Don't let the score fool you -- Niners' defense is reason for big win

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- On one play, it looked as if Tom Brady's upper torso was forcibly bent in one direction, his lower in another. It was San Francisco's Aldon Smith with the hit. He would be one of many 49ers to hit Brady.

"All night, Brady," Smith said at one point to the quarterback, according to 49ers players.

Brady ignored him and on another play, Brady was grabbed and thrown to the ground, like a toddler tossing his Elmo doll into the crib. It happened so quickly that when Brady got up, he looked genuinely stunned, as in ... where in the hell did that guy come from?

"All night, Brady," Smith said a second time, 49ers players said.

No, it wasn't all night, just most of it, as a battered Brady led one of the great comebacks of the regular season, in one of the craziest games you'll ever see. If this 41-34 San Francisco win over New England was a Super Bowl preview then the Super Bowl will be one hell of a show.

The 49ers won because they were able to turn much of this game into a street fight against an offense that likes to ballroom dance.

Brady gave the 49ers credit but said, "We spotted them 28 points." He added: "First half was a terrible first half."

"A lot of bad football," said New England's Wes Welker.

The truth is, because of that 49ers' defense, the first half score could have been much worse for the Patriots. If the 49ers offense had taken advantage of the defensive stops a 17-3 first half 49ers lead could have easily been 30-3.

The game went like this: Outstanding 49ers defense for about three quarters. Brilliant Brady comeback late. Game-clinching touchdown pass by Colin Kaepernick and San Francisco defensive stand late in the game bringing it full circle.

San Francisco clinched a playoff spot with the victory and a Texans win against Minnesota next week means the Texans would clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The symbolism of a late San Francisco great defensive play could not be starker. It was 38-31 San Francisco with Brady driving. Defensive lineman Ray McDonald had his helmet ripped off by a Patriots lineman as he was sacking Brady. That play was followed by another 49ers sack and Patriots punt.

New England got the ball back with 2:55 left in the game, at its own four, and holding two timeouts. The 49ers forced a four and out. Game over.

"It felt like a playoff game," said 49ers tackle Joe Staley.

This will sound strange to say about a defense that gave up 34 points but this was a dominant San Francisco defensive performance. The 49ers rattled Brady early, then outlasted the inevitable comeback, as Brady picked his jaw and battered body off the turf, and played brilliantly in the fourth quarter.

This is a Patriots team that again scored 500 points in a season, doing so for the fourth time, a first in the history of football. The Patriots are also so good offensively that their comeback almost made history. The only team in league history to come back from 28 points and win in a regular season game was San Francisco in 1980 against New Orleans.

The 49ers created fumbles and havoc and most importantly, they seemed to create doubt inside the mind of Brady early on, and it was this that allowed San Francisco to build such a huge lead. Since Brady is a Hall of Famer, he'd recover, and the Patriots made a run at San Francisco, closing a 31-3 third quarter lead to 31-10 at the end of three, then 31-24 into the fourth, and tying the contest at 31 later. The defense was so outstanding early it built enough capital and Kaepernick made a nice play near the end to do his part throwing a second score to Michael Crabtree.

The 49ers, with the help of a steady, chilling rain, were able to turn this game into a brutish slugfest, especially early. The hitting by the 49ers was ferocious and beautiful. This swishy, nasty concoction of a contest -- including the mouthy and confusing explanations of Captain Biceps himself, referee Ed Hochuli -- is exactly what Jim Harbaugh wanted.

Harbaugh got it with four New England turnovers (matching the number the Patriots had total at home all year), three sacks of Brady, countless hits on him, and a Hochuli punt/fumble/challenge/ball position fiasco that slowed an already slow game to a crawl. Again, what the 49ers wanted.

This Brady stat-line says a great deal. He threw 65 times, completing 36 for 443 yards. But he tossed just one score, was picked off twice and finished with a Mark Sanchez-like 68.9 passer rating. Kaepernick threw four touchdowns and had a 107.7 rating.

Every quarterback hates to get hit but there's no question that when Brady does the entire Patriots offense changes. He looks to get rid of the ball faster and dumps off more. The entire New England offense looks discombobulated when Brady gets battered and when playing a fast, beasty defense like San Francisco's, things are only worse.

Both San Francisco lines played well. The 49ers' offensive line dominated New England's like it has rarely ever been, rushing for 142 yards in the first half. If Vince Wilfork was driven backwards any faster, he'd have time traveled.

The Patriots lost for the first time in December in 21 games. They were in the middle of a seven-game win streak. Then the 49ers came to town. More specifically, that defense did.

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Seahawks score 50 again, hammer Bills in Toronto

TORONTO -- It wasn't that long ago when Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was worried about overwhelming rookie quarterback Russell Wilson with too much information.

