Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/102583
2B Daily News – Wednesday, January 9, 2013 Niners fans survive in land of the Cheeseheads GRAB (Continued from page 1B) diminished in the last six weeks. Davis finished with 41 receptions for 548 yards and five touchdowns this season. All three are his lowest since he caught 31 passes for 358 yards and two TDs in 2008. ''It is a different feeling for me because it's been a tough season as far as just the feeling of being involved,'' said Davis, now 28 years old. ''To me, it's not a bad thing, because it's something I had to get used to this year. Each and every season in the past, I'm used to helping the team in ways where I'm just catching balls and things like that. This year's been a little bit different. It just feels different going into these playoffs, as far as my role and things like that. It's not a bad thing, I'm not mad at it. That's just how it is sometimes. It takes a little getting used to.'' Davis has tried to stay focused, not frustrated, and he's happy so long as San Francisco (11-4-1) keeps on winning. Anytime he begins to think otherwise, Davis said, he thinks back to that final catch against the Saints as the shining example of how he might be called upon at any moment. Hard to believe considering how his season started out, catching four touchdown passes from Alex Smith in the first three games. He didn't score again until Colin Kaepernick's first start in Week 11, when he hauled in six receptions for 83 yards and a TD in a Monday night victory over the Chicago Bears that had Davis so giddy he said it felt like ''someone took the handcuffs off me.'' In the six games since, the chemistry between Kaepernick and Davis has evaporated. Davis has six catches and no touchdowns during the span and he left early in a Week 16 loss against Seattle because of a concussion that also limited him in the regular-season finale against Arizona. Even some of the most faithful and famous 49ers have questioned why coach Jim Harbaugh and Kaepernick can't get Davis the ball MCT file photo Vernon Davis makes "The Grab" during the 2012 playoffs. more. ''He's just not human on the football field and I don't understand why he's not being more involved,'' Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice said on KGMZ-FM radio in the Bay Area last Friday. ''You would think they would design more plays for Vernon Davis. But I think they've got to get him more involved if they want to get to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.'' Harbaugh has repeatedly said Davis remains an integral part of the game plan each week, touting the tight end's pass protection and blocking downfield. He insists Davis draws double coverages on almost every play, freeing up others to make plays. ''They're wary of getting beat by Vernon Davis,'' Harbaugh said. ''I think that's the biggest, greatest share.'' Davis' teammates have been the biggest beneficiaries. Michael Crabtree had a career-best 1,105 yards receiving, including a singlegame high 172 yards on eight receptions in the win over Arizona. Crabtree is San Francisco's first wide receiver to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season since Terrell Owens in 2003. Tight end Delanie Walker also had a career-high 344 yards receiving to go with three touchdowns on 21 catches. He is quick to heap praise on what Davis does each game, no matter how many passes his teammate catches. After breaking his jaw in two places at Seattle on Dec. 24, 2011, Walker remembers watching from the sideline as Davis caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Saints last January, including the final one on a play called ''Vernon Post'' that allowed a recovered Walker to return for the NFC title game. ''Vernon makes crucialmoment catches like that,'' Walker said. ''When I saw that catch, I was down there on the field running on the field and yelling. I was probably more excited than he was, because now I had a chance to play in the playoffs. I looked at it and I thanked him, 'Thank you, bro. Now I can come back.''' Davis added 112 yards receiving and two TDs in San Francisco's 20-17 overtime loss to the Giants a week later, when Crabtree's one catch for 3 yards accounted for all of the production from 49ers wide receivers. But Davis also had a pair of 15-yard personal foul penalties in the game, one for jumping up onto a podium during a TD celebration and another for pushing New York players in a postplay scrum. That's still far from the volatile manner Davis displayed so often in his first few years after the 49ers