49ers secure a first-week bye in the playoffs after beating St. Louis Rams – NFL Week 17 recap
San Francisco 49ers secured a first-week bye and second seed from the National Football Conference into the playoffs after beating St. Louis Rams 34-27 in the regular season finale at the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday.
In the game, whose outcome was somewhat expected, the Rams sent the alarm bells ringing for the NFC West division champions in the final quarter, but the defence was alerted enough not to gave the game away.
The Rams convincingly reduced the 21-point deficit to only seven points, but could not clear the final obstacle and eventually got their seventh straight loss, ending the season at 2-14 with last place in the NFC West division.
“You are not going to find a lot of 2-13 teams that are going to play as hard as we did that late in the game against a team like that,” Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens said. “I think that’s really a credit to the leadership, starting with Coach Spags and
working its way down.”
Rams ended their season with a hope of better future—something they had done before and after every game this season.
The same was the case against the 49ers where they got an early lead to leave the sturdy opponent’s defence in awe.
At 06:20 in the first quarter, Kellen Clemens paved his way towards the touchdown, managing an 18-yard touchdown run.
The 49ers, however, responded at the end of the quarter when Alex Smith managed an eight-yard run for a touchdown.
The 49ers completely dominated the second quarter.
At 13:05, Smith sent a 28-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree to take the score to 14-7. Later, David Akers scored two field goals, one from 36 yards and the other from 42 yards, to end the quarter at 20-7.
Both the teams struggled to score in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter. At 05:04, Josh Brown scored a 49-yard field goal to take the score to 20-10.
With less than a minute left on the clock, a fake move, which was funny as well, gave the 49ers a touchdown. Kicker David Akers caught a snap instead of kicking the ball and sent a 14-yard pass to unmarked receiver Crabtree.
“Perfect quarterback rating,” quarterback Alex Smith said about Akers. “Tough to criticize 1-for-1 with a touchdown.”
The fourth quarter started with 49ers in lead 27-10. At 12:19, Brown scored a 48-yard field goal to get three points for the Rams. Around six minutes later, Anthony Dixon managed a one-yard run to increase the 49ers’ lead.
During the last five minutes, when the 49ers were leading 34-13, the Rams scored two touchdowns. At 04:49, Clemens sent a36-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Lloyd. At 04:36, Cadillac Williams managed a one-yard run to take the score to 34-27. However, the
49ers did not allow any further scoring move and the game ended in their favour.
After the victory, the 49ers have managed to secure a first-week bye in the playoffs where they will play the highest winning seed from the NFC wild-card round.
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