Bay Area Buzz 11/24: Colin Kaepernick Returns To Monday Night; Shayne Skov Gets Away With One; Ty Montgomery Shines

Nov 17, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) against the New Orleans Saints during the second half of a game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints defeated the 49ers 23-20. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Kaepernick Back On Monday night

"This is not quite a 49ers full-circle experience, though the prime-time circumstances and emotions are more than a little familiar.This is not at all how Colin Kaepernick’s career was supposed to go, but here he is, in some ways very close to where he started.Yes, Kaepernick begins this nationally-televised game in Washington as a fuzzy quarterbacking question mark, just as he did almost exactly a year ago at Candlestick Park in another Monday night appearance.And knowing the way Kaepernick motivates himself and how personally he takes all of it, this is probably–again–one of the biggest moments of his career.“I didn’t know if I was going to play,” Kaepernick recalled recently, referring to the uncertainty about Alex Smith’s status before the 49ers lined up against Chicago on Nov. 19 of last year.“I was just trying to prepare myself like I was going to.”Of course, Kaepernick started the game and was fantastic immediately, completing eight of nine passes in the first quarter, including two laser strikes deep down field in the 49ers’ eventual 32-7 victory.And by the end of it, Kaepernick had transformed himself from intriguing enigma to the probable future of the entire franchise.With that momentum, Kaepernick helped take the 49ers to the Super Bowl and within five yards of winning it, the 49ers traded Smith, and then Kaepernick was onto magazine covers, commercial shoots and theoretically bigger and better football achievements.But 53 weeks after that earth-shaking debut, Kaepernick has, for various reasons, drifted back into enigmatic territory–and the 49ers offense has bogged down with him.And now to another Monday night, with all the doubts and wondering back again."

–Tim Kawakami, San Jose Mercury News

Shayne Skov Got Away With Targeting

"One thing you can say about me is I’m consistent in my dislike for inconsistency.Targeting. I dread it more and more every week.The latest “inconsistency” came Saturday in the second quarter of the Cal-Stanford game. Here was the situation:Cal had the ball, third-and-9 at the Bears’ 38-yard line with 13:46 left in the second quarter. Stanford led 28-10. Cal quarterback Jared Goff attempted a pass to Richard Rodgers that was incomplete. Goff got hit by Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov after the pass and, to me, it looked like targeting.College football officiating put out targeting and crown-of-the-helmet guidelines to help the officials decide what is and what isn’t a foul. And on this play, I think Skov committed three of the four key indicators as they are defined as a foul:"

–Mike Pereira, FOXSports.com

Ty Montgomery Has A Big Game in Big Game

"David Shaw, Stanford’s football coach, played wide receiver at the school during the 1990s. He scored five touchdowns in four seasons.Ty Montgomery played wide receiver for Stanford on Saturday against Cal. He also scored five touchdowns. In the first half.“I just couldn’t believe this was happening,” Montgomery said. “I never know what the game is going to be like.”Sounds as if his coach did know.“If he gets one-on-one coverage,” Shaw said of Montgomery, “we’re going to give him opportunities.”Montgomery had opportunities. Man, did he have opportunities.And man, did Cal ever make certain that when opportunities knocked for Montgomery, he opened the door and found a wide-open path to the end zone lined with flowers, perfume-spraying servants and a hosted bar.All right, that’s an exaggeration. But the truth was nearly as ridiculous. On four of Montgomery’s five touchdowns, he was not touched. He was not the sole reason Stanford routed Cal 63-13. But he did account for 30 of those Cardinal points.How’d it happen? Cal coach Sonny Dykes pinned down the precise nature of the Bears’ problem with Montgomery.“We had a hard time covering him,” Dykes said."

–Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News