What no quarterback in the NFL wants to see – 49er Defensive Tackle Justin Smith leaping over offensive lineman.

#85 49er Tight end Vernon Davis looks to repeat his 2 touchdown 7 catches for 180 yards performance against the visiting New York Giants.

It’s not holding if they don’t call it. They didn’t.

Saints cornerback #33  Jabari Greer leap frogs over 49er Michael Crabtree.

Saints QB Drew Brees set an NFL regular season passing record in the 2011 regular season. The 49er defensive slowed him down enough to claim victory in the Divisional playoff game last Saturday.

He scores touchdowns and leaps over photographers with a single bound, it’s 49er tight end #85 Vernon Davis.

#19 Ted Ginn waiting for the Saints kickoff.

49er Linebacker #52 Patrick Willis tackles #10 Eli Manning for a loss during their regular season meeting at Candlestick park that the 49ers won 27-20.

Touchdown catch by #82 Mario Manningham with the Fox Television dual camera sideline cart in the background.

San Francisco 49er Offensive lineman #74 Joe Staley “blocks” New York Giant #72 Osi Umenyiora during their Sunday November 13th regular season game.

Alex Smith, meet Osi Umenyiora. The 49ers are hoping to hold the Giants pass rush at bay. In this photo #72 Osi Umenyiora tackles #11 Alex Smith just as he releases the football during their November 13th regular season meeting the 49ers won 27 to 20.

AFC – NFC Championship update: The New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in the AFC Championship game. The New York Giants prevailed over the San Francisco 49ers 20 to 17 in overtime with a 31 yard field goal. The Patriots will face the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI on February 5th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis Indiana.

It’s been a really interesting journey for Alex Smith since he was selected first in the 2005 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers on April 23, 2005. By “really interesting” I mean the six previous seasons before Jim Harbaugh became head coach of the 49ers this year were filled with mostly disappoint and a parade of  head coaches and offensive coordinators. Due to the strike and lockout before the 2011 NFL season which caused a greatly shortened pre season, the 49ers really had no choice but to stick with Alex Smith for another year.

What a difference a season and a coach who knows how to coach can make. The 49ers went 13-3 during the regular season and earned the 2nd seed in the NFC playoffs. That 2nd seed got them a week off and a divisional playoff game against the New Orleans Saints. It would be Alex Smith’s first ever NFL playoff game. He made the most of the opportunity by leading the 49ers to a 36-32 victory over the Saints in front of 69,732 fans. The win over the Saints means the 49ers will host the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game on January 22, 2012. The winner of that game will meet the winner of the AFC championship between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens in the 2012 Super Bowl to be played  on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This photo shows what would be the biggest play of Alex Smith’s seven year career up until that point as he rolled left on a designed run play for a 28 yard touchdown run the put the 49ers ahead of the Saints 29-24 with just over 2 minutes to play in his first ever NFL playoff game.

Quarterback Alex Smith and other 49ers congratulate Vernon Davis on making “the grab” which would be the game winning touchdown catch with just nine second left in their Divisional playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.

This photo is from Alex Smith’s first NFL game, a pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders on August 13th, 2005.

It’s not easy being an National Football League quarterback. Defensive players grab your face mask to try and tackle you.

Those defensive players grab your shoulder pads to try and tackle you.

The also grab your jersey to try and sack you. Sometimes one person does all that on one play as was the case with New Orleans free safety Malcolm Jenkins on this series of photos.

Alex Smith recovers this dropped backwards pass.

Then after winning the biggest game of your life you just stroll off the field content with a great job of playing quarterback. We shall see Sunday  against the New York Giants if this improbable season for the 49ers continues on to the Super Bowl

The 49ers last home playoff game in 2003 was a wild and exciting game against the New York Giants that featured the 2nd biggest comeback in NFL playoff history ( 24 points ) and a good deal of interesting officiating. The first photo in this post shows what many thought was an interception by #29 Ahmed Plummer 2 plays before what was to be a botched field goal attempt by the Giants that would have won the game.

Instead of rehashing the rest of the 2003 playoff game, I’m going to do more of a “where are they now” feature. First up, T.O., or as the program says, #81 Terrell Owens. TO had a great game that day in 2003 with 9 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns. He would play one more season for the 49ers before heading to the Philadelphia Eagles. It took just two years before he wore out his welcome there. Next up, the Dallas Cowboys for three seasons. Then one season with the Buffalo Bills, and in 2010 his final NFL season was with the Cincinnati Bengals. In October of 2011 Owens held an open workout hoping to attract the attention of another NFL team. Not one team sent anybody to watch.

