>> al: it began eight years ago. a great run for "the office." this will be the farewell season and a final season debut this thursday. "the office" right here on nbc. crabtree either injured or contract holdout or whatever through the years. he really has now emerged. on this particular drive, i mean, this is one for the books here. >> cris: yeah. every time they had to have a play on third down, they went right to crabtree. and here is a guy who -- he had a good season last year, but he's had so many foot injuries and they are saying now that, for the first time, he is healthy and he is able to practice and just making a huge difference. one of the great hands catchers in the game right now. he has come up big in the clutch so far in this one. so has alex smith. >> al: tenth overall pick. second and three. lions down to their last time-out.

plus the clock stops at the two-minute warning. gore is the running back. the pass is caught by davis! he's inside the 10 and he'll cut it back and touchdown! vernon davis with his second touchdown of the night on a 23-yard pass from smith. what a drive that was. clutch, clutch, clutch.3 f1 davis now with five catches on the night. twice into the end zone.

13-play drive and took over six minutes. lions had to use two of their time-outs and they are now down by 15 with 3:04 left in the fourth. >> cris: vernon davis right here. justin durant see the run action go away and try to go down and get it and then go, uh-oh. comes out the other side. i tell you. alex smith, that is what championship quarterbacks do. you know, sometimes the hardest thing in the world you're trying to run out the clock and you know that the other team is going to be playing the run and you're going to have to complete balls on third down and long and he consistently beat the detroit lions in the clutch. this is the next step forward in my mind for alex smith. >> al: he made huge strides last year. everybody said the defense is great and they ran the ball

great so he was a game manager. almost back a badge of dishonor to be called a gauge manager. >> cris: but jim harbaugh gave him a lot of credit. he said the first time i sat down and met with alex smith, he said i want to win and i want to win here. he said for all of the abuse that this guy has taken in this area from the media and the fans and even his own teammates and coaches over the years, it would have been really easy for him to say you know what? forget all this. i'm going somewhere and i'll show you guys. he said it's not in his dna. he wanted to win right here and prove that he could take this thing to a championship. tonight, he shows you a lot. >> al: here's logan downing it in the end zone. lions will take it at the 20 with 3:04. looking at the numbers tonight. stafford throwing a lot of short stuff. 23 attempts in 133 yards and

then alex smith, some short stuff and a couple of deep balls, sacked three times, but a masterful drive and crabtree was just terrific on it as well. >> cris: both first overall picks in the draft in their respective years. but for matthew stafford, they could never establish the run well enough to get the two safeties out in the middle of the field to give calvin johnson a chance. 49ers stayed in this defense all night. >> al: stafford is going to step up and gets sacked. he runs into smith. aldon smith is there after they book-ended him. he hit a step forward and aldon smith with 14 sacks last year as a rookie, he gets one here. >> cris: look at the distance. i'll race usain bolden if you give me a 30-yard head start. >> al: you will? >> cris: close?

>> al: in what? a 50-yard race? >> cris: yeah. >> al: second and 15. incomplete. over the middle. intended for kevin smith. third and a mile upcoming. >> cris: this is what this 49ers defense does to you. they frustrate you. their ability to play the run. it all ties together. their ability to play the run basically in one-on-one blocking situations. without the extra guy down in the box that you hear about is the difference. it allows them to play guys deep the entire game and not give up big plays. the packers got a taste of it last week. >> al: it's caught by bell. joique bell picks up a first down and a lot more! joique bell will take the ball into san francisco territory where he is forced out by brown. so the 49ers and the crowd ready to begin a celebration on a third and 17 and the next thing you know, bell is free for 47 yards!

