Offensively uneven Seahawks in Super Bowl thanks to defense's exposure of Kaepernick's limitations

After a lost opportunity for the New England Patriots—who allowed Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos’ offense to move up and down the field literally at will, and yet who managed to score “only” 26 points—it appeared for a time that the only scenario in which I would prefer to see Manning win the Super Bowl might come about. That would have been if the San Francisco 49ers had won the NFC title game, which appeared might happen after a lifeless first-half from the Seattle Seahawks. Being a Green Bay Packer fan, I had more substantial reasons to despise the 49ers than Manning; fortunately, that awkward situation was avoided as the Seahawks staged a remarkable second-half recovery to outlast the 49ers 23-17.

I must confess that the stereo headphone commercial featuring Colin Kaepernick walking through a surly crowd really irritated me. ESPN and the NFL Network have been drooling all over this guy, and it was no secret that the 49ers were their team of choice to go to the Super Bowl. Before the game, it had already been broadcast that it was predicted that a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl would be lowest rated ever; was this meant to be a subtle “hint” to game officials? Despite complaints from 49er fans about the game’s officiating, I felt that something was amiss on the third down holding penalty on Richard Sherman deep in the 49ers’ end in the second-quarter; this was just the sort of call that the party favorite would get. Kaepernick took advantage of a new set of downs, breaking away on 58-yard run which put the 49ers in position to take a 10-0 lead.

But in reality, Kaepernick’s long run, and his 130 total yards rushing, only put greater light on his limitations as a passer. As a quarterback, he is like some guy in a card or chess game whose strategy and tactics have you baffled—that is until you figure out he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing, Under pressure in the fourth quarter, Kaepernick fumbled and tossed two interceptions on the 49ers last three drives; this is what lost the 49ers the game—not the officials. For a game some observer are already calling a “classic,” it was a remarkably sloppy affair in the fourth quarter where most of the action occurred, with Kaepernick’s “sloppiness” having the most tangible results in the final score. Although the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson fumbled on his first snap, he at least kept his head  situated just firmly enough to avoid making the foolish plays that repeatedly haunted his counterpart.

Commenting on Kaepernick’s first interception by Kam Chancellor, Deion Sanders on the NFL Network noted Kaepernick’s inability to read coverage, while during the broadcast Troy Aikman called it a “terrible decision and a terrible throw” while pointing out that Kaepernick had been extremely fortunate that Green Bay and Carolina failed to take advantage of such mistakes. Time and again in the past and in this game despite an awkward throwing motion, fortune smiled on Kaepernick. Somehow, despite just kind of chucking the ball, he managed to put it in Anquan Boldin’s hands to put the 49ers up 17-10 in the third quarter.

But you can count on such luck only so often.  In last year’s Super Bowl with the game in the balance, Kaepernick targeted Michael Crabtree three straight times on the exact same route, which for a defense of the caliber of the Baltimore Ravens’ was like giving out the answers on pop quiz. And in this game against the best secondary in the NFL, even an out-of-position Richard Sherman was on top of the anticipated throw to Crabtree; Sherman’s remarkably savvy play on the ball with 22 seconds remaining—tipping the ball to the only player in position to catch it, teammate Malcolm Smith—put a fork in what would have been an extremely unappetizing result.

Still, the Seahawks could not help but put themselves in a position to lose this game with continued haphazard offensive play. 40 percent of their first-half yardage output occurred on a 51-yard pass play from Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin, leading to the Seahawks only points in the first-half. Trailing 17-13 and facing fourth and 7 at the San Francisco 35 in the fourth-quarter, coach Pete Carroll decided to forgo a field goal attempt and throw the dice. But even if the 49ers jumped offside on a hard count, it still would have been a fourth down situation; if the Seahawks had then decided to kick a field goal to make the score 17-16, then the ending of the game would have had a much less satisfactory result based on what subsequently occurred. Thus it was stroke of immense good fortune that a defensive encroachment flag allowed a free play, which Jermaine Kearse somehow made a play in the end zone on a jump pass from Wilson.

Then after Kaepernick’s strip fumble put Seattle in position to put the game away, a botched hand-off ended that possibility. The Seahawks then failed to take full advantage of Chancellor’s interception, settling for a field goal that allowed the 49ers the chance to win the game in the final seconds. That came within a whisker of happening; such a result would have been profoundly difficult to accept, given the feeling that the 49ers would be going their second straight Super Bowl in spite of—not because of—their quarterback.

The Super Bowl will now be a contest between the #1 defense and #1 offense in the league. They say that defense wins championships, but the Seahawks may have a hard time convincing observers that they are better positioned offensively than the 49ers to take advantage of Denver’s often porous defense, which allowed 25 points per game in the regular season. But at least Tampa Bay and Baltimore offer some precedent for middling offenses doing just enough to win it all.