San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams play a tie 24-24 as Alex Smith gets injured – NFL Recap
Quarterback Alex Smith’s injury and an unusual overtime game-play helped stage a surprising outcome of Week 10 game as San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams played a tie, 24-24, on Sunday, November 11, at Candlestick Park.
Smith took a couple of hits before eventually being forced out of the game. He was seven of eight for 72 yards and got a touchdown before leaving the field.
Smith was replaced by Colin Kaepernick, who finished the game completing 11 of his 17 passes for 117 yards. The backup quarterback also scored a rushing touchdown. 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh said of the player:
“He was pretty solid. We just felt that everything that was in the game he was good with, comfortable with and could execute. And he did a very good job. There was no sense of uptightness or tenseness. He was very good.”
It will not be an overstatement to say that Smith’s presence could have easily secured a victory for the 49ers.
That being said, it should also be noted that 49ers got a chance to win in overtime when David Akers was supposed to score a field goal. However, he missed the attempt and 49ers lost the game-winning opportunity.
As if it was not enough, Akers had got that opportunity when the Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein missed his game-winning opportunity, though the kicker must not be entirely blamed for it.
Zuerlein successfully scored on a 53-yard attempt in overtime, but the move was not counted as the Rams had delayed it. As a result, they were penalised for five yards and when Zuerlein kicked the next attempt from 58 yards he missed it.
The show was not over yet. 49ers once again got an opportunity to get the winning move, but 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis was flagged and the home team did not get any chance to go ahead.
Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said of the game:
“I have to say, I've been doing this a while. I don't think I've ever been in a game like this. As I told our guys, we had a number of chances to put the game away. And, unfortunately, we didn't.”
This is the National Football League’s (NFL) first tie after 2008 when Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals played a 13-13 game.
In this game, Rams were unexpectedly dominant for the first three quarters. They got two touchdowns in the first quarter to get off to an exploding start. 49ers later replied with a touchdown in the second quarter.
Rams scored a field goal in the third quarter and stretched their lead to 10 points.
However, 49ers got two touchdowns and a field goal in the final quarter, while the Rams could only get one touchdown and the game was forced to overtime.
Rams quarterback Sam Bradford finished with 26 of 39 for 275 yards and scored two touchdowns.
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