The Green Bay Packers were more prepared for Colin Kaepernick on Sunday as a runner than they were in the playoffs last year, but the end result was the same. The San Francisco 49ers won the game and Kaepernick shredded Green Bay through the air, throwing for 412 yards and three touchdowns.
The Packers’ 34-28 loss also included a boneheaded play from Clay Matthews, who started a brawl when he dove at Kaepernick and tackled him as he was clearly out of bounds. After the game, Kaepernick was asked about that play and Matthews’ comments from earlier in the week about trying to get his hits in on the quarterback.
“I’m not worried about what people are saying,” Kaepernick said, via the Niners official website. “If intimidation is your game plan, I hope you have a better one.”
The play also led to a crucial mistake by the referees, who allowed San Francisco to replay 3rd down after offsetting penalties to both teams. Kaepernick then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin on the next play. With the offsetting penalties after the play was over, it should have been 4th down. Matthews admitted it was a dumb play.
“First off, it wasn’t a very smart play,” he said. “I had already committed to hitting the quarterback. I guess I should have figured he was going to step out of bounds, but it was nothing personal. I went up to him later and was joking around with him. Not a very smart play.”
While there was no excuse for the officials to blow the call, Matthews realizes the confusion would have never occurred if he didn’t hit Kaepernick late. Green Bay clearly doesn’t intimidate Kaep. The Packers could very well have to go through San Francisco if they want to reach the Super Bowl this year, so they had better figure out a way to stop the second-year phenom by then.
