Flattened

Saints rally, give up late TD as 49ers move on in playoffs

SAN FRANCISCO — For a team whose calling card this season was a ferocious and stingy defense, the San Francisco 49ers’ offense didn’t do a bad job in the final four minutes of Saturday’s NFC Divisional Playoff game with the New Orleans Saints.

In fact, when the game and a spot in the NFC Championship game was on the line, the 49ers’ offense did an awfully good impersonation of the Saints’ record-shattering, quick-strike offense.

The Niners put up two touchdowns after the Saints grabbed their first lead of the day with 4:02 remaining, traveling 80 and 85 yards in a total of 13 plays to secure a 36-32 victory before 69,732 fans in Candlestick Park.

The touchdowns, a 28-yard run by quarterback Alex Smith and a 14-yard pass from Smith to tight end Vernon Davis, came after the Saints shocked the crowd on two Drew Brees touchdown passes — a 44-yarder to Darren Sproles and a 66-yard strike to Jimmy Graham, the latter with 1:37 left.

“It was kind of an unbelievable game, the way it went back and forth,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “Obviously, it’s a disappointing game to lose and we recognize the finality of it.

“To go through the momentum swings that we had, and we had some opportunities,” he said. “Again, we credit San Francisco for making one more play than us to win a tough game.”

That one play came from the Saints’ 14 with nine seconds left when Smith dropped back and fired a pass over the middle to Davis, who made big plays on both drives to help sink the Saints’ defense late.

After holding the 49ers to 192 yards on their first 13 possessions, it got away from the Saints’ defense. The Niners had 215 yards alone on their final three series that produced David Akers’ 37-yard field goal and the two TDs.

Davis was particularly lethal to the Saints as he caught a 37-yard pass over free safety Malcolm Jenkins to set up Smith’s touchdown, then had a 47-yard grab — again with Jenkins on the coverage — before he beat strong safety Roman Harper for the game-winner.

“He made some good catches,” Jenkins said after Davis, a six-year veteran, burned the Saints for 180 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. “He made plays early in the game and late, too, that put his team in position to win a game.

“They just made more plays than we did at the end of the game,” he said.

That was the theme for the Saints (14-4), who watched the 49ers dance away with the victory. The Niners (14-3) will play next week against the winner of Sunday’s other divisional playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.

The Saints thought they might be the team to get to the NFC title game for the third time in six seasons, but it wasn’t to be as they committed a season-high five turnovers which led to 13 of the 49ers’ points.

Four of the giveaways, two fumbles and two interceptions, came in the first half as the 49ers took a 17-14 halftime lead.

“We were fortunate, honestly,” Payton said. “At halftime, one of the things I mentioned to the team was that, for as many turnovers as we had, we were down three (points) and felt pretty good that it wasn’t more than that.”

The Saints actually trailed 17-0 early in the second quarter when Davis caught a 49-yard touchdown pass after Jenkins and Harper collided while trying to make a tackle, Michael Crabtree caught a 4-yard scoring pass from Smith and Akers booted a 25-yard field goal.

After Brees threw touchdown passes of 14 yards to Graham and a 25-yarder to Marques Colston, the Saints were back in it even though Akers added a 41-yard field goal in the third quarter after Sproles fumbled the ball on a punt return.

Things really got crazy, however, after John Kasay hit a 48-yard field goal to make it 20-17 early in the final period.

As far as the Saints were concerned, the damage had already been done even though they had a chance at the end.

“At the end of the day, this game wasn’t about the last four possessions,” said Saints right tackle Zach Strief. “We turned the ball over five times. You can’t do it in a playoff game and expect to still be in it.”

But they were, especially with Brees at the controls.

“We had a good surge at the end, but the thing that killed us were the turnovers,” said Sproles. “That is what got us deep in the hole like that. We just can’t have that.”

“We had some big plays in the passing game,” said Brees, who was 40-of-63 for 462 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. “But three turnovers (on offense), obviously, is way too many.”