drafted him sixth overall out of Maryland in 2006. Davis learned from his biggest blunder back in 2008, when former coach Mike Singletary sent the young, emotional tight end to the locker room early during a game against Seattle. Davis then became the focus of Singletary's infamous ''I want winners!'' rant following the 34-13 home loss. Davis admits he ''didn't know how to handle things'' those days. He said he was trying to mimic players such as Owens, a comparable talent in athleticism at their respective positions, instead of creating his own path to 49ers stardom. About the only selfish hiccup Davis has had this season was of a playful nature. In San Francisco's 30-22 win at Green Bay in Week 1, he failed in trying to dunk over the crossbar after a touchdown. Teammates teased him afterward — so he shot the ball over the crossbar the next week against Detroit. Now Davis only hopes for another chance to celebrate in the end zone in these playoffs. ''I'll just wait for my opportunities. I'm sure they will come,'' he said. ''I said the same thing last year, even though I didn't get the ball as much as I wanted last year, I said my opportunities will come. And maybe I'll get them this week. But you never know. If we can continue to get Crabtree involved and he can help us the way he did last week, then I'm all for it.'' Jim Harbaugh knows legacy at stake BY MARK PURDY San Jose Mercury News (MCT) SANTA CLARA — More so than he is at most of his media sessions, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh was in an expansive mood Monday. He even made a selfdeprecating joke. A reporter wondered if Harbaugh knew that back in his NFL playing days, he had become the first sack victim of Ray Lewis, Baltimore's retiring All-Pro linebacker. "Yeah, I did know that," Harbaugh said. "My dad told me." Pause for comic timing. "My legend grows," Harbaugh said. This brought laughter and a follow-up question: Did he remember that historic sack? "No," Harbaugh said, then grinned. "In 1996? I've forgotten half my life." Which is definitely not true. Harbaugh remembers almost everything. And he always knows much more than he lets on. Yet because of his often-disobliging approach to news conferences, there's an impression that he is some sort of rockheaded and supercilious clod. He isn't. All right, so he can be rockheaded about certain things. But mainly and plainly, Harbaugh is a guy who wants to win football games and fails to see the point in wasting time on anything that does not lead to winning football games. That probably describes most NFL head coaches. Harbaugh is just more up front about it than most. And he definitely understands that this week, building to Saturday's playoff game with Green Bay, is a legacy- making week for him and his team. By the time the game ends, we will conclusively discover if Harbaugh's big choice to switch quarterbacks in midseason from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick truly was the right move. We will definitively learn if it was a smart roll of the dice for Harbaugh to sign aging wide receiver Randy Moss. We will see if the decision was correct to make no placekicking switch a month ago when David Akers was so obviously struggling, instead of delaying that potential risky move until now. Harbaugh gets it, though. He knows that if the 49ers lose Saturday, fans will easily forget the good stuff that unfurled over the past four months, one of the more fascinating regular seasons in franchise memory. It definitely was not the joy ride of 2011, when Harbaugh swept in as a rookie NFL coach and surprised the entire league by reorienting the 49ers culture and rebooting the 49ers offense while producing a 13-3 record and a trip to the NFC title game. This 2012 regular season, with its 11-4-1 record, was far more volatile, from an opening day adrenaline rush in Green Bay . . . to a thud loss in Minnesota . . . to the failure to win three straight games at any point . . . to the bold quarterback switch . . . to the strange tie with St. Louis . . . to the epic Monday night trouncing of the Bears . . . to the glory in New England followed by the ignominy in Seattle. "I wouldn't really compare it to last year," Harbaugh acknowledged, "other than to say every week has felt like a football fight. That's been the same." And, yes, it has had a physical effect on him. One day last week_the 49ers' bye week_Harbaugh was in a relatively relaxed mood, sitting on an equipment table in the locker room at the team's training facility. Someone remarked on his still-strong throwing arm, which he airs