SANTA CLARA -#8212; Still vying for playoff seeding in the final week of the regular season, the 49ers got the ball with 29 seconds left at Arizona, the Cardinals having just tied the game at 20-20. San Francisco went 47 yards in three crisp plays and finished with a game-winning 40-yard field goal by Phil Dawson as time expired.
At Green Bay last Sunday, the 49ers got the ball with 12:06 left, the Packers having just taken a 17-13 lead at frosty Lambeau Field. They went 58 yards in just four plays (helped by one Green Bay penalty), and Colin Kaepernick capped the possession with a 28-yard touchdown pass to tight end Vernon Davis, a crucial swing in what turned out to be another 23-20 victory for the Niners.
Both of those important drives ended in points for the 49ers. Easier to forget is how they started -#8212; with excellent kickoff returns by LaMichael James.
James caught the Arizona kickoff 5 yards deep in the end zone and brought it back to the San Francisco 36. He fielded the Packers kick at the goal line and returned it to the 37, where he was pushed out of bounds by kicker Mason Crosby. James gave the 49ers a couple of nudges when they were most needed.
"A very admirable job on Sunday," Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh enthused earlier this week, referring to James' work at Green Bay. "A blue-collar effort on his part. Catching the ball in the elements and the wind and the factors that were there. I thought he did a great job. ... He was rock solid."
The 49ers are looking for similar results this Sunday when they travel to Carolina to face the Panthers in an NFC divisional playoff game.
Early this season, the 49ers seemed less thrilled with James' abilities. He was inactive for six of his team's first eight games. James returned just one kickoff, and no punts, over the first half of the schedule. The man who finished third in the 2010 Heisman Trophy balloting as a sophomore at Oregon (and 10th as a junior) was buried on the Niners' depth chart.
"I'll be honest about it. You know it's tough," James said this week. "Nobody wants to sit on the sidelines, especially when they feel like they can go out there and compete with anybody. I always felt like it wasn't my athletic ability. It's probably just a numbers game. But obviously I want to be out there with my teammates and contributing to the team."
James made it clear he didn't hold a grudge against 49ers special teams coordinator Brad Seely. In fact, James thanked Seely for his support and called the coach "probably one of my favorite guys here."
During his dark hour, James also fell back on the advice of Gary Campbell, his running backs coach at Oregon and one of his professional mentors.
"When he confided in me and called me, sometimes he was a little bit down," Campbell told The Press Democrat. "I think it was just a matter of him having someone to, more or less, vent to a little bit and also to get a little bit of encouragement from. ... I just explained to him that as long as he was there and he was working hard, that he'd get an opportunity because he's too talented not to."
James' inactivity didn't sit well with a lot of 49ers fans. His Pac-12 fame, his diminutive stature (James is listed at 5-foot-9) and his accessibility via Twitter have made him highly popular in the Bay Area, not to mention Eugene, Ore.
To his credit, James never publicly complained about his lack of touches.
"I think he handled it the best way he could," said fellow 49ers special-teamer Anthony Dixon. "It's frustrating when you're not getting to do what you love to do, and that's play football, be out on the field all day. ... I feel him. I just try to shoot him some confidence myself."
Maybe confidence isn't the right word, because James has never lacked that trait. He did chafe, though, at being little more than a bystander for the 49ers' first eight games, especially as the return game failed to produce. Dixon, Perrish Cox, Kendall Hunter, Quinton Patton and Kyle Williams (along with James for one game) all took cracks at kickoff returns. Williams handled the punt returns. None of it worked particularly well. The 49ers waived Williams on Nov. 12.
After the 49ers' bye week, Seely installed James as the primary punt returner -#8212; coincidentally, against the Panthers in Week 10. James assumed kickoff-return duties two weeks after that.
He hasn't broken one for a touchdown yet, but his 10.9-yard average on punts during the regular season ranked 10th in the NFL, and his 26.8-yard average on kickoffs would have ranked eighth if he had enough returns to qualify.
Most scouts projected James as an NFL kick returner, though he did only a bit of that at Oregon. He was too valuable to the Ducks as a tailback. Campbell believes James can be a good NFL return man, but doesn't count him out as a running back.
"Now, he's not gonna be a downhill, 5-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust guy," Campbell said. "That's not his style. But I think you can use him in the backfield, because I think he's a tough kid. ... I sincerely believe that he can be a physical running back even though he's not that big in stature. So yes, I believe he can be productive. He just has to be with a team that knows how to use him."
James still sees himself as a running back, even while laboring on special teams.
"Even now, it's still tough," he said. "In college, I didn't really play special teams. It's kind of like my role now. It's just another way to get the ball. That's the way I've gotta look at it, even though I want to play running back. But I'm not complaining. We're winning games, I'm helping the team any way I can and I'm thankful for that."
The 49ers are happy to have James, though they don't believe they've seen his finest work. Most of his teammates on the kick-return teams are sure he's on the verge of taking one all the way.
"Oh, real close," Osgood said. "It's like splitting hairs. It should happen anytime now."
Considering the first game between these teams ended in a 10-9 victory for the Panthers, Sunday would be a most opportune time for James to get that done.
You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
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