>> cris:hey are not going to rush many people here at all. just three coming up. now eight people back there, somebody on this great tackling defense is going to be able to make a play and none of them do. so that is the first big catch and run the lions have come up with tonight. >> al: now at the 37 yard line. stafford will throw to the outside and that will be caught there by brandon pettigrew who has been pretty solid tonight and tackled by willis. the clock stops at 2:14. >> cris: when you look at this from a big picture standpoint for jim schwartz and his team, somebody else has to establish themselves as the big threat, you know? there's no way that you can allow everybody to may the kind of defense that calvin johnson is seeing, unless you can establish somebody else catching the ball. so i think game plan wise, next week, and in the future, they have got to really make sure that they are getting the ball to other people to give calvin johnson a chance. >> referee: time-out, san francisco.

it is a 30-second time-out. >> al: time-out, 49ers. >> cris: first, we saw them stop the run early on. no problems at all with that. you can just see these are all green bay packers, it was the same way. this is almost like watching the game tape of what i saw from green bay last week. they took away the deep throws. dared them to run the football. if you want to try and play catch and run football, go ahead. >> al: so second down and five. 2:14 to play.

in the fourth. stafford. under pressure. looks away. going deep into the end zone and it's incomplete with flags all over the place. intended for titus young. >> al: offensive pass interference. >> al: that was dashon goldson back there with them. >> cris: not even close. titus young gave him a big shove in the back. >> al: and caught by everybody. >> referee: pass interference, number 16 on the offense. remains second down. >> cris: good job by stafford scrambling around but watch titus young just give him a little push. goldson gave him a little push back. >> al: the push was on brown. shot taken by stafford. aldon smith coming in there.

2:06. it's second down and 15. >> cris: harbaugh is trying to say it's third down down here. >> al: to the outside. and that is young and young will come up short of the first down, at the two-minute warning. so when we come back, it's going to be third down and four with 1:58 left in san francisco. the 49ers up 27-12. .

the mission is clear. >> stop. looks. >> brady out of the shotgun. >> afc powers return. >> gostkowski! >> on "sunday night football." >> al: that is a week from tonight. coming up after the game on the wendy's postgame report. michele tafoya down on the field and bobby, tony and mike florio will break it boun and we look ahead to next week in baltimore. 1:58. third and four. obviously, in a four-down situation here for stafford. detroit down by 15. they rush four. the pass is not caught at the 27 yard line. brandon pettigrew covered by patrick willis and the lions will have a fourth down and

four. >> cris: we talked how figure it was to have middle linebackers to play one-on-one coverage against good receiving tight ends by brandon pettigrew and leave him on the field and impossible to run against them. a dynamic duo inside for the 49ers. >> al: last gasp for the lions. they keep it alive with johnson breaking a tackle and then tag the ball down to the 9 yard line to set up a first and goal. got away from whitner. the lions with first and goal at the 9 yard line and they will spend their final finalout. >> cris: they are like a start of a double play for matthew stafford from the shortstop position. first of all, you get calvin johnson coming across here and that was a deadly pick across the middle and should have been called as a penalty. not picked up there.

watch stafford here. pure side-armer out the side door. this is a big open-field tackle down the field, though, by culliver to force the lions to come back and snap it again. they don't miss many open-field tackles, do they? >> al: just whlinehan going oves with stafford. first and goal. no time-outs. >> cris: i would be looking for somebody other than calvin johnson on this throw. you know the kind of attention he is going to get. someone else is going to get one-on-one coverage and you have to be able to take advantage. >> referee: time-out, san francisco. 30-second time-out.

>> al: they want to look over their defense after seeing what detroit was showing as their look. johnson in the slot. what a job harbaugh has done. trying to recaptured the glory days from the '80s and '90s were the glory days here. george seifert took over for bill walsh. the most recent decade they were okay and then they fell off the shelf for about seven years. and harbaugh comes over and gets them to the nfc championship game last year and going back to the top of the show and a lot of the power poles you see today. you rank them 1 through 32. the niners are either on the top or in the top three. >> cris: you don't go to green bay and win on opening day and turn around and beat another playoff team and not be ranked somewhcl