On Sunday, December 2, 2012, the San Francisco 49ers led the St. Louis Rams 10-2 with 8:47 left in the fourth quarter and had not lost in five games. They did not win. The Rams scored 11 points in the last 3:11 of regulation, rookie kicker Greg Zuerlein made a 53-yard field goal on the final play to tie it at 13, and his 54-yarder with 26 seconds left in overtime made it 16-13. It was the second meeting of the two teams in three weeks, after a 24-24 tie in San Francisco.
A defensive game for three quarters
The tie had 48 points. This game had nine through the first three quarters. San Francisco, with Colin Kaepernick making his third straight start since Alex Smith’s concussion, scored on its second possession: an 11-play, 59-yard drive that Frank Gore finished with a 1-yard run late in the first quarter. After that, the 49ers did not score again until the fourth quarter.
St. Louis had chances. Late in the first half Zuerlein tried a 58-yard field goal and missed wide right. In the third quarter the Rams drove from their own 22 to the San Francisco 4, faced fourth-and-1, and Sam Bradford’s pass to Austin Pettis fell incomplete. Coach Jeff Fisher’s decision to go for it instead of kicking is the kind of choice our fourth-down guide breaks down.
The Rams’ first points came on a San Francisco mistake. Kaepernick, pressured deep in his own territory, threw the ball away from inside his end zone, and because the pass did not cross the line of scrimmage, the officials flagged him for intentional grounding. That is a safety, and it made the score 7-2 with 4:36 left in the third quarter. Our intentional grounding guide explains the