The Ringer NFL Show - SF-SEA NFC Championship, 2013: A Special Sports Rewatchables | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: March 18, 2019

We revisit the NFC championship of the 2013 NFL season, between the Seahawks and the 49ers, including the most rewatchable sequence, what’s aged the best and worst, greatest "what if," hottest retroactive take, and more! Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's very special crossover episode of the Ring NFL show and the rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. This week we have several sports rewatchables running across the network. On Monday, Bill Simmons had Joe House and Chris Ryan on the Bill Simmons podcast to take a look back at game six of the 2016 NBA Western Conference finals between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder. On Thursday, Michael Baum and Malawi Rubin discussed game six of the 2011 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. on the RRMLB show feed. And on Friday, tune into the masked man show feed to hear David Shoemaker

and special guest Zach Linder unpacked WrestleMania 30. So be sure to check those out wherever you get your podcast. To the rewatchables, I'm Robert May is joined by Kevin Clark. Kevin, this is kind of new. This is very new.

It's the first thing we've done. I'm very excited about this. We're doing a special section of sports rewatchables, a special collection of them. We went back and watched, in my mind, maybe the most rewatchable football game of the past, I don't know, 10 years or so.

But I say that, and I've never actually seen the TV version of this game, which is kind of strange. Were you in the press box for this particular game? I was not there. I was in Denver, the Colts Broncos AFC championship game. So I didn't watch this game on TV. I watched it afterward, obviously, but I watched the coaches tape in preparation for the Super Bowl. I just watched the, I mean, if you're going to study the game, that's how I studied the game.

So I have not seen the TV version of the 2013 NFC championship game between the 49ers and the Seahawks. And that's what we're going to talk about. How was it for you? It was fun to go back and watch it in that way, but I feel like I really missed out. Watching it on TV was fun. I've never seen this version of the game before.

Yeah, I was there. I've never seen the TV version of the game because I was in the press box. That's funny. We're doing the watchables, but neither of us have ever seen it at first time. This is the watchables. It's the watchables. Yeah, so it was one of the most fun, if not the most fun game I've ever covered.

Seattle lends itself to that. The stadium is in the thick of the city. I remember walking to the stadium from my hotel, and they just have a vibe. We've talked about this before, but there aren't many cities where the stadium is part of the community like that. You know, you have like Foxborough, which is not really anywhere. there's a Bar Louie near Foxborough, right? Yes, there is. That's what you're kind of, I enjoy watching games there, but just as far as the area around it, there's just not a lot there.

That's pretty typical of most NFL places, Miami. You know, it's kind of in the middle of the parking lot stuff. Seattle, it was just a big game atmosphere all day. It was just hard to describe it. It was one of the most fun, just from the moment I woke up on that day, the vibe in the city, seeing how that game ended, it was one of the best games I've had the privilege to cover. just taking it all in. And then you have obviously the characters and the coaches and the quarterbacks

and every single person looking back on it now is just so monumentally famous and they weren't necessarily that back then. I'm going to talk about that in a second but just going back to CenturyLink for one minute. There's the north end of the stadium is wide open. There's that kind of weird tower and there's a set of steps that walk up into the open stadium.

So there isn't like a section of seats in there So you kind of feel like you're walking into this huge gate and walking into this place where something really cool is about to happen. And all the times I've ever been there have been for huge games. And it has been pretty darn cool. So I can understand that. But going back to the characters and the people and everybody else, the personalities. That's why we picked this game, I feel like, because this game is of a moment in time in the NFL. I mean, this rivalry was the NFL for, you know, three, four years stretch.

You have Pete Carroll versus Jim Harbaugh. you have Russell Wilson versus Colin Kaepernick. You have the Legion of Boom versus this 49ers defense that I feel in the last five or six years has become underrated in a weird way. Underrated. Navarra Bowman, Patrick Willis. I mean, no one even talks for Patrick Willis anymore. Patrick Willis, I mean, maybe the best lineback of his generation. Justin Smith.

Justin Smith was awesome. Alden Smith, which that was a weird kind of time machine type moment watching this game. But all of those factors and we'll get into so many of this when we talk about what age the worse, but it feels like we're so far removed from that time period, even though the Seahawks are still good. So that's why we want to talk about this one, just because, you know, this is the beginning of when I started covering the league. So just this kind of era is really burned into my mind. This one jumped out to me first and foremost when we were trying to figure out which game we wanted to watch. I would also say just as far as the makeup of these teams, it's a distance

from it. And what I mean by that is that the Niners cycle is over. The Seahawks cycle is basically over when you just, obviously Carol and Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin and those guys are still there. But with Earl Thomas leaving. Yeah, and Earl Thomas living that that cycles over. You know, our other sort of idea here was maybe the Packers and the Seahawks and if the championship game, the problem is it's like a lot of those guys were just on the team or coaching the team last year. I mean, it feels like that game could have happened in September of this year. And with this game, there are just so many people that we don't think about enough.

There's so many characters. Harba has been Michigan for what, four years at this point? It was so strange. We'll talk about this later, but to go back and look at the timeline of it all, and to realize this game happened after the 2013 regular season, and the next year was his last year with the 49ers. Well, that's crazy to consider. We'll get to that when we get to what age the worst.

Yeah, what age the worst? And also just sliding doors moments. I mean, so many aspects of this game, you think, I can't believe it was only five years ago. I can't believe it. But this is how quickly, but this is what we're talking about. This is how quickly the league changes, man.

This is why I'm all for, and I don't want to get into this totally, but I'm for going all in when you can. Because when you look at the Niners in this game, you would say, oh my God, the Niners are going to be good for the next 10 years. Yep. You absolutely would have.

