Instant Classic

The 49ers were one win away from the Super Bowl last year, a highly-improbable outcome for a team that had gone 6-10 the year before, had a new head coach, and got a late start on everything due to the player lockout.

And this year, with hopes running high, the team switched quarterbacks in mid-season. That's not a typical move for an upward-trending team hoping to break through to elite status.

Well, we don't yet know how it will all turn out, but the win in Foxboro over the Patriots puts a huge stamp of approval on the 49ers' trendline. Colin Kaepernick wasn't flawless, but he was damned good. Playing on the same stage as one of the game's all-time greats, Kaepernick measured up favorably against Tom Brady.

John Madden likes to say that a team with a two-touchdown lead in the NFL is pretty safe--unless the other team has one of a very small handful of quarterbacks capable of putting up points in a hurry. Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Peyton Manning...it's not a very long list.  And sure enough, even a four-touchdown lead wasn't safe in this one. Brady whipped the Patriots back from the dead, and the 49ers were on the spot.

This was your basic high-stakes test. If the 49ers had ended up losing this thing, the reasonable conclusion would have been: "Well, they're better, but they're not Patriots-level better." But the Niners didn't blink. LaMichael James' 62-yard kick return and Michael Crabtree's explosive move after a reception on the very next play put the 49ers back on top.

That still left plenty of time for Brady and Company to respond, but a fatigued 49ers defense managed to stiffen. Despite his 443 yards of passing, Tom Brady walked out of the cold, wet weather as a loser.

If the 49ers renaissance builds into a Super Bowl appearance, this game will be an important moment. It's one thing to beat the Dolphins at Candlestick. It's another to beat the limping Saints in New Orleans. But it's really something to beat Brady and the Patriots on their home turf.

Now that the deed is done, the 49ers have exactly zero time to savor the win. They need to win their final two games to guarantee the second seed in the NFC heading into the playoffs (meaning a first-round bye). But make no mistake: whether they're thinking about what they did in Foxboro or not, the Niners are a different team today. They went to the dragon's lair and came out alive. You don't forget things like that.