Colin Kaepernick doesn’t always play the part of elite quarterback.
In fact, in ranking the best quarterbacks in the NFL, analysts rarely include the 49ers’ QB. He can hold the ball too long and he can go through streaks of inaccuracy.
After nine games this season, his quarterback rating of 92.7 ranks just 15th in the NFL. He’s also 15th in passing yardage and 20th in completion percentage (61.9).
But at other times, he looks like the most gifted passer in the NFL.
Sunday was one of those times. His 51-yard completion to Michael Crabtree near the end of regulation was a pass few, if any, quarterbacks in the NFL would have been able to make.
On fourth-and-10 from deep in their own territory, trailing by three with time running out in regulation – and perhaps on the 49ers’ season – Kaepernick scrambled away from a Saints pass rush, rolled to his right, set his feet and fired a laser to wide receiver Michael Crabtree that he caught at the Saints’ 29.
The play set up a game-tying field goal by Phil Dawson to send the game into overtime. The 49ers then won, 27-24, to get to 5-4.
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It was a throw that seemed impossible, considering the distance, the accuracy and the speed the ball flew through the air to zip through the New Orleans secondary.
Longtime Bay Area columnist Tim Kawakami, covering the game for the Bay Area News Group, tweeted this just after the throw: “Absolutely saw Kaepernick stop rolling, spot #15 WAY down field and thought to myself, ‘He’ll be 10 yards short on this throw.’ Wrong.”
Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh, too, marveled at the play.
“That wasn’t the intended play, but Colin does a great job of that and I’m glad he did it that way,” Harbaugh told the media. “And glad he’s got the arm strength to get it that far. I don’t know how far that ball was in the air, but that was a heckuva throw.”
Considering how far Kaepernick was behind the line of scrimmage and the angle of the throw, it’s possible the pass was well over 60 yards on a rope to Crabtree.
After the game, Kaepernick was asked if that was as far as he can throw a football.
“Um, no,” he said.
The offensive line gave him time to make the play, said Kaepernick, which allowed him to set his feet and get his whole body behind it.
Said Saints safety Rafael Bush: “It was a desperate play, and he made a great play.”
Now the 49ers will have to travel to New Jersey this week to keep their second-half momentum alive. They face the Giants Sunday at the Meadowlands.
