With the Super Bowl right around the corner, the time of year has returned once again. This particular pocket on the calendar serves as the preparation point that will give way to the onslaught of sport for the year to come.

As we speak, New Orleans is being blitzed and invaded by 49ers fans and Ravens fans alike, not to mention the straight-up football fans and “party fans” that are piling in. It is Bourbon Street, after all.

Even the First Super Bowl Party gets a little loose! By White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We know the pageantry and performance of the big game won’t disappoint. The annual pinnacle of American sport never lets us down, and even if the scoreboard is lopsided, one of your friends at the party seems to always end up that way as well, making the whole Super Bowl party experience a let-down-free zone.

Pushing all the rif-raf to the peanut gallery, the 49ers open, and will most likely remain, favorites – and with good reason. Colin Kaepernick is a dynamic force that is currently surfing the wave that most young phenoms always seem to – “they don’t even know where they are right now.”

The combination of Colin Kaepernick riding the whitewash of momentum, coupled with his elite, dual-threat ability coming of age right before our eyes, makes the 49ers an extremely dangerous favorite. The 49ers could win by a slim margin or a big margin. This is something you can’t necessarily say about the Ravens.

If the Ravens get over, it will be a ‘Rice, Rice, Flacco to Boldin or Pitta 3rd down conversion’ type of game. The deep bomb to Torrey Smith is something I don’t really see the defense of the 49ers allowing, given the prowlace their two all-pro safeties.  At the same time, I would also be foolish if I didn’t consider the magic a retiring Ray Lewis and his defense seem to have going.  Underdogs can still overachieve.

Analysis of the game aside, the unbridled fun of the Super Bowl also serves as a recognizable signaling of the year to come in all other arenas of sport.

The NBA all-star game is on the horizon, and unfortunately for most fans, the taste of purple and gold is impossible to remove from the palate of NBA water-cooler talk everywhere.

Dwight Howard throw-downs have been few and far between so far this season. By Fido (Flickr: Bucks @ Lakers) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I know everyone is exhausted with the revolving Laker discussion, but the reason the Lakers continue to hoard the headlines is a reason you rarely equate with this franchise – their ineptitude.

Give me an “A” or give me an “F,” right?  Unfortunately, “F” sells in a huge way, and sadly, sells even more than “A” does – but you can’t blame the Lakers for all the attention they are recieving.  Another main reason the Lakers are hogging print and air waves is because nothing around the rest of the NBA is making waves.

The Heat are dominating in their defense of the title. The Celtics, Knicks and Rose-less Bulls are still nipping at their heels in the East.  Great.

In the West, the Thunder are still running, the Spurs are still lurking, and the Clippers and Grizzlies are still up-and-coming. Great.

Yawn.  Alright!  I’m awake!

Moving on — what or who else looms near this time of year? You got it – everyone’s favorite worst guy ever, the infamous “bracket guy.”

Unrightfully so, no one pays an emphatic amount of attention to the national NCAA basketball scene until March rolls around, but when it does, get ready to throw down your bracket and your bucks.

Cinderellas will be the overlying theme as they always are, and golden chariots will turn back into pumpkins in the end like they always do – but the overall saga of March never comes up short.  One.  Shining.  Moment.  I’m welling up just thinking about it.  No I’m not.

Seamheads are beyond hyped this time of year as well. Everyone is a potential pennant winner in spring training, and pitchers and catchers report in less than a month.

With the Giants coming off another World Series Championship and the Dodgers having huge expectations, the rivalry only looks to get juicier. By andyrusch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/asrusch/5748267516/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Money, money and more money has morphed a perpetual big-market underachiever into the new West coast version of the New York Yankees. Trading for the gigantic contracts of super stars has given way to monumental stadium renovations for the Dodgers, which will create more revenue, and eventually give way to taking on even more gigantic contracts of super stars.

Moneyball may get you to the dance, but big money allows you to go home with the prom queen in the end. The Dodgers have officially taken on the new face of baseball’s dark side, and will become even more of a polarizing team than they were before.

Spoiler alert: yes, the rebels eventually win in Star Wars, but in baseball the empire always eventually wins in bulk. Blue thinkers finally realizing gold once again could be right around the corner.

From progression to regression – congratulations on almost killing your sport one more time, Gary Bettman. Hockey is back, but now the few casual fans that existed before care even less.

