GameDay: 49ers Season On The Line In New Orleans
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The walk to the Superdome is something I've always enjoyed about New Orleans. Forget the car, don't hail a cab, I'll walk the walk.
My last walk to the Superdome was for the Super Bowl between the 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. I took in the sounds, the sights, and the smell of football in January in the best Super Bowl city in the country.
It would, in my mind, be the first of several for Jim Harbaugh and this 49er team. I was certain. It was an organization on the rise. A new stadium was being built and Colin Kaepernick was emerging as one of the most dynamic quarterbacks the game has ever seen. A player that would transform the position and produce an envious parade of copycats in a copycat league.
Has it really been almost two years since that fateful pass to Michael Crabtree? I can still taste the powdered sugar on my lips from the beignets at Café Du Monde. The taste of the football team isn't so sweet.
The 49ers return to the Superdome this Sunday in a much different scenario. CBS hasn't taken over Jackson Square and hotels are plentiful. Even Bourbon Street will have plenty of seats in a local jazz club to order a Jamison's and ponder what went wrong with the 49ers.
The 4-4 49ers face an almost must-win game in a very competitive NFC wild-card race. We're just halfway through the season and the wild card seems to be the 49ers best chance. With a .500 record, they are three games behind first-place Arizona and just one game ahead of last-place St. Louis. I think the good times rolled.
The Saints haven't lost at home in almost two years, have won two straight impressively over Green Bay and Carolina, and face a resurgent Drew Brees who is, once again, leading the NFL in completion percentage.
By comparison, the 49ers have lost two straight, lost their identity, and have 49er Hall of Fame players wondering why the franchise has fallen from the NFL's elite. Reports of dissension, a locker room lost and a lame duck coach don't bode well for a team in desperate need of a win.
Jim Harbaugh believes that his team plays best when facing adversity, when the world is against them. Can anything be more adverse than this? Sure, if they lose Sunday.
Following last Sunday's loss to the Rams, Vernon Davis said he wasn't frustrated by the loss. Former 49ers Pro Bowl center Jeremy Newberry had this reaction on KPIX 5. "I'm so pissed off when I lost a game I couldn't see straight, I didn't want to talk to nobody," fumed Newberry. "To be not disappointed in the loss? I don't get that one bit as a professional in what you do. You've got to be pissed off you put that effort out there in front of those fans. These people are paying a lot of money to watch you play. You play that poorly, you've got to be mad about it."
During the Super Bowl media day I rode the streetcar to the Superdome. I suggest the 49ers do the same this Sunday. Change it up. Pick the streetcar named Desire.
See you on TV.