That is one of just the hardest things to reconcile about going back and watching this. And then, I mean, we haven't even really mentioned just the entire Colin Kaepernick aspect of this. I mean, this is when he was absolutely one of the biggest stars in the NFL, one of the most electrified players in the NFL. This is year three of his career, but year two of him being the Niners quarterback. I mean, the end of the 2012 season is when he really took over as just this force in the

playoffs. But, I mean, even in this moment, there's so many plays in this game where it's like, wow, was he just dynamic? there was a moment in time where this was maybe the most exciting quarterback rival in football. All right. Do you just want to get into it? Yeah, let's go.

Let's get into our categories. Here. So first and foremost, most rewatchable sequence, I don't think there are that many candidates for this. I'm pretty sure that a star receiver like Crabtree, I'm the best corner in the game, is number one and just a runaway winner. Is there anything else that's even in the running for this? So the entire fourth quarter is.

just incredibly rewatchable, especially basically the last, what, seven or eight minutes. You get a touchdown from Seattle, then a fumble by San Francisco, a turnover on downs at the one, including Marshawn Lynch fumble by Seattle. Which, yeah, that's weird to look back on now.

Then a Colin Kaepernick interception. Then a Seattle field goal, and then the interception. I mean, it was the drive to go to the interception, too. Obviously, that was a great drive. but that end-of-game sequence, those drives were absolutely some of the most dramatic drives we've seen

in the modern NFL. So I think there's kind of three candidates that come to mind for me. One, just the last drive by the 49ers. I mean, Kaepernick makes some great throws. The throw to Frank Gore on fourth down in order to sustain that drive was just, wow. I mean, that is a really impressive play by him,

which comes one play after Michael Crabtree has alligator arms because he's terrified of Cam Chancellor. I saw that, but then he did redeem himself. He did. He had a really, on that drive. On that drive.

Yep. But Capernick makes some great plays in that drive. Two is just the interception in general. They replay it from like six different angles. Every single time, it's more impressive than the first time you saw it. I just, wow.

This, the full extension and him coming back after being a little bit out of position, he just wonder if Kaepernick have put six more inches on that throw. Does it get over his hand? the answer is probably yes. And then three, Richard Sherman just going nuts to Aaron Andrews. I totally forgot Aaron Andrews saying, who was talking about you? And also, they cut off the interview.

Yeah. The booth or the truck said, we have to go back to the booth because they just didn't understand where Richard Sherman was going with that. Yeah, I can understand why they would be a little bit worried about it. But that moment is just so beautiful going back and rewatching it now. Well, also, and also it was one of those things. we've talked about this before, but kind of the giffable games. Sure.

In the, maybe the minute and a half after that, there were just 10 things after the interception. There were just unbelievable. Richard Sherman going over to Michael Crabtree to try to shake his hand, which by the way, pats him on the butt first. Yeah,

which was by the way, the sort of end of game handshake is what he did with Tom Brady a year later. Yeah. Wait, no, it was a year before, wasn't it? No,

I'm talking about when after the Malcolm Butler interception. Ah, okay. When at the goal line. Gotcha. Okay. And so Richard Sherman is just a big time handshake guy. We learned that. He did the choke sign to the 49ers bench.

Harbaugh looked completely, I don't even know. Despondent's not the word. He looked like he had just been, his soul was sucked out of his body and he was just reacting to something completely different that wasn't happening in front of him. He may have just temporarily died for five minutes. And then Pete Carroll was doing just the Pete Carroll's swag lord thing. Yeah, Pete Carroll is just owning the moment. It was fantastic to watch.

But we talk about givable moments. And I feel like even though Twitter was around in 2013, Twitter culture is very different, especially as it relates to the NFL right now. People would have a lot of fun with Jim Harbaugh. His sideline antics in this game were just on a very Jim Harbaugh level. And I appreciated the deep league. Also, I don't want to spoil some of these categories here,

but I would want to point out that, Jim Tom Sulla was standing next to him for like half of those reaction shots. We're going to get to him. And so I just couldn't believe how funny it was to not only, in the moment, I'm like,

wow, this Jim Harbaugh thing is hilarious. But now it's the Jim Harbaugh just freaking out with a pen around his neck and staying next to him is Jim freaking Tom Sula. We will get to Jim Tom Sula. Do not worry. The last one I want to say

for most rewatchable sequence is the touchdown to curse and everything that transpires in that two minutes is really weird to go back and watch because, again, we'll discuss this as it relates to another category, but you have Stephen Housh could go out for a 53-hour field goal. He's late to getting out there. So, Seahawks burn their first time out with 13 minutes and 52 seconds left in the fourth quarter. And then Russell Wilson gets Alden Smith to jump off sides for the third time in the game and throws just a fucking dime to Jermaine Kirst down the

scene for a touchdown. I mean, we're going to, as John Mlady would say, now we don't have time to unpack all of that, but we do. And we're going to in some of these other ones,

but just everything that happens over that two-minute stretch is like, wow, when you consider the implications of it. But is our winner here on the best corner of the game? You don't try me like a sorry

with a receiver like Crabtree? I think it has to me. Yeah, our winner is the end of that. We're basically talking about the same thing. I'm just elongating how long to rewatchable sequence is. But yes, we're talking about the tip

and everything that led to the tip. All right. What's age the best? My literally, it's Frank Gore. Oh. I mean, Frank Gore, this game was five years ago. And Frank Gore averaged like six yards of carry this year. It was like 4.6. Are we sleeping on how great Pete Carroll still looks because he's aged the best?