out in practice or pregame warm-ups, and then complimented Harbaugh for being in such good shape. To the contrary, Harbaugh said. His body has never felt so nonrobust. He hates that he hasn't been able to maintain better overall fitness. He said the "stress" and the time-consuming nature of his job have made it more difficult to do so. It was a rare candid moment from someone who doesn't usually open the door about his inner thoughts. Also, lest we forget, Harbaugh did have a medical hiccup with an irregular heartbeat less than two months ago. He returned to the job quickly after undergoing what was termed a "minor procedure." Harbaugh said he underwent a "cardiovert." You might want to do an Internet search on that term. The procedure's description does not sound minor. It involves strong drugs and electric shocks. None of that has stopped Harbaugh from approaching this postseason with (you guessed it) enthusiasm unknown to mankind. And while it is difficult to imagine his outward self-confidence ever wobbling, Harbaugh has spoken several times after losses this season about going back and reevaluating philosophies and strategies. On some level, then, Harbaugh must be wondering along with the rest of us whether the critical choices he made from September through December will play out in the best possible way during January. As his heart issue proves, the man is human and vulnerable. Not that he would ever own up to that publicly. Harbaugh's media sessions will continue to be Theatre Of The Opaque. Monday, he spoke about how Kaepernick has improved steadily throughout the season, although his worst game happened barely two weeks ago and he finished the season with a worse passer rating (98.3) than the man he replaced, Smith (104.1). On another matter, Harbaugh said it was possible both Akers and his potential kicking replacement, Billy Cundiff, could dress for Saturday's game. Uh, right. Tony La Russa, the former A's and Cardinals manager, was interviewed recently about Harbaugh by staff writer Cam Inman. Harbaugh and La Russa are friends. And La Russa seems to get a kick out of Harbaugh's method of, ahem, public relations. "I love the way he does press conferences," La Russa said. "He's not there for the fans to say, 'Oh, what a great personality.' He's there for his players to say, 'I trust that guy and he's there for us.' "| I really admire him." Followers of the 49ers generally do the same. However, for any NFL coach, admiration can be fleeting. Harbaugh's legend will grow again over the next few weeks. But which way? SANTA CLARA (MCT) — How do you root for the 49ers when you live in the land of cheeseheads? Kathy Algiers admits it's not easy. Algiers and scores of residents of New London, Wis. — about a half-hour drive from Lambeau Field — suddenly became conflicted April 29, 2011, when the 49ers drafted Colin Kaepernick in the second round. Kaepernick, who'll start at quarterback Saturday against the Green Bay Packers, comes from a big family. And most of that family lives in New London, a city of about 7,000 residents where the Packers are like a second religion. Sunday mornings are spent at church with a tie around your neck; Sunday afternoons are spent with the Pack with a wedge of cheddar on your head. Algiers is Kaepernick's aunt and godmother. Her reaction when the 49ers chose Kaepernick: "Well, at least I don't hate them." It would have been different, she said, if her beloved nephew had been taken by the Vikings, Lions or those blasted Bears. When they were 20, Rick Kaepernick married his high school sweetheart, Teresa Algiers. They adopted their youngest child, Colin, in 1988 and three years later moved to Turlock, where Rick had a job with the Hilmar Cheese Company. Most of the Kaepernick-Algiers clan — about 60 grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, Rick estimates — remains in New London or nearby cities. "People always ask me if I'm rooting for the Packers," said Rand Kaepernick, Colin's uncle and godfather. "I tell them, 'The last time I checked, the name 'Kaepernick' isn't on the back of a green and gold jersey.' I tell them family comes first." "Family first" also has become Algiers' motto when friends and neighbors ask about her allegiance. But when you're from Wisconsin, the Packers quickly find their way into the bloodstream, too. Algiers recalls her father attending the famous "Ice Bowl" game between the Packers and Cowboys in 1967 and remembers fuming that he didn't take her with him. "I go way back," she said. When the Vikings and Packers met Dec. 30, Algiers knew a Minnesota