San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick went 16-of-30 and threw for 227 yards in Sunday’s 23-20 Wild Card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers. 125 of those yards and 8 of those completions went to Michael Crabtree.
After missing the first 11 games of the 2013 regular season due to offseason surgery for a torn Achilles tendon he suffered last spring, Crabtree has steadily been working his way back. He seemingly makes progress every week and picked a heck of a time to have his best game thus far.
Crabtree also eclipsed the 100-yard mark two weeks ago when San Francisco defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-24 in the assumed Candlestick Park finale.
He made some great catches in Sunday’s game, especially considering the subzero temperatures and the fact that he had Green Bay defenders draped all over him most of the time.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh went out on a limb – he has actually stated this in the past – and proclaimed Crabtree to have the best hands in the business. In fact, Harbaugh went a little further, via NBCSports.com:
"“People talk about cold weather, and it being tough to catch balls,” Harbaugh said. “But the greatest catcher of all time, Michael Crabtree, catches everything. It’s unbelievable. In the northern snow lands, down to the tropic sunny scenes, he’s catching the football. Where ever they throw a football, he’ll be catching it.”"
Sure Harbaugh was a bit excited – as he often is – after the wild finish at Lambeau Field, but I think a former 49ers’ receiver, Jerry Rice- cough, might have something to say about this. Still, you can’t blame a coach for being proud of, and talking up his own guys, right?
“If my life depended on it, somebody had to catch a ball, I’d enlist Michael Crabtree to do it,” Harbaugh said.