Wow. That's another very good recommendation. Pete Carroll hasn't aged a day since this game. So Frank Gore and Pete Carroll have literally aged the best since this game happened. Jim Tom's still. Hey, the mustache just solves a lot of woes. So,

yeah, Frank Gore is just the same guy. I kind of like it. Both of them have aged the best, and that's from an actual physical aging perspective. May I say that I think one of the things that's aged the best is

offensive creativity? Because I think you can watch games from this era, certainly, and see a game that doesn't resemble anything that happens now in the NFL. Yeah.

And even though it was the running game, even though the running game was hugely dominant And, you know, in the first quarter, they were talking about, you know, how amazing these run games are and stuff with that. That's not really a discussion happens anymore in 2018 or 2019, but you look at some of the situations they put their quarterbacks in. And they were just, you could see the wheels turning on the modern NFL. You could see some of the, you know, the boots, some of the, obviously the read option stuff, the spread stuff. You could see where the game was going when you watch this.

And that aged really well, especially in comparison to a lot of the games you can watch from 2013, 2012. you're like, wow, this is just eye formation bull crap. That's fair. I also think some of the schematic stuff didn't age very well, though. I mean, you have the read option. Yeah, that's what I mean.

The re-option is still in the game, which isn't the dominant force it was. Sure. I think that how many teams do you see using the pistol regularly in a 2018 regular season NFL game? Not many. You should, they should. They probably should more than they do,

but it's kind of gone out of vogue. I think that it's sort of the ground floor of building an offense around your quarterback. And I think that's one of the defining traits of this decade. So I think that it's not necessarily about, okay, this play is now used everywhere. It's more about these guys had these players and they crushed it designing an offense around them. I'm with you on that. But I think on defense, it's funny because all that cover three stuff that they ran,

that was the basis of a lot of schematic stuff and teams started building their defense that way. You don't see that much cover three just outside the numbers, press man coverage, essentially on the outside that you used to back then. I mean, they ran it so often in this game and in this era. I mean, that really has gone away. I mean, you see so many more teams playing more cover one, even the Seahawks kind of transition to that. So that was interesting to see.

My what's age the best, though, is just the, Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin connection. I mean, that is just straight from a 2018 regular season game. And this is really one of the first times that Doug Baldwin kind of emerges is in this stretch of his career. he's still returning kicks at this point. And so it was very kind of, all right, you watch that. It's like, well, those two dudes are just really good together.

I mean, Wilson had that run around, chuck it downfield. The ball went early in the game. It's like, all right, I've seen that many times. And the other one is Vic Fangio is just a scheme lord. I mean, he was incredible in this game. I was going to let you bring that up. I mean, we'll get into some more in Vic Fangio stuff. But you watch this game again.

And again, I think that when you look back at this era and the way we remember, it. Everyone's like, oh, Legion of Boom, Legion of Boom. The Seahawks defense was the defining unit from this kind of of three or four year stretch. 49ers were awesome, man. They were so, so good. And Fangio was just on fire in this game,

dialing up blitzes. Russell Wilson did absolutely nothing through the air for a huge chunk of this when he wasn't running around doing it himself. Can we get to what age the worst? Because I certainly can. I have some takes. Okay. First of all, the 49ers franchise.

This is their last. playoff appearance. That's a harsh one, but yes. This is their last playoff appearance, dude. If you're watching this game, and this is kind of what I was talking about with the rivalry stuff,

if you were watching this game for two and a half quarters and someone came down from space and was like, hey dude, this is their last playoff appearance and you'll be talking about this in 2019. First of all, if they were like,

they were like, you're going to be working at the ring and I have some follow-up questions because that didn't exist. That didn't exist. But I think that you start to think about this, it is almost inconceivable of the steps

that they made. You know, getting rid of Harba, obviously bringing in Tom Sulla, bringing in, letting Trent Balky win the power struggle,

letting Chip Kelly kind of go half speed for one season before firing. I think they're in a good spot now with Kyle Shannon. I think they'll be fine, but I cannot believe in watching this game that this is the last time I made the playoffs. Yeah.

I mean, especially when you just look, I mean, they outplayed Seattle in so many ways in this game. I mean, it was, if you look at those two teams playing against each other,

they're interchangeable in terms of, which is the most promising franchise in the NFL. And the different directions, kind of the splintering that happened after this game, it's inconceivable. And I want to talk a little bit more about that when we get to unanswerable questions

because I think there's so many of them as it relates to what happens with the Niners in the next calendar year after this game happens. Mine is related to that. It's more or less that Niners Seahawks has the NFL's best rivalry. I mean, just it was solidified. That was the NFL rivalry at that point.

And now it's, do you give a shit about a nine or Seahawks game, no one cares. No. But that always happened. I mean, think about... Sure. I mean, think about Patriots Broncos, which a couple of years later, you know, was... Or this time as well, you know, was the Sunday night, got to see a game. I mean, that just happens.

One or two guys can determine whether our rivalry goes or falls. Ravens... Ravens Steelers is like that. Bangles Steelers. Bangles Ravens. I mean, those rivalries have been hot over the past decade. I think it's sort of a moving target as far as that goes. But yeah, but like Ravensteo is still a fun game. That game still matters.

I know because both those seem to still pretty good. Yes. Alden Smith as a thing. Yeah. Age pretty poorly. I mean, he has two sacks in this game pretty early. He has all the off sides. But I mean, you watch that guy in this moment.

It's like, all right, that's one of the best defensive players in the NFL. That goes away very fast. The other one I had was, oh, go ahead. I have the Seahawks front office when it comes to building a line because he gets then crap knocked out of him in this game. And they've still not figured out how to, not have Russell Wilson get the crap knocked out of him? So he gets the crap knocked out of him in this game.