Kings captain Dustin Brown hoists the cup, a trophy of a dying sport. By Eric Chan from Hollywood, United States (DSC00815 Uploaded by JoeJohnson2) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

On a positive note, the Kings raising the banner was beyond due.  It was an awesome run last season and a championship that was well deserved for Kingdom loyalists — but the realistic future of hockey has essentially become a dimming light, one that now can barely even be seen by a telescope in the night sky of the American sporting realm.

It wouldn’t be an all discussion without mentioning eagles and earplugs, two associations about to start the longest campaigns of any professional leagues in the United States. 10 months?  Forget campaigns, try marathons.

There are niches in our sports melting pot that absolutely live for the PGA and Nascar circuits. And strangely enough, they couldn’t be more polar opposites.  Its the quietest sport and the loudest sport.  Its the high-class perception and the low-class perception.  And given the differences, it’s kind of ironic how the hardcore fans of both circuits would probably never get along, yet the 19th hole and the 5th wheel effectively serve the same purpose.  I guess that’s one thing everyone can agree on – booze.

So there it is and here it comes – the great American sporting landscape.  And with all of the anticipation and excitement on the horizon, there’s honestly nothing I can see that could put damper on the cornucopia of sport all of us fans are in line for, could there be?

April 15th. Yea, the smartass went and did it.

Dave Grant joined the Podcast to talk Cal Poly sports.

This week Owen and Luke talk NFL Conference Championship games, apologize to Jim Harbaugh and talk about how having both of our growing families might affect our Fansmanship. Then Dave Grant sits-in to discuss Cal Poly sports, including women’s basketball, which is off to a fast start once again in the Big West Conference.

The lightning rod of last week’s divisional playoff round was beyond confirmation, that the NFL is still the boss in the American sports arena. The excitement of the NFL continues the skyrocket, that preemptively pushes the bounds of the NFL brand frontier.

And it only gets better my friends.

A Super Bowl matchup of the Harbaugh brothers is still in the cards. By Ben Liebenberg / NFL (NFL.com) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Will the Baltimore Ravens be able to celebrate the soul of their leader Ray Lewis once again in the toughest possible confrontation they could draw?

Does Tommy Touchdown, eventually get over on his most glaring nemesis of a defensive opponent?

The answers I refuse to guarantee – but even after last week’s salvage of a 1-3 prediction, the questions I will never refuse to ask, and the potential answers to those questions I will never refuse to expound upon.

Of course, Kaepernick’s NFL record-breaking performance for most rushing yards by a quarterback in any game, ever (183), won’t be duplicated. Without a doubt, Atlanta’s defense won’t limp and chase with the same evident worthlessness Green Bay’s defense did last Saturday. However, that doesn’t mean Kaepernick won’t utilize his feet to their fullest extent once again.

San Francisco will only lose because of turnovers. If they value and secure the ball, it will be incredibly difficult for Atlanta to beat them, even in the Georgia Dome. And if the neck-bucking ostrich, converts 3rd downs at a rate of 61.5% for the second playoff week in a row, we might as well consider the filthy Niners will be headed to the Super Bowl.

With all the attention directed at Kaepernick’s record-breaking day, doesn’t Tom Brady still have a stake in all this? Captain America seems to be the forgotten man in this year’s NFL Playoffs.

The most decorated quarterback in the game is still in the mix and hungry for another ring. Photo By Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA (Tom Brady) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

And if it is, Solomon Wilcots‘ preemptive cut-away from Ray Lewis’ tearful post-game sermon better not be prioritized by network promos. The pimping of The Big Bang Theory or Two Broke Girls apparently took precedence over a first-ballot NFL hall-of-famer, possibly giving us our last positive memory of him in celebration.

Next time, CBS, stay with the reality nugget right in front of you! We have a living legend shedding tears on live camera! You might want to stick with that.  Dorks uncomfortable around women and two waitresses who don’t get tipped,  can wait!

In all seriousness, I know just as much as you do about all this NFL analysis stuff — and in all honestly, probably a whole lot less.

What I do know however is a menu. I’ll be the guy that brought the bacon-wrapped shrimp and won your Super Bowl Party.

Show me the barbeque.

You’re Welcome.

Alex Smith did the right thing by telling doctors he was concussed, but it could cost him a lot of money in the offseason. By BrokenSphere (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Then Alex Smith got hit. In the head. Again.

He “turned himself in” to team doctors as the NFL has been encouraging its players to do. He hasn’t seen the field since.

