to be an integral part of the club that won Super Bowl 25. He is currently serving a 7-year federal sentence for bank fraud and laundering. When Kolber shared the father’s message to his son, Ingram, Jr. simply couldn’t hold back the tears:

With the addition of Ingram, the Saints now have a crowded backfield, with Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory and Reggie Bush already in the fold.  Shortly after the draft, Bush sent out this tweet, indicating that he’s aware of the writing on the wall:

(Photo: Getty Images)

Well that right there is why they play the games.

Everybody’s least favorite playoff team, the 7-9 Seahawks, upset the defending champion New Orleans Saints today in Seattle, hanging on for a shocking 41-36 win. The game was a shootout from the very beginning, with both defenses seemingly taking much of the afternoon off. Seattle was led by QB Matt Hasselbeck, who threw for 272 yards and four TDs in leading his team to a 24-17 halftime lead. And the offensive fireworks didn’t stop there, as both teams racked up almost 900 combined yards of total offense in the game.

Just when it looked like Drew Brees and the Saints were going to overpower the lowly NFC West champs down the stretch, RB Marshawn Lynch broke away for an incredible 67-yard 4th quarter touchdown run that put the game out of reach. The Saints seemed to have Lynch bottled up near the line of scrimmage, but the man who Carroll traded for mid-season broke loose around midfield. At least six members of the NO defense had a legitimate chance to bring him down on the play, but Lynch simply wouldn’t be denied the end zone:

Crazy. It’s already being called one of the greatest runs ever, and considering the breadth of skills Lynch used to elude defenders on the play (power/speed/shiftiness/field vision and one nasty stiff-arm), along with the fact that it sealed one of the bigger playoff upsets in recent league history, it certainly deserves to at least be in the conversation.

In the end, the Seahawks – who were roundly derided as the worst team to ever make the playoffs –  once again proved that on any given Sunday, any team in the NFL can beat another … and that we don’t know a damn thing about how this post-season is going to play out.

BONUS GIF OF LYNCH TOSSING TRACY PORTER AFTER THE JUMP

Best line: “We give out another trophy for teams that finish 7-9 … it’s called a high draft pick. This aint pee-wees where everyone gets to have a pizza party. It’s the NFL.”

Unfortunately, if Carl picks a team, it’s pretty much the kiss of death. So you might want to throw a few bucks on Seattle at the last minute … if you’re into that sort of thing, I mean.

Does anyone want to play the Bills right now? (Source: BuffaloNews.com)

Note: For the teams from 32-17, I’ve tagged them with my BERSERKER NUMBER (B#). Ranging from 1 to 100, it rates a team’s ability to cause havoc for teams attempting a playoff run. Young, developing squads just beginning to show power (but stuck with losing records) are helped, in my rankings, by a high B#.

For the teams from 16-1, I’ve added my DESTINY SCORE (DS). Again, 1 to 100. Here, I’m attempting to weed out teams resembling, for instance, the 1988 Chicago Bears. Teams with towering regular season records that (we all know) will not get to — back to — the Super Bowl. Teams, well, missing something special.

My (totally subjective, imperfect) Week 13 Power Rankings:

32 Carolina Panthers (1-10) (B#4)
31 Arizona Cardinals (3-8) (B#8)
30 Cincinnati Bengals (2-9) (B#14)
29 San Francisco 49ers (4-7) (B#22)
28 Denver Broncos (3-8) (B#33)
27 Detroit Lions (2-9) (B#28)
26 Buffalo Bills (2-9) (B#68)
25 Dallas Cowboys (3-8) (B#41)
24 Minnesota Vikings (4-7) (B#42)
23 Oakland Raiders (5-6) (B#52)
22 Washington Redskins (5-6) (B#43)
21 Seattle Seahawks (5-6) (B#54)
20 Cleveland Browns (4-7) (B#73)

19 St. Louis Rams (5-6) (B#62)
18 Tennessee Titans (5-6) (B#57)
17 Houston Texans (5-6) (B#53)
16 Miami Dolphins (6-5) (DS18)
15 Kansas City Chiefs (7-4) (DS27)
14 Jacksonville Jaguars (6-5) (DS59)
13 Indianapolis Colts (6-5) (DS65)
12 San Diego Chargers (6-5) (DS61)
11 Chicago Bears (8-3) (DS51)
10 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-4) (DS63)
9 Green Bay Packers (7-4) (DS78)
8 New York Giants (7-4) (DS81)
7 New Orleans Saints (8-3) (DS85)
6 Philadelphia Eagles (7-4) (DS72)
5 Baltimore Ravens (8-3) (DS78)
4 Atlanta Falcons (9-2) (DS79)
3 Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) (DS84)
2 New England Patriots (9-2) (DS94)
1 New York Jets (9-2) (DS97)