I'm not putting that on the offensive line. Their offensive line at this point is actually okay. He was doing a lot of scrambling. Now, I'm just, I'm mostly just making fun of the current Seahawks. He's running around so much. I mean, this is the peak of, I don't know if it's the peak,

because it happens a little bit a couple years later because they need him to. But him just kind of turning his back to the defense and running in a circle for 10 seconds and then chucking the ball down the field. This is a very prominent tie for Russell Wilson doing that in this game. The other one is that there's a moment in the broadcast that Joe Buck is talking about how Russell Wilson didn't have enough good receivers this season because Sidney Rice got hurt

and Percy Harvin had a concussion. The Seahawks receiving core at this moment is Doug Baldwin, Golden Tate, and Germain Curse. Amazing. The idea that that's not enough has not aged very well. I have a receiving take as well about the broadcast. Did you catch where Joe Buck says that Jim Harbaugh had said earlier in the week or earlier in the month that Michael Crabtree was the greatest catcher of all time. Yes.

I did. I was going to bring that up. That is a take that almost within like an hour. First of all, I mean, obviously within the context of the game, that did not end up being true. But also just when you think about all the receivers who exploded in this era just shortly after,

it's just a hilarious, hilarious, hilarious take. I would say Michael Crabtree's career aged really badly after this because obviously he had the Achilles shortly thereafter and he was just sort of done after that. Yeah, I mean, Michael Crabtree, you can argue he has better hands than Anquan Bolden, but Michael Crabtree wasn't the best receiver on the 49ers.

He was not the best catcher of the ball ever. What are we doing? All right, half-assed internet research. I just want to throw this one out that I loved it. at this moment when this, these playoffs start, the 2013 playoffs begin. Frank Gore had 2,187 carries at the end of the regular season. At that moment, only 30 other players ever had ever done that. That was five years ago.

He's still playing. He's still playing right now. And he actually looked pretty damn good this year. That is nuts to me. So I didn't remember this. maybe I just was busy or whatever. How many, there were like viral videos about how bad the refs were?

Did you look into this at all? No. Like there were essentially, and I, everybody wrote about it at the time. So essentially what Niners fans think is that the refs were incompetent, which, you know, who knows, it might be that true. The abuse going out outside the numbers on every play.

Yeah, yeah. And I didn't realize how upset Niners fans were about this, Because I kind of think that everyone rightly put their attention towards the tip. And, you know, they obviously had a chance to win that game. So I was really surprised. I would also say that the America's team about this Seahawks team was full of Richard Sherman making fun of Kaepernick for this game. About just throwing another fade to Crabtree. The quote was, once again, at the end of the game, trying to throw a fade to Crabtree.

It's like two years in a row your season ends the same way. You think you would learn. Wow. Richard Sherman was really feeling himself with this moment, which again, we'll get to. It's true. If you lost a Super Bowl and a fade to crab tree and there's 22 seconds left in the game,

I'm not sure I'm going fade to crab tree again. Staying on that moment, Aaron Andrews loved the Richard Sherman moment. She was talking about it later. She was very into the idea that it was a real reaction from someone in a huge moment. So she was, I think that people were wondering,

is that something where you want that to happen? and she was vehemently said yes. I don't think that enough of America knew who Richard Truman was at that moment. Nicole left will off guard. I think that obviously you and I, I mean, he was one of the top cornerbacks in football, but I don't think he was like everyone in America knew who he was famous. And this was a launching point for him. He is, after this moment, he is just remarkably famous.

And I think that it's one of the funniest and most fun NFL moments of the decade. So let's do this now then, because I think this ties in well. Apex Mountain. Oh. Yes for Richard Sherman, correct? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. I think for him, this is the most famous he ever would have been, was at this moment. This is the best he ever was as a player was probably the 2013 season. And this is just the epitome of his career. I mean, this is the high point of who he was, which is literally what Apex Mountain is. Okay. I don't know if it is for anybody else, though. I have some candidates. Okay. The NFL running game. Sure.

And the Seattle crowd. Well, the NFL running game in the modern era. Yeah. Oh, no, no, right. I obviously like, you know, there have been. Like inaugural Campbell days. Yeah, there's been died just in this century maybe. And then it was the last.

I would say since 2007. It was the last. It was the last. It was the last hurrah for the running game. Yeah. And the Apex Mountain since the Patriots redefined football, I think, for the running game. The Seattle crowd. Yep.

That's a really good one. This was definitely the peak of the 12th man for sure. And then Alden Smith as well, I would say. See, I wouldn't. I think he was better earlier. That like 2011-2012 stretch, I was going to say him. It's definitely not for Kaepernick. I feel like he was better in 2012.

Well, it's against the Packers. That was Apex. Yeah, that was at that game. On a football level, obviously, I mean, on a different level, his Apex came much, much later in a cultural relevance level. But on a football level, I think it was definitely against the Packers the previous season. Yeah. Anybody else that's even in the conversation?

Because for the Seahawks, it can't be for anybody else because for the Legion of Boom, it was the next week against Denver, or the next game against Denver. For Carroll, it's not. And other guys on that defense had bigger moments. So it's just Sherman and nobody else as it relates to players in the Seahawks.

It was Apex Mountain for the broadcaster is using the phrase new age quarterback. Because we kind of got away from that after maybe this era. We were just like, he's a good quarterback. And now, but the act was like, talk about a new age quarterback. I think Joe Buck said that 11 times. All right.

Greatest what-if sliding doors moment. Oh. It all for me is at that drive before curse throws or catches the touchdown. I think there's several moments in there that you can say. One, there's a running into the kicker. That's mine. So that one is huge. Troy Eichmann kept pointing that out a lot.