Kerry Collens #5 the then Giants quarterback played one more season with them before moving onto the Oakland Raiders for two seasons, the Tennessee Titans for 5 seasons, and finally the Indianapolis Colts for the 2011 Season.

#81 Amani Toomer was a East Bay Area product having first attended Albany high school, and the transferring to Northern California football powerhouse De La Salle high school in Concord, CA. After attending the University of Michigan he was the 34th overall draft pick in the 2006 NFL draft being selected by the New York Giants. He played 13 seasons with the Giants and was part of the 2008 team the won the Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots.

Quarterback #5 Jeff Garcia played his college career at San Jose State University. With no NFL offers, Garcia went North to play in the Canadian Football League where he played for the Calgary Stampeders. In 1999 he was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as a backup for NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young. Following Young’s retirement in 1999, Garica became the starting quarterback. In 2003 he was released by the 49ers and played the 2004 season with the Cleveland Browns. After the Browns he played for the Detroit Lions ( 2005 ), Philadelphia Eagles ( 2006 ), Tampa Bay Buccaneers ( 2007-2008 ), Oakland Raiders & Philadelphia Eagles ( 2009 ), Omaha Nighthawks ( 2010 ), and back in the NFL with Houston Texans for the 2011 Season. The Texans will play the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional playoff game this Sunday with a 10 AM ET start. According to the Houston Texan depth chart, Jeff Garcia is listed as the 3rd string quarterback for the game at the M&T Bank Stadium.

I have no idea where this gentlemen is now.

The 49ers lost the next week to the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  That game marked the end of Steve Mariucci’s coaching time with the 49ers as fired on Janaury 15th in what many thought was a power struggle with then 49er General Manager Terry Donahue. During his 6 years as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers Mariucci had a 60-43 ( .583 ) record including 4 playoff appearances. Dennis Erickson became the new head coach and lasted all of two years with a record of 9-23 during those years. GM Terry Donahue was also fired along with Erickson. Mike Nolan was next hired at head coach and lasted 3.5 years and was fired mid season and replaced with Mike Singletary. “Coach” Singletary lasted 2.5 seasons and was fired at the conclusion of the 2010 season. The 49ers hired highly recruited Jim Harbaugh from Stanford University in January of 2011, and have never looked back as they finished the 2011 NFL regular season with a 13-3 record and the 2nd seed in the NFC playoffs.

The only player still on the 49er team that played in that 2003 playoff game is Brian Jennings #86 the team’s long snapper. Jennings  played college ball at Arizona State and was the 230th player ( 7th round ) selected in the 2000 NFL draft, and has played his entire 12 year career with the 49ers.

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Looking at the chart we see the fastest result from a Mac Pro with a base price of $6199 and a test time of a 9.3 seconds. Now with the release of the Intel 6 core Sandy Bridge i7-3930K we have an overclocked time of 10.6 seconds on a custom built high end PC machine that has a $2000 price tag. That seems like an awful lot more money for a really nice looking shiny case the has a fruit on it. Note: Prices are current as of December 20th, 2011.

————————— Test Results —————————

The first outage  which last 20 minutes occurred just before kickoff and pushed back the start of the game  about 20 minutes. The teams were in their locker rooms at the time of the outage. Instead of the normal pre-game hoopla the precedes kickoff for a NFL game, the teams were allowed to come out and warm up for  an addition 10 minutes and the game started shortly thereafter.  The SECOND outage occurred during the 2nd quarter during a television time out with 12 minutes and 13 seconds left in the quarter. This time the teams were on the field and just waited around as did all the sellout crowd of 69,732 who were in attendance for the 49ers last regular season home game.

This photo shows Pittsburgh Steeler players and  NFL officials waiting out the 2nd power outage which happened early in the 2nd quarter. While the photo of the players and officials waiting appears to have ample light, the photo was made at ISO 1600 at 1/20 of a second at f2.0 on a 135mm canon lens. With the stadium lights on, the game action photos were made at ISO 1600,  1/640, at f3.2 or 6 stops higher than the power out photo. Six “f stops” brighter equates to 64 times brighter with the lights on.

There was indeed a complete football game played on Monday night, and the stingy 49er defense held the defending AFC Champions Pittsburgh Steelers to just 3 points in their victory. The game marked an NFL record 14 games the 49ers have not allowed a rushing touchdown scored against them. It wasn’t perfect form, but San Francisco 49er #29 Chris Culliver did hold on to the jersey of Pittsburgh Steeler #17 Mike Wallace and make the tackle during this 2nd quarter play.

The colors look so wonderful on the trees, on the ground they just look like a big colorul mess to clean up.

Photo Details: Canon 40D, 100 mm f2.0 lens. Exposure: ISO 400, f4.5 at 1/200 of a second on Manual Exposure.