49ers 45, Packers 31
Colin Kaepernick passed for 263 yards and a pair of touchdowns and rushed for 181 yards and two scores in his first career playoff game to lead host San Francisco into the NFC Championship game for the second straight season.
Michael Crabtree made nine catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns and Frank Gore rushed for 119 yards and a score for the 49ers, who will face the winner of Sunday’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks in the conference title game.
Aaron Rodgers went 26-for-39 for 257 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for Green Bay, which struggled throughout on defense as San Francisco ended up with 579 total yards.
Kaepernick gave the 49ers the lead with back-to-back touchdown passes to Crabtree in the second quarter and put them up to stay in the third, when he faked a handoff and took it himself up the right side for a 56-yard scoring run and a 31-24 lead with 7:07 left in the period. The San Francisco defense allowed the Packers a 76-yard field goal drive early in the third quarter but little else over the rest of the second half.
Kaepernick threw an interception that was returned 52 yards for a touchdown by Sam Shields on the fourth play of the game but made few mistakes the rest of the way. The 25-year-old took the 49ers right back down the field after the interception and ended up taking it himself around the left end for a 20-yard score.
After taking the lead on Kaepernick’s long run, San Francisco marched down the field on its next two drives, eating up 93 yards on each and a total of 12:57. Gore finished off the first with a 2-yard run up the middle and Anthony Dixon’s 2-yard touchdown put the game away with 3:34 left.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Kaepernick finished 17-of-31 passing and averaged 11.3 yards on 16 carries. … San Francisco’s 579 yards were the most in a playoff game in franchise history. … 49ers LT Joe Staley suffered an arm injury in the first quarter but stayed in the game. … The Packers dropped to 4-2 against San Francisco in the playoffs since 1990.