It was a huge moment. Rightfully so. Troy Eichmann was not great in this game, but that definitely was big. We'll get to that. So Chris Marigose hits Andy Lee at 259 left in the third quarter, and he hits the plant leg, which is roughing in, it's roughing the kicker. That should be a 15-yard penalty.

It was fourth and 10 that would give the 49ers a first down. They're up at this moment. They're winning the game by what? What's the score at that moment? It's 17-13. 17-14-49ers. So you get the ball there. It's a 15-yard penalty.

You would have gotten it at your 35, So who the hell knows? At the very least, you tick off three or four more minutes while you're winning the game. So the Cocks get the ball. They go down. And we already talked about this sequence. They send Stephen Houskow for a 53-yard field goal. He's late to get out there.

Carol calls timeout. They decide not to do it. And then Alden Smith jumps off sides. Wilson uncorks that throw. And we have a ballgame. Yeah. I mean, the running and slash roughing the kicker is a huge. sliding doors moment in this game.

Everything, we don't, that is what sets off the chain reaction, the touchdown, fumble, turn everyone downs, intercepted pass, interceptive pass, drive sequence. Without that, everything changes. Yeah, I mean, I don't, because so much of the attention is on the, on that fourth quarter sequence, I would have to give it to that. I don't really think there's anything else. I mean, with the exception of the exception, obviously, of this wouldn't happen without that, but the Hashka field goal.

before the curse thing. Yes. And the one more that you could make a worse case for, there was a third and one with 1038 left and Kaepernick gets called

for delay a game. And it goes from third and one to third and six. And that next play, the third and six, is when Averill sacks him and Bennett picks it up and runs until like the 10-yard line.

Yeah. So that's another big one. I mean, if you get that first out, you maintain possession, everything else. Hey, I have a question. Marshaun Lynch's fumble

with the fumbled hand with Russell Wilson at the one. Do we think that had anything to do with... Ooh, I like this. Do we think it had anything to do with a certain play a little bit later in which they did not run the ball from the one yard line? Because I was watching

that. And I was like, wow. I mean, everyone talks about how Marchion is automatic at the one. And usually he is. But that was a botched handoff. And it almost cost them the game. I think that's, I think you're seeing it through the lens

of what happened a year later. I don't think that's fair. You think... What do you mean? They were... You think 12 months later, as Pete Carroll is making that decision or as whoever's making that decision

that ended up having the final call, you think that's in their mind. The fact that they were almost were able to win the game... But they didn't... They didn't lose. No, I'm just... I'm asking questions.

If they lost... I mean, well, yeah. I mean, if they lost that game... They were up 20 to 17. They were up 20 to 17 on the one-yard line. That would have sealed the game. I would eight minutes to go. I understand where you're coming from us.

I'm just saying that the teams have long memories. That's all I'm saying. I'm saying it's a possibility. The Seahawks have very long memories, unfortunately. It's a possibility. Dionne Waiters Award for Best He Check. The actual answer to this is Richard Sherman. Yes.

Because he doesn't do anything else in this game. But I feel like that's too easy. We've talked about him too much. The other candidate I have is Cam Chancellor, who over the course of the first three and a half, quarters comes up twice and it's by destroying Vernon Davis coming across the middle. I really, this game was a reminder of how much I love in Miss Camp Chancellor because that play, it's 100% clean.

It didn't age poorly because it would have been legal today even. I mean, he just eviscerated Vernon Davis, who was a very large man. And that's he did the hammer thing after. It made me miss him so much. And then like two drives later, he picks off Colin Kaepernick. Those are his two plays in this game. One of the underrated heat checks of this game was the 49er staffer who destroyed Jeremy Lane on the sideline. What a heat check performance from that guy.

It's a really good one. We're in a post-Sal Alosi world. Jeremy Lane is running through the sideline. And I'm just going to be the guy who just knocks Jeremy Lane on his ass. I think it was a player. I think it was an injured player. No, but he was in sweats. He was in sweats, yes.

But it was definitely not somebody in actual uniform. It wasn't Jim Tom Sula. It was great. No, it was a player in sweats. I'm going to give it to Chancellor because Richard Sherman has won too much stuff and is going to win too much stuff.

All right. I think is this called, do we need to call this the Richard Sherman game? Yeah, this is the Richard Sherman. If you said the Richard Sherman game, we'd be talking about this game, right? Kevin, that's an actual segment that we're getting to you later.

Okay. You're getting ahead of yourself here. So, yeah, those are for me. And then, you know, this is, this transitions well. If you ask Joe Buck, I think he would have thrown Kasim Osgood's name in there.

Joe Buck mentioned how good Qasim Osgood was at coverage like four times in this game. I've been around coaches and especially I've been around coaches who've coached Casim Osgood. He's one of these guys that does so much in special teams and no one ever talks about him that coaches just constantly talk about it. That's exactly right. He's like a poor man's Matthew Slater.

I remember being at a Cammer press conference. I was in college and he was talking about how good Casim Oz good was in San Diego. And it was just like you get around coaches and they can't stop talking about it. and then you're Joe Buck

and you're a production meeting and you probably heard, I mean, who was the, was it Brad Sealy? Who was the special teams coach for the- If it were Brad Sealy, that he definitely would have been talking about it that much. Yeah, I don't remember who it was back then,

but whoever it was, probably mentioned to Casimir's good like a hundred times and then he just got in his brain. Yep, that's 100% how that happens. Coaches overpraise special teams coaches, like nothing you've ever seen. They under-praise, they love gunners.

Under-praise quarterbacks, over-praise special teams gunners. Aces. So while we're on the topic of Joe Buck, let's get to the Tim McCarver Memorial Broadcast Team Complaint Corner. Mine is all related to Troy Akeman. Oh, mine is not.