That's no longer a concern after Wilson and the surging Seahawks showed they're capable of piling up points north of the border, too.

A week after a 58-0 win at home against Arizona, Wilson ran for three touchdowns and threw for another in a 50-17 rout of the Bills in Buffalo's annual game in Toronto on Sunday.

"I'm just thrilled that he's been able to continue to grow," Carroll said. "For a time, we were just trying to get the offense going and not screw it up and make sure he could keep growing.

"Well, we're past that now."

Wilson was unstoppable during a first half in which he directed scoring drives on the Seahawks' first five possessions in building a 31-7 lead. It was a stretch in which he scored on 14-, 25- and 13-yard runs to become the NFL's first quarterback to run for three touchdowns in one half since Daunte Culpepper did it against Chicago on Sept. 3, 2000, according to STATS. And Wilson's 4-yard touchdown pass to Zach Miller was his 21st of the season, moving into a tie for second with Cam Newton among NFL rookies. Only Peyton Manning, with 26 in 1998, has more.

Then the Seahawks' opportunistic defense took over by forcing three consecutive turnovers to start the second half, including safety Earl Thomas scoring on 57-yard interception return.

"We're definitely clicking well," Wilson said, a third-round draft pick out of Wisconsin. "I've been on a couple of teams that have scored that many in college. But to do it in the National Football League, I mean that's really tough to do."

He's not kidding.

The Seahawks became the NFL's third team to score 50 points in consecutive weeks, joining the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants, who both did it in 1950, according to STATS. And the 108 combined points over two weeks matched the NFL's third-highest total. The New England Patriots also scored 108 points in consecutive games last month, according to STATS.

And it's happening with the Seahawks (9-5) mounting a playoff push. They've won for the fifth time in six games and still aren't out of the running to win the NFC West. They return home to host division-leading San Francisco in what has become a key showdown.

The Bills (5-9) find themselves in a familiar state of unraveling. They were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for a 13th season -- the NFL's longest active drought. And their performance further raises questions about coach Chan Gailey's job security.

"We played bad. We played poorly. And when you play poorly against a good football team you're going to look extremely bad," Gailey said. "You're angry at yourself because you didn't get the team ready to play at the level they needed to play."

The defense had a meltdown in giving up 45 or more points three times this season.

The offense sputtered for much of the first half before scoring 10 points in the final 1:10 cut the Seahawks' lead to 31-17.

And then things got ugly.

Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in turning the ball over on each of the Bills' first three possessions. The Seahawks capitalized by turning the three turnovers into 17 points.

"It went downhill from there fast," said Fitzpatrick, who was more upset about how the team's performance reflected on Gailey. "We played poorly and it reflects poorly on him. It eats me up."

Fitzpatrick went 21 of 38 for 217 yards with a 20-yard touchdown to Stevie Johnson. C.J. Spiller had 103 yards rushing and scored on a 14-yard run.

Wilson went 14 of 23 for 205 yards passing, and had 92 yards rushing.

It was an outing that came on an international stage on a day the NFL's two most talked about rookie quarterbacks were either hurt -- Washington's Robert Griffin III -- or lost -- Indianapolis' Andrew Luck.

"The kid is destined to be great," receiver Golden Tate said. "You didn't expect Russell Wilson to even be in the Rookie of the Year talk. The fact that he's responded and led this team this far, I think that says a lot."

Running back Marshawn Lynch had 113 yards rushing and scored on a 13-yard run in his first game against his former team. Defensive end Chris Clemons had 2 1/2 of Seattle's three sacks.

The Bills dropped to 1-4 in regular-season games at Toronto since the series began in 2008.

The Bills and Toronto-based Rogers Communications are closing in on a deal to extend the series, which expired after this game.

Torontonians might want to reconsider after this. With 5:20 left, fans in one end zone began chanting "Let's Go Blue Jays!"

At least they were entertained by both the Seahawks and at halftime by Korean pop star PSY performed his hit "Gangnam Style" at midfield.

The announced crowd of 40,770 was well below the downtown domed Rogers Centre's capacity of 54,000. And many who stuck around for the second half started rooting for the Seahawks.

That was fine for Carroll, who made his first trip to Toronto.

"This was exciting for us. We looked at it like a little bit of a bowl-game situation," Carroll said. "The 12th man north was there."

Notes

While there were numerous fans dressed in Bills and Seahawks colors, fans were spotted wearing a Steelers' Troy Polamalu jersey, and another wearing a Tom Brady No. 12 Patriots jersey. Spiller reached 1,000 yards rushing for the first time in his career, and needed only 154 carries to get there. That's the second-fewest behind only Chicago Bears Beattie Feathers, who reached 1,000 yards on 119 carries in 1934. The Seahawks wore their third uniforms -- "wolf grey" jerseys and pants with green numbers and names -- for the first time since introducing them this offseason.

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