Instead, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh turned to second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick has a rifle arm — noticeably better (on TV even) than 90 percent of NFL starting quarterbacks. He’s also really fast. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Harbaugh keeping Kaepernick in the lineup instead of bringing back Smith (once he was cleared) was easy to criticize. The list of quarterbacks who win or even get to the Super Bowl in their first season as a starter is really short. No matter what Harbaugh thought, I didn’t think San Francisco stood a chance with a second-year player and first-time starter. I thought Harbaugh’s lack of patience with Alex Smith was going to hurt the team’s chances and maybe help to even prematurely close their championship window. After amazing improvement at Stanford and now with the 49ers, I thought Harbaugh had finally made a decision that was going to blow up in his face. Benching a guy who was playing like Smith couldn’t have been the right move, could it?

On Saturday, Kaepernick diced-up the Packers like a slap-chop. Green Bay had no answer for the read option or Kaepernick’s ability to find open receivers down field and get the ball to their hands on a rope. When the second-year player from Nevada ran for his second touchdown that put the 49ers up 31-24 in the third quarter, a lead they would not relinquish, I though, “My God! He’s Michael Vick with a bigger body and more accurate throwing arm.”

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA

I stand by my assessment, and I want to say I’m sorry. Apologies, Jim Harbaugh. Apparently you saw him in practice for a year and a half and knew what you were doing. I shouldn’t have second-guessed you. The 49ers’ offense looked as dynamic and exciting as any I’ve seen recently. If the NFC Championship game was at Candlestick, I’d predict your team as the clear-cut favorites. As it stands I’ll probably pick them to win the game on the road anyway — unless I think too hard about Ben Roethlisberger.

In Roethlisberger’s first year as a starter (2004), the Steelers went 13-0 under Big Ben in the regular season. Roethlisberger was a revelation. His team earned a first-round bye and won their divisional playoff game before losing the AFC Championship to New England, who won the Super Bowl that year. Kaepernick has done a Roethlisberger-like job so far — a performance good enough to win me over on his coach’s decision no matter what happens next week.

Kaepernick’s divisional win was definitely one for the record-books, putting him up alongside rookies like Roethlisberger. To win a conference championship game on the road after only 9 NFL starts, though, would be nothing short of legendary.

This past weekend, however, provided fans with two games in which games were lost, not won.

New England vs. Baltimore

An aging Baltimore defense which probably only has one or two more Super Bowl runs in them played well. If you can hold a Tom Brady-led offense to 23 points, you have a good chance of winning. After being called-out by Ed Reed earlier in the week, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco did his part and threw what would have been the go ahead TD pass to Lee Evans. Evans made the catch, but failed to squeeze the ball and had it slapped out of his hands by Sterling Moore. Evans had both feet planted in the endzone and just had to squeeze the ball for one more second.

Subsequently, Baltimore kicker Billy Cundiff missed what was a chip-shot field goal which would have sent the game into overtime. The look on the Ravens sideline told the whole story, it wasn’t disappointment. It was was shock and disbelief. The game wasn’t won, it was lost. It was lost when the Ravens, led by Flacco failed to take chances downfield throughout the game. The Patriots’ secondary has been exposed all season long, and with Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin as his wideouts Flacco had plenty of chances to throw the ball downfield. Ray Rice got his touches, even Ricky Williams got more than a few touches, but Flacco needed to open the playbook, extend the Patriots secondary and win the game.

San Francisco vs. New York Giants

Were it not for Kyle Williams’ two fumbles on punt returns, the Niners would probably be in the Super Bowl. His two fumbles led to 10 Giants points. The first fumble in the 4th quarter led to an Eli Manning touchdown pass that gave the Giants the lead.

Though Williams later made a nice kick-off return for 40 yds to set up a David Akers FG to tie the game, still his earlier turnover led to  points for the “G-Men.” In overtime, his fumble led to a Lawrence Tynes field goal that sent the Giants to the Super Bowl. While it’s easy to make Kyle Williams the goat in this case, two statistics beyond the pair of fumbles stand out.

The Niners were 1-13 on 3rd down conversions. Let me repeat, 1 out of 13. Eli Manning was 2-2 on his first two 3rd down conversions. The inability to sustain drives will kill whatever momentum you have and wear down your defense. Let’s say your defense makes some big plays and gets a stop, then the offense has a 3 and out, and the defense has to go right back on the field. This happened for the entire game and you cannot tell me that if you were Patrick Willis or Justin Smith you wouldn’t be a little ticked off.