Oh, see, this game was, it was a reminder to me that sometimes Troy Akeman is like a whole president's color analyst. Like he just powers down before the game. And when the game starts, he powers back up and he doesn't, he can't react to things. It's all like pre-programmed stuff.

When Wilson throws that touchdown to curse, Troy is just nowhere to be found. He does not mention. why it was a good throw or why the decision was made. And again, we're viewing all of this in a post-Toney-Romo world and my expectations are just so much higher. But Troy just does nothing to add to this game in any way, shape, or form. Okay, I'm going off the board here.

I want to complain and nitpick about something Pam Oliver said. Okay. Maybe you heard this. In the fourth quarter, Pam Oliver gives a sideline report. She says, I'm still waiting for the noise. It's not terribly loud. That's right. You can still hear the person next to you.

I want to unpack this for a second. First of all, there've been, I don't know, have you ever been in a football stadium? I've been in an arena. Have you ever been in a football stadium where you could not hear the person next to you? Yes. You have. No, no, no, no. What I'm saying is it's like, if it is, it's in Seattle.

But what I'm also saying is just by the design of a football stadium, it's that sort of deafening noise. It could happen in a building, like a small college arena, or like the old old old arena was like that where it was like a very small arena. So maybe you could not hear the person next to. I think what's the loudest football game you've ever been to in the NFL? Is it the NFC championship game this year? Oh, it's this one. Oh, it's this one. But you weren't outside for that. The press box is inside in Seattle. Yeah, no, I'm just talking about like I was, I walk around the concourse, that kind of stuff. I wasn't outside for the tip. I would say this, the first two quarters,

first two and a half quarters of the Nth championship game this year were really freaking a lot. But again, that was indoors. That was indoors. Yes. Noise is, you're legislating noise when it's indoors. I totally, I'm with you. I'm totally with you. But I think this stadium is at times the exception.

No, and it was then. I was there. It was a very strange sideline report. But then here's the hammer on this, okay? So shortly thereafter, Colin Kaepernick fumbles. Okay. And Joe and Troy have to go out of their way to praise the crowd because Pam just dunked on the crowd.

And so Joe says, I think the 12th man had a lot to do with that. It was like a minute after this particular sideline report. You know what producers like, we have to correct this. Yeah, we have to make up with this somehow. It was just a very strange sideline report as all. When the touchdown that Marshaun Lynch scored, very rarely can you tell on TV how loud it gets in a building? the roar when he breaks into the open field,

I was like, oh my God, that place is rocking. I mean, on TV, it doesn't always translate, but it absolutely did during this game. So, yeah, Pam is off base here. I just thought it was a bizarre. Like, no one, I don't know. It was, I don't know if she thought it would be louder. I mean, obviously, she'd been done,

she's a legend. She's done tons of Seattle games. Yeah, I was, that was surprising. When I heard that, I was like, that's weird. I guarantee you that's not true. All right. Let's get the funniest in-game network promo. Not a ton of great options here.

I was very disappointed. I completely forgot that there was a sequel to 300, called 300. I must have missed this somehow. 300 Rise of an Empire. I missed this. That's disappointing. How were you watching it?

I was watching it on YouTube. Yeah. And I guess I just looked away when that was happening. You missed deep net and did you know there was a 300 sequel until just now? No. You just dropped that on me, which I appreciate. Yeah,

I mean, everything kind of ate. I mean, there was a Chambers Bay promo, which was still two years away that kind of made me chuckle because Chambers Bay is not well thought, of course.

So there was that UFC promo. I don't know much about UFC. It was Benson Henderson headlining a card. It's fine. It doesn't age. He was the number one contender at that point. It didn't age in a funny way.

Joe Buck saying it's fantasy football for real when discussing the first ever Pro Bowl draft. I thought that was kind of funny, but not funny enough. I needed something better than that. Get hype for halftime with Bruno Mars or hot chili peppers wasn't bad. Nope. That was pretty good. That wasn't bad. But it wasn't, one of the things about football and specifically with January is that, the games in January, which is what we talk about, is they don't really launch, like, they have American Idol and stuff like that. But like October is really funny because when they're launching, like, they're really crappy shows.

That's why Fox, that's why the World Series, have you seen the supercut of the World Series shows thing? No, but I'm sure it's amazing. I highly recommend it. It's just 20 years of Joe Buck introducing shows that you've just never heard of to the point you think it might be fake. We got no good ones.

There wasn't. I mean, finding out there was a 300 sequel is quite nice. That's pretty good, but it's not a network promo, which is sad. All right, how does retroactive take you wish you had in the moments. I'm going, and this is very on brand for me.

I'm going with Vic Fangio was the real mastermind behind the Niners greatest. Well, that's a home or take. But it's true. The Vic Fangio is absolutely the most important piece of that 49ers equation. You know, they lost this game.

I understand that, but it wasn't because the defense was bad. Prolis Rogers got owned. Hey, I have one. The one thing I wish I had in the moment that turned out to be true, and I didn't, I don't even think I'd,

thought this, let alone thought it publicly. This was the Super Bowl. So we learned this two weeks later, but these teams were so good that I think that both of them would have beaten the Broncos. So save that, because I want to talk about that later.

Okay. All right. Best unintentional comedy moment. I mean, it's easily Jim Tom Sula. It's definitely Jim Tom Sula. It is definitely Jim Tom Sula. So did you note what Troy been said about Jim Tom Sulla when he came onto the screen.

I don't think I'm caught that. So let me. So the only reason they're talking about Jim Tom Sula, it's the 405 mark in the first quarter. Okay. And you can't really, really good notes here. So I'm taking my notes here. So he's talking to Carlos Rogers, which makes no sense because these, the defense.

