San Francisco 49ers Save Their Season, but There's Still Work to Be Done

The San Francisco 49ers were facing 4th-and-10 and the end of their 2014 season.

Sure, a loss against the New Orleans Saints wouldn’t have mathematically sent them packing, but it would have essentially forced them to win every single game left on the schedule to even have a chance at the postseason.  And, after jumping out to a 21-10 lead, the 49ers had watched the game—and their season—slowly slipping away.

The offense, which had rolled in the first half, was sputtering once again in the second half.  Drew Brees and the Saints had marched down the field twice, behind a seemingly unstoppable Jimmy Graham, who the 49ers simply had no answer for in coverage.  They had taken the lead, and the 49ers looked doomed.

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Then, Colin Kaepernick scrambled out to his right, looked, and hit Michael Crabtree on a 51-yard bomb.  For all the criticism of Kaepernick—most of it justified—there may not be a better quarterback when a play breaks down.  He kept his wits about him, looked over the field and found the open man, setting up a game-tying field goal.

It’s not an understatement to say that down was the season.  At 4-5, the 49ers would have been two games out of a playoff spot with seven games to go.  You could have started bringing in the questions—should the 49ers even bring NaVorro Bowman back this season?  What will the fate of Jim Harbaugh be?  Should Patrick Willis be shut down for the year?

Instead, with one completion, the 49ers found new life, and all of a sudden find themselves back in the thick of the playoff race.

It wasn’t just one play, of course.  Full credit has to be given to the team for getting back to the run game and defense, the formula that lead them to such success in 2013.  The 49ers went for 144 rushing yards as a team, their highest total since the Week 5 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.  The lion’s share went to Frank Gore, with 23 carries for 81 yards, but both Kaepernick and Carlos Hyde provided occasional punches as well to propel the team on the ground.

On defense, the 49ers forced three turnovers, none bigger than Ahmad Brooks’ forced fumble in overtime.  Brooks perhaps got a bit of karmic retribution from last year’s borderline foul on Drew Brees with his sack-fumble deep into the overtime period.  They only sacked Brees twice, but got substantial pressure on him throughout the day.

Full marks also has to go to the performance of two rookies.  Marcus Martin, the center making only his second NFL start, had a much better game than his debut last week.  He handled the noise and pressure of the Superdome with an amazing poise, and very nearly had a perfect afternoon.

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The best rookie of the day, though, was on defense.  With both starting interior linebackers out, Chris Borland continued making the most of his opportunities.  A week after making 18 tackles against the St. Louis Rams, Borland added 17 more, doubling the total of any other 49ers defender on the day.  Borland was all over the field, recovering the game-winning fumble to cap his day.

This win shouldn’t make 49ers fans relax entirely—some of the problems the team has struggled with reared their heads in the second half of the game.  The starting offense still has yet to score a touchdown in the fourth quarter this season, in a situation where doing so would have given them the win without resorting to overtime.  The 51-yard completion to Crabtree was the only completion in a stretch of 10 pass plays to end the game.  Frank Gore disappeared in the fourth quarter, getting only one carry in the last eight minutes of regulation and overtime.

There were some new issues, as well.  Both Anquan Boldin and Michael Crabtree dropped passes in the most critical situations.  Andy Lee’s punts were league-average, at best, for most of the game.  The 49ers ran out of nose tackles as Ian Williams had to leave with a small fracture.

But with the win, the 49ers now have the opportunity to fix those problems while the season still matters, rather than trying to figure out how to cope with them in 2015.  While the 49ers still need a win next week on the road against the New York Giants to really have a good shot at the postseason, they’ve cleared what was arguably their biggest hurdle.

Reinforcements are coming.  Aldon Smith will be eligible to play his first game of the season against New York, immediately bolstering San Francisco’s pass rush.  Glenn Dorsey, Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman will be shortly behind him.  The team will approach something like what they expected to be on defense in the next few weeks.  Have they done enough to remain in contention?  With this win, the answer has to be yes.

The 49ers’ season hung in the balance against the Saints, and they did what they needed to do to remain relevant.  Now, they face the same challenge against the New York Giants.  If they go on a streak here and run deep into the postseason, Kaepernick’s bomb to Crabtree will be remembered as the moment it all turned around.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.