We should also look at the 49ers wide receivers. They made a total of 1 catch for a whopping 3 yards for the entirety of the game. ONE CATCH. It’s true, Alex Smith had a pair of late 4th quarter drives that stalled miserably, but we all know he has it in him (see the Saints game). The Giants did their part by double-covering TE Vernon Davis, but much heralded Michael Crabtree was single covered most of the game. He failed to find soft spots in the zone coverage and when the Giants used Tampa 2 coverage, he failed to get enough separation.

One of the ways to beat a Tampa 2 is utilize your secondary target. As the quarterback drops back, he eyes his primary target getting the deep safety to commit to that side. The quarterback can even pump fake, further committing the safety deep. Then the quarterback, ideally, will look to his secondary read (other side of the field) and usually pass there. This second option is predicated on two things, 1) having your offensive line give you enough time and 2) having a solid second option who can run a precise route so the quarterback can drop the pass in. Most of the time, Davis functions as the primary read. If Crabtree ran precise routes he would have had the ball thrown his way.

But too often Crabtree wasn’t open, so Smith went to his 3rd option which was usually a checkdown to Frank Gore for minimal yardage. While he is a terrific running back, Gore’s strength has never been in the open field. We all know the San Francisco offensive line is solid. When Mike Singletary was the coach, he made sure of that. And if you’re practicing against one of the best defensive lines in football (led by Justin and Alden Smith) everyday, you’ve got to be better than average. They were not on Sunday.

Alex Smith is accurate (see the perfect passes he drops into Vernon Davis), and he takes care of the ball. He doesn’t throw the ball into tight coverages where he might get intercepted. Sure he could take a few more chances, but in big games, turnovers can swing momentum so quickly so it’s important to take care of the ball. The game came down to a failure by the WR corps (of which Kyle Williams is a member of) and the 49ers inability to make big plays down the stretch. They played not to lose, and got just what they tried so hard to avoid.

In the Conference Championship games, we saw two quarterbacks who didn’t step up to make plays. Their teams who will be watching the Super Bowl from their couches. Say what you want about the quarterbacks who are in the Super Bowl, but Tom Brady of New England and Eli Manning of New York make plays, they capitalize on turnovers, and they go out and win games. It’s luck that favors the brave.

Topics include Bay Area NFL Teams, the NFC North, Baseball Playoffs, Owen’s trip to Honduras, and musings on the best and worst jobs in sports.

Enjoy!

The 49ers are like a rusted old 1956 Chevy pickup with no tires, windows, or steering wheel.  Yes they have the best linebacker in football in P-Will, a blossoming superstar receiver in Mike Crabtree,  a top three tight end in Vernon Davis, and when healthy, which don’t put your money on, dude would get hurt walking in the grocery store, top three running back in Frank Gore. BUT THEY DON’T HAVE A QUARTERBACK! And unless they can resurrect Trent Dilfer, the only non-quarterback recently to win one, then it sure as hell is not happening with Alex Smith, David Carr, or Troy Smith. All three have compiled a career record of 38-78 at the starting quarter back position. Which makes me wonder…how much of a difference will Jim Harbaugh make in comparison to the hard-nosed Singletary?

To be fair, Singletary did not do that bad of a job. Honestly he was the man who took Vernon Davis from dud to stud, and brought back an attitude of hard-nosed play the 49ers have not seen since the mid-90’s.  His 18-22 mark is an over-achievement for an organization with about as much direction as Latrell Sprewell’s spastic dribbling. A team that has been through more offensive coordinators than my wife has haircuts in the last ten years. He did this with no quarterback,  and an inconsistent defense that lacks mainly at the corner position. A serious position, considering most yards accrue through the air.

It is fair to say, when going to an organization like the 49ers, the majority of coaches will fail. It doesn’t matter your intent nor your expertise, because the reality is that unless you have the components to work the car, then the car isn’t going to start.  Frank Gore’s health? Starting Quarterback? Mike Crabtree’s drive? Cornerback? And the list continues to mount within a depressive off-season for a team that finished 6-10.  As the great Freddie Mercury so elegantly put, “another one bites the dust.” Give it two, maybe three, years and reality would say Harbaugh will be filing for unemployment.

-Luke Johnson