They're just visiting. So, so Troy says, Jim will talk to anybody if you, if you walk in his area and he'll entertain you to. That is Troy's note about Jim Tom Sulla in that moment, which it does not get any better than that. I need to tell a story. I was in Richmond for Redskins training camp this year, and I just, there's this guy biking and he just yells, hey, how you doing? And I'm getting into my car. And it's just on the street, not maybe a block away from, from Wright's and Training Camp, just Jim Tom Sulla just biking around Richmond. He had a good year. A defensive line was good. He's a good defensive line coach, dude.

Sure, that's what he is. He is a good defensive line coach. I also honorable mention for just Jim Harbaugh's sign line antics in general. I mean, there's so much stuff going on. When he's talking about the plant leg, he's like jumping on one leg. When he's trying to get intentional grounding, he's just like bouncing up and down, like slamming the ground. It's like, oh, man, Jim Harbaugh, I just, I miss you in the NFL world. I think we're talking to different things here because my, my thing is Jim Tom Sula being next to Jim Harbaal as Jim Harbaugh has these animated meltdowns.

I think they're combining your stacking comedy at that point. Totally fair. And you're also just like, in hindsight, it's so funny that Jim Thompson was in this. And we didn't realize how funny it was at the time. There's no reason.

There's no way we could have. There would have been no way to predict what happened in the next 18 months. There's no way to predict that they would have, at that moment, would have fired Jim Harbaugh and hired the guy that Troy Aikman is saying, we'll talk to anybody. And he will talk to anybody.

anybody. He talked to that interviewer when they did that segment on him after getting the head coaching job and everyone immediately realized how badly the 49ers screwed up. Oh, goodness gracious. All right. So, let's kind of stay on that subject because probably unanswerable questions, all of mine have to do with the 49ers and what transpired shortly after this game. Okay. So the first one, would the 49ers have beaten the Broncos in the Super Bowl? Your answer is yes. My answer is yes. Okay. So that's a an answerable question to you. If that happens,

what goes down? If the 49ers win the Super Bowl, Jim Harbaugh definitely doesn't lose a power struggle to Trent Balke. Right. And what I also say is that kind of winning is the ultimate, ultimate sort of deodorant kind of thing. I think that they at least are able to stick it out and have a good relationship for a couple of more years.

We've seen relationships fall apart after Super Bowl wins. I mean, Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones had that. I mean, it's not like, that would cure everything. They wouldn't have a 15-year run. But I think there'd be at least a two or three-year-grace period. I mean, I also don't know. Jim Harbaugh, got to a Super Bowl, got to this game, okay?

And I remember talking to him afterwards. And when I say afterwards, I mean, like, March. And he was comparing it to Sisyphus. And he was just saying, I feel like we're just rolling up the boulder and then coming back down. And I wonder, you know, it wasn't long after that Alex Boone gave the interview to Real Sports, where he was talking about how Jim Harbaugh just has a terrible personality to be around for a number of years.

I wonder if Jim Harbaugh just has, knowing what we know now, I wonder what the upper limit of Jim Harbaugh's 49 or 10 year could have been had he won the Super Bowl. Would it have been eight years? Is he still the coach? I don't think he'd still be the coach,

but I think he would have been the coach. I think he would have cycled out like two years ago. Sure, let's do that way. So if that is true, and Colin Kaepernick wins the Super Bowl in that season, what happens to Colin Kaepernick? I mean, there's no way that his career goes the way that it goes if he wins the Super Bowl two weeks after this game happens. Right. No, I, he gets the same benefit of the doubt that Jim Harbaugh does. No argument here.

He, he gets, you know, he obviously gets the same extension that he got. He got a six-year $126 million contract a couple of months after this, but it was sort of a pay. as you go, oddly structured contract. He doesn't have to deal with Jim Thompson being his head coach. He doesn't have to deal with Chip Kelly. I think Chip Kelly did an okay job with him. But everything changes for him. I mean, I think that he has stability.

I would wonder if maybe Greg Roman gets a head coaching job at some point. But I think overall, he'd have Jim Harbaugh. He'd have that offensive staff together. I think things go very deep. I think things go very differently if he wins this game. Yeah. I mean, it's impossible to predict,

obviously. That's why they're unanswerable questions, but I mean, he gets so much more leeway. Even as things start to go poorly, his guy that just won a Super Bowl for you two years ago, there's just no way his fate is what it ended up being. Another thing that aged very well,

Greg Roman as the offensive coordinator you'd want for your running quarterback, considering he just got hired by the Ravens in order to play for a lot of Mar Jackson. I'm withholding a comment. But yes, I get it. All right. So what are you saving Greg Roman for? The Grady Little Award, which is the biggest coaching screw up. I wonder who named the Grady Little Award.

I wonder who sent this along as an extra category after we'd already talked about the ones we were going to do. Could be anybody. Who knows? It is Greg Roman because, again, I want to revisit this. If you screw up a fade to Michael Crabtree in the Super Bowl, my advice when there's 22 seconds left is to not throw a fade to Michael Crabtree. Please stop. No more fades.

We're done with fades. This is a tough one for me because for the most part, the decisions in this game weren't bad. No. Especially for some very conservative teams, like historically, I mean, these are running teams. But there are a lot of correct fourth down decisions, which aged very well. And I was watching them like a hawk. The announcers liked the fourth down decisions. Ooh.

Because if they didn't, they were going to go straight to Tim McCarver complaint corner. You can say that. I mean, I think that those throws and those choices are probably the right answer. I mean, for the most part, I think that the Seahawks did fine. I mean, it's, you could just give it. I have another thing I want to bring up. The lack of urgency on the final drive was very strange to me. See, I don't mind it.

