Niners win thriller

SAN FRANCISCO - The 49ers waited nine years for this playoff game. Given the chance, they packed in enough action to make up for the long hiatus.

In a game that will take its rightful place among the highlights of a franchise that once owned the postseason, it was the Niners who turned in the fourth and final lead change in the final 4:30 of the game, tight end Vernon Davis pulling in Alex Smith's 14-yard touchdown pass and withstanding a hit from safety Roman Harper to deliver a draining and exhilarating 36-32 victory Saturday at Candlestick Park.

"I haven't seen a game like that in all the years I've played," said San Francisco cornerback Carlos Rogers, a seventh-year pro. "I never experienced a game like that - two good teams, two good offenses, two good defenses, and we came out on top."

The 49ers now await the outcome of today's Packers-Giants game. If Green Bay prevails, the Niners will travel to Lambeau Field next weekend for the NFC Championship. If New York pulls off an upset, the game will be played here. Either way, it's a stunning level of achievement for a team that entered the 2011 season with modest expectations.

The winning touchdown was called Vernon Post, and it was a new play the 49ers installed during the week. Davis had only run it from the right end of the line in practice. With the season on the brink, he lined up on the left side and ran the play to perfection. The crowd exploded as he got his feet down in the end zone, and the tight end left the field with tears streaming down his face.

There were nine seconds left when Davis scored. The Saints tried to counter with desperate lateral plays, both on the ensuing kickoff and their final snap, but safety C.J. Spillman put an end to it when he tackled Robert Meachem with zeroes on the clock.

The game was expected to be close, but the accepted wisdom held that the 49ers couldn't get into a shootout with the high-powered Saints. They did, and they lived to rejoice in it.

Twice in the late stages, it appeared that they had wasted a brilliant effort. Having led the entire game, they fell behind for the first time with 4:02 left, after Saints halfback Darren Sproles caught a pass in the short middle. The Niners had done an admirable job limiting the dangerous Sproles to that point, but he eluded Dashon Goldson's ankle tackle, ran around Donte Whitner and raced to a 44-yard touchdown.

The 49ers answered. Smith threw a perfect timing pass to Davis over safety Malcolm Jenkins that netted 37 yards. And on third-and-8 from the New Orleans 28-yard line, offensive coordinator Greg Roman made the call of the day, dialing up a play dubbed "QB 9."

Correctly anticipating a blitz, Smith took a shotgun snap and immediately sprinted around the left end. He got a nice block from wide receiver Kyle Williams on a defensive end, and left tackle Joe Staley took out safety Isa Abdul-Quddus downfield, allowing Smith to take it home down the left sideline with 2:11 on the clock.

The 49ers went for the 2-point conversion, but the Saints snuffed Frank Gore's run. San Francisco was up 29-24.

Again, the Niners were on the verge of advancing to the conference title game. Again, the Saints showed why they went 13-3 and set an NFL record with 7,474 total yards during the regular season. It took Brees four plays to hook up with Jimmy Graham, his incomparable tight end. Graham caught the pass between Whitner and inside linebacker Patrick Willis and took off for the end zone, pushing away Rogers for the final 10 yards.

Brees found Sproles on the 2-point conversion, and the Saints were back up 32-29 with just 1:37 left.

Afterward, Staley admitted that his heart sank a little at that point.

"Honestly, for about three seconds it did," he said. "You don't want to see 'em score, you know? You want to have a guaranteed victory when you get out on the field. For three seconds I was upset, and then we all got together on the sidelines and said, &‘Let's go win it.'"

A hush fell over a crowd that had been thunderous all day. There was 1:32 left when the 49ers set up for their first play from scrimmage, and they had just one timeout left. As an offense, they're not really built for hurry-up comebacks. But Smith and Davis connected again, this time for a 47-yard pass play that got the ball to the New Orleans 20.

The 49ers have one of the best kickers in the game in David Akers. Another staff might have plotted to set him up for a field goal and be content to head into overtime at home. Another defense might have retreated into a prevent scheme. But Jim Harbaugh and Roman went on the attack - and so did the Saints. The visitors brought pressure, and Smith put the most important pass of his seven-year career into Davis' arms.

"I think we got too excited," Sproles said. "We didn't think that they could score like that, but they did. They proved all of us wrong."

Along the way, the Niners became the first team in NFL history to score two lead-taking touchdowns in the final three minutes of a postseason game.

For most of the afternoon, it looked like the 49ers had accomplished their No. 1 priority of slowing the pace. They led 17-14 at halftime, and 20-14 after three quarters - a strong accomplishment against a team that averaged better than 34 points a game during the regular season.

The Saints did not run often or well Saturday, gaining 37 yards on 14 carries. And the 49ers forced five turnovers (four in the first half), recovering three fumbles and intercepting two of Brees' passes. The SF special teams recorded two of the takeaways, Blake Costanzo recovering Courtney Roby's fumble on a kickoff, and Colin Jones coming up with the ball when Sproles coughed up a punt return.

"You're going to live or die in these games," Harbaugh said. "We lived. We move on, and we move on in spectacular fashion."

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.