San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was asked about his history against the New Orleans Saints. He is 2-1 against New Orleans as a starter and will be the starting quarterback for the 49ers when the team faces the Saints on Sunday at Levi's Stadium. All three previous games were in New Orleans. This will be the first time Kaepernick starts against the Saints at home.
"You know, I think you have to take each week differently and treat it as its own entity," Kaepernick said on Tuesday following practice. "Knowing some of the things that they've done in the past can always help you and one of the things that we've always said playing the Saints is you're going to have to put up points. They have a very talented offense, very explosive offense. So, we're going to have to be able to match up."
One of the 49ers' most memorable games in recent history was a home playoff victory against the Saints in 2011. Alex Smith was the starting quarterback for that matchup and Kaepernick was a rookie who was relegated to observing from the sideline. The 49ers ended up winning that game in dramatic fashion thanks to some last minute heroics. The playoff victory ended up winning an ESPY for the best game of the year.
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Kaepernick was asked about his memories of that game. "A lot of back and forth," Kaepernick answered. "That's something that, even at that point, watching the game was we would score, they would score. We would score, they would score. So, it's something that we have to be ready to put up points this week."
The 49ers are coming off of their bye week and Kaepernick said that he used the time to recover. "Get your body back," he said. "Get it feeling good, feeling loose, ready to go for the next game."
| Kaepernick vs New Orleans Saints | ||||||||
| Season | Result | Comp | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Rate |
| 2012 | W, 31-21 | 16 | 25 | 64.0 | 231 | 1 | 1 | 90.6 |
| 2013 | L, 20-23 | 17 | 31 | 54.8 | 127 | 2 | 1 | 72.9 |
| 2014 | W, 27-24 | 14 | 32 | 43.8 | 210 | 1 | 0 | 76.3 |
| Total | 47 | 88 | 53.4 | 568 | 4 | 2 | 79.2 | |
Early in his career, many were predicting Kaepernick and quarterbacks like him to change the position forever. He was predicted to have a bright and successful future. Since then, his stock has plummeted to the point where he could not even win the starting job on the 49ers to kick off the season. Some of that had to do with injuries, but no one was predicting that Kaepernick would rejuvenate his career.
Why the downfall from his success early on? "There's a lot of different factors that can play into that," Kaepernick said. "Whether it's injuries, coaching changes, there's a lot of different things that can effect that and it's something that we have to be able to build upon as a team to make sure that we're going out, we're performing well and doing everything we can to get wins."
The 49ers are looking for some success against the Saints and hope to snap their six-game losing streak – the franchise's first since 2008.
