Harbaughs lead Ravens, 49ers into Super Bowl matchup

ATLANTA – The clutch quarterback. The genius coach. The big-play defense.

The San Francisco 49ers are ready to start a new dynasty with a familiar formula.

Next stop, the Big Easy.

Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore led San Francisco to a record comeback in the NFC championship game Sunday, overcoming an early 17-0 deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24 and send the 49ers to their first Super Bowl since 1995.

Gore scored a pair of touchdowns, including the winner with 8:23 remaining for San Francisco’s first lead of the day, and the 49ers defense made it stand up. A fourth-down stop at the 10-yard line denied Atlanta another stirring comeback after blowing a big lead.

“Everybody does a little,” 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said, “and it adds up to be a lot.”

San Francisco (13-4-1) moves on to face Baltimore at New Orleans in two weeks, looking to join Pittsburgh as the only franchises with six Super Bowl titles. It’ll be a brother-vs.-brother matchup, too, since John Harbaugh coaches the Ravens.

Joe Montana led the 49ers to four Super Bowl wins and Steve Young took them to No. 5. It’s up to Kaepernick and Co. to get No. 6.

“He just competes like a maniac all the time,” said Harbaugh, whose much-debated decision to bench Alex Smith at midseason now looks like the best move of the year.

Harbaugh was hoppin’ mad when a disputed call went against the 49ers on Atlanta’s potential winning drive. He leaped in the air, screamed at the officials and had to be restrained by his staff from charging the field.

No complaints when it was over.

“We rose up there at the end,” Harbaugh said.

His second-year quarterback shredded the Falcons through the air by completing 16 of 21 for 233 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown to Vernon Davis, and had them so worried about his running ability out of the spread option that Gore and LaMichael James had plenty of room.

Gore scored a pair of touchdowns, and Davis scored the first TD for the 49ers on a 15-yard run.

“I take my hat off to Atlanta. They played hard. They’ve got a great team,” Gore said. “But we fought, man. We fought and we deserved it.”

The 49ers pulled off the biggest comeback victory in an NFC championship game, according to STATS. The previous NFC record was 13 points – Atlanta’s victory over Minnesota in the 1999 title game, which sent the Falcons to what remains the only Super Bowl in franchise history.

The AFC championship game record is 18 points, when Indianapolis rallied past New England in 2007.

Harbaugh is hardly cool and collected like the 49ers’ first Super Bowl-winning coach, Bill Walsh, but has pulled off a similar turnaround in San Francisco. The 49ers had eight straight years without a winning record before their new coach arrived from Stanford in 2011.

He immediately led San Francisco to the cusp of the Super Bowl, losing to the eventual champion New York Giants in overtime in last year’s NFC title game.

This time, the 49ers were the ones winning on the road to set up another celebration in the city by the bay. They’ll try to follow the lead of the baseball Giants, who won the World Series in October.

Kaepernick guided San Francisco on a pair of second-half scoring drives that wiped out Atlanta’s 24-14 lead at the break. Gore scored on a 5-yard run early in the third quarter, then sprinted in from 9 yards out for the winning score with 8:23 remaining.

On both of Gore’s TDs, the Falcons had to worry about Kaepernick running it in himself. They barely even touched the running back on either play, and James scored pretty much the same way.

“I kind of figured that coming in and they showed that on film, so I assumed Frank and LaMichael were going to have a big day,” Kaepernick said. “Frank ran hard today, and I can’t say enough about him.”

The top-seeded Falcons (14-4), in what appeared to be the final game for Hall of Famer-to-be Tony Gonzalez, tried to pull off another season-extending drive. But, unlike the week before against Seattle, they needed a touchdown this time.

They came up 10 yards short.

On fourth down, Matt Ryan attempted a pass over the middle to Roddy White that would have been enough to keep the drive going. But linebacker NaVorro Bowman stuck a hand in to knock it away with 1:13 remaining.

The 49ers ran off all but the final 6 seconds, not nearly enough time for Ryan to pull off his greatest comeback yet.

“We didn’t make the plays when we had the opportunity,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “There were five or six plays, like in most hard-fought games, that make a difference. There were ebbs and flows and changes in momentum, and they made more plays than we did.”

San Francisco	0	14	7	7	—	28
Atlanta	10	14	0	0	—	24

Atl—Jones 46 pass from Ryan (Bryant kick)

Atl—FG Bryant 35

Atl—Jones 20 pass from Ryan (Bryant kick)

SF—James 15 run (Akers kick)

SF—V.Davis 4 pass from Kaepernick (Akers kick)

Atl—Gonzalez 10 pass from Ryan (Bryant kick)

SF—Gore 5 run (Akers kick)

SF—Gore 9 run (Akers kick)

A—70,863.

	SF	Atl
First downs	21	27
Total Net Yards	373	477
Rushes-yards	29-149	23-81
Passing	224	396
Punt Returns	1-20	3-6
Kickoff Returns	3-64	0-0
Interceptions Ret.	1-6	0-0
Comp-Att-Int	16-21-0	30-42-1
Sacked-Yrds Lost	1-9	1-0
Punts	3-50.3	2-45.0
Fumbles-Lost	1-1	1-1
Penalties-Yards	4-24	2-30
Time of Poss.	27:56	32:04

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—San Francisco, Gore 21-90, James 5-34, Kaepernick 2-21, Dixon 1-4. Atlanta, Rodgers 10-32, Turner 8-30, Snelling 2-12, Cox 1-4, Ryan 2-3.

PASSING—San Francisco, Kaepernick 16-21-0-233. Atlanta, Ryan 30-42-1-396.

RECEIVING—San Francisco, Crabtree 6-57, V.Davis 5-106, Moss 3-46, Walker 1-20, James 1-4. Atlanta, Jones 11-182, Gonzalez 8-78, White 7-100, Douglas 3-31, Snelling 1-5.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—San Francisco, Akers 38 (WL).