Be Joe Buck brought it up, but they had three timeouts and that play was run before the two-minute warning. Twice. They had 22 seconds left. I feel that they could have had a lot more time to work with. That's fair. In the moment, I thought the same. It's not like they were on the six-yard line with 22 with 22 seconds to go. They had two timeouts left for, right?

They were the 18 with 22 seconds to go. And two timeouts. Yeah. That's a lot of time. But if you get down to the nine or eight or seven, you're not going to have time to run four plays from there. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm saying you're not maximizing the drive.

Yeah, that's probably just not enough. The thing you're trying to avoid in that spot is running up against the clock. you want to be able to run as many plays you can get to get into the end zone. So the one that really hurts in this sequence is it's first and 10 from their own 47, Kaepernick ran and then 26 seconds ticked off the clock. Yeah, there you go, bud. That one's bad.

Oh, no, this is the really bad one. I'm sorry. 44 seconds tick off after he completes the past to Anquan Bolden before they throw to Michael Crouchery. No urgency. That one's bad. That's the bad one. That's probably the one where you can ding that a little bit.

it. So I'll give mine to Harbaugh, though, for not understanding how to deal with that stretch. Somebody gets it. All right. I think we already answered this, but who won the game? It's Richard Sherman. Richard Sherman? Yeah. Absolutely.

Who else would it possibly be? It's the Richard Sherman game, so he had to have won it. I have a test. I used to, I did a little more at the Wall Street Journal because I wrote less stories, but I used to ask my mom who she'd heard of, because if she'd, if she'd heard of them, then they reached a threshold where I could write about them and sort of write anything other than, hey, this person exists, right? So we were being at home that spring for a week or something, and I was like, you know who Tom Brady is? Yeah, you know, Aaron Rogers is, yeah. And so she names like

six people. I think Eli and Peyton were on there, and we're almost probably on there. And then she said, Richard Sherman. And I was like, what do you know Richard Sherman from? This is a mild surprise. And she said, I saw the clip. I remember the clip. And now I know who Richard Sherman. Sherman is. And so he reached a threshold of fame from this game that I don't think I don't think many players have gotten to in the last decade. What was it like watching this game, watching Russell Wilson in this game knowing what you know now?

I sort of have, on this podcast, compared him to Dave Grohl a little bit where he was, I thought that he was a cog, a very, very good cog in a machine. And then he had to become a focal point when a lot of other people around him went away. And I now I still think he is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. I just view him, I see more talent than I did back then. Even though I love Russell Wilson back then, I think it was really hard to separate the quarterback from the talent around him. And now knowing what I know about how good Russell Wilson is, I'm like, damn, that's an amazing play instead of like, I don't know. Instead of saying, you know, good for Russell Wilson. Good job.

There aren't that many plays in this game where you look at it and you can understand how good Russell Wilson was going to become. I mean, he has some shovel passes. When I say shovel passes, I mean like he's scrambling around for like 30 seconds. Yes. And that's what I'm saying is there weren't that many plays in this game that pointed to just how good Russell Wilson could be for the reasons that he was, that ended up being good. If that makes sense, right? No, no doubt. So just plays within structure and being able to just uncork deep balls with not having to run around.

it wasn't, you know, 10 seconds after the snap happens, that Jermaine curse throw points to that, but there aren't that many of those in this game. So it was interesting to me to go back and watch. It's like, clearly he's so talented, and that throw points to a lot, but he's a much different quarterback now than he was that. I got to be honest with you,

at the time of the tip, I remember being in the press box because I didn't understand how amazing of a play that was. I remember being in the press box and being slightly disappointed because I felt robbed of them being a little closer. Because 18 yards out with 20 seconds is not sort of the, it's not such a 50-50 proposition that, you know, you can get really amped for it. I think like the four or five-yard line was what I was hoping for as far as a dramatic finish.

And we didn't get that. And so when the interception happened, it would have been like, oh, that's the ending we get. And I didn't realize, A, how iconic everything would become, how good that play was at first glance, because you couldn't really see it from the angle I was at. You just saw, you just, it looked like a very easy tip when I was watching. watching it. And obviously did not try to be the case. And also, the tip, I don't know how to describe this. It felt live like it hung in the air for like 10 seconds. Yeah. And Malcolm Smith looked completely alone in the end zone. And so as soon as they tipped the pass, it was completely obvious to everybody in the stadium, including myself, that it was going to be intercepted.

And so at first glance, it seemed like there wasn't much of a climax. So for me, it's the opposite thought because the first like 10 times I saw were all in slow motion. So that's what made it feel like it was in the air for so long. And then watching the play from the TV angle,

maybe for the first time ever, I was like, oh man, that happens so quickly. It just, it happens so instantly. It felt so different than the first time I'd had to process it. That's how I felt about the whole thing.

It was like, I can't believe I've never seen this version of the game. It lives up to every single pit of the hype. I actually, I didn't know if I was going to say this, but I'm just going to, to say it. I was in the bathroom for the Jermain Curse Dutch show. Wow. Because it was a, it was a fourth down. I was just like, I'm going to go get a coffee and I don't need to see this punt. So I missed it. I can understand that. I've made similar choices in the past. I'm not going to blame me here. It was a tough low. You know, we're all about honesty and transparency here. So that's it. I'm telling you and the listener that that happened. All right. Is that all we got, Bunny? How else can you end it? I'm not sure there's any other way. All right. Thank you guys so much for listening to this very special edition of the rewatchables.

Please check out all of the sports rewatchables that we're going to do. There's a bunch of them. Every single one of them is going to be fun as hell. I can promise you that. And please come back and check out the ringer NFL show later this week. Hell yeah.