win would give the 49ers a bye and would be a big help to her nephew. As much as she reminded herself of that, however, she said she couldn't stifle screams of "Get him!" whenever Vikings running back Adrian Peterson broke free. The family dichotomy was in full effect when the 49ers visited Lambeau Field on Sept. 9. About 50 family members attended. Some wore NCAA FOOTBALL Final AP Top 25 Poll The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, final records, total points based on 25 points for a firstplace vote through one point for a 25thplace vote, and previous ranking: 1. Alabama (59) 2. Oregon 3. Ohio St. 4. Notre Dame 5. Georgia 5. Texas A&M 7. Stanford 8. South Carolina 9. Florida 10. Florida St. 11. Clemson 12. Kansas St. 13. Louisville 14. LSU 15. Oklahoma 16. Utah St. 17. Northwestern 18. Boise St. 19. Texas 20. Oregon St. 21. San Jose St. 22. N. Illinois 23. Vanderbilt 24. Michigan 25. Nebraska Record 13-1 12-1 12-0 12-1 12-2 11-2 12-2 11-2 11-2 12-2 11-2 11-2 11-2 10-3 10-3 11-2 10-3 11-2 9-4 9-4 11-2 12-2 9-4 8-5 10-4 Pts Pv 1,475 2 1,358 5 1,302 3 1,288 1 1,230 6 1,230 10 1,169 8 1,038 11 933 4 922 13 889 14 871 7 781 22 756 9 615 12 456 18 443 21 419 20 358 NR 303 15 243 24 227 16 180 NR 147 19 119 23 Others receiving votes: Baylor 95, Penn St. 90, Cincinnati 78, Oklahoma St. 42, Tulsa 34, UCLA 31, Arkansas St. 28, TCU 9, UCF 9, Wisconsin 6, N. Dakota St. 1. "And if we play the 49ers at their place, I'm going to make sure the entire city of Chico comes down there to watch us beat them." — Aaron Rodgers following 2005 NFL Draft red No. 7 jerseys and received a lot of puzzled looks since Kaepernick wasn't particularly wellknown at the time. Some stuck with their Packers gear. One family member wore her Kaepernick jersey under her Packers gear. Algiers, dressed in a red No. 7, cheered loudly for the Packers. And when Colin ran for 17 yards at the end of the half, his only appearance in that game, she was screaming just as wildly for him. "I'm sure the people around me were really confused," she said. Of course, the Kaepernicks aren't the only family involved in Saturday's game that has had to alter allegiances. While Colin is a Wisconsin native who grew up rooting for Brett Favre, his counterpart, Aaron Rodgers, is from Chico and grew up a huge 49ers fan. His mother, Darla, attended games with her father at Kezar Stadium when she was a little girl. Rodgers used to wear a Joe Montana T-shirt under his jersey when he played at Cal. After the 2005 draft, Rodgers wasn't exactly thrilled his hometown team passed him over with the No. 1 pick in favor of Alex Smith. "(Twenty-one) teams passed on me, and when my time comes to play, I'm going to show those teams they made a mistake," he said on ESPN Radio days after the draft. "And if we play the 49ers at their place, I'm going to make sure the entire city of Chico comes down there to watch us beat them." Saturday's game will be Rodgers' first nonpreseason game at Candlestick Park. NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE Pacific Division W L Clippers 27 8 WARRIORS 22 11 Lakers 15 19 KINGS 13 22 Phoenix 12 24 Southwest Division W L San Antonio 27 10 Memphis 22 10 Houston 21 14 Dallas 13 22 New Orleans 9 25 Northwest Division W L Oklahoma City 26 8 Portland 19 15 Denver 20 16 Minnesota 16 15 Utah 18 18 Pct .771 .667 .441 .371 .333 GB — 4 11.5 14 15.5 Pct .730 .688 .600 .371 .265 GB — 2.5 5 13 16.5 Pct .765 .559 .556 .516 .500 GB — 7 7 8.5 9 EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division W L Pct GB New York 23 11 .676 — Brooklyn 20 15 .571 3.5 Boston 17 17 .500 6 Philadelphia 15 21 .417 9 Toronto 12 22 .353 11 Southeast Division W L Pct GB Miami 23 10 .697 — Atlanta 20 13 .606 3 Orlando 12 22 .353 11.5 Charlotte 9 24 .273 14 Washington 5 28 .152 18 Central Division W L Pct GB Indiana 21 14 .600 — Chicago 19 13 .594 .5 Milwaukee 17 16 .515 3 Detroit 13 23 .361 8.5 Cleveland 8 28 .222 13.5 —————————————————— Tuesday's results Brooklyn 109, Philadelphia 89 Houston 125, L.A. Lakers 112 Indiana 87, Miami 77 Milwaukee 108, Phoenix 99 Minnesota 108, Atlanta 103 Today's games Memphis at Golden State, 7:30 p.m. Atlanta at Cleveland, 4 p.m. Philadelphia at Toronto, 4 p.m. Utah at Charlotte, 4 p.m. Phoenix at Boston, 4:30 p.m. Houston at New Orleans, 5 p.m. L.A. Lakers at San Antonio, 5 p.m. Milwaukee at Chicago, 5 p.m. Minnesota at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m. Orlando at Denver, 6 p.m. Dallas at L.A. Clippers, 7:30 p.m. Thursday's games Dallas at Sacramento, 7 p.m. New York at Indiana, 5 p.m. Miami at Portland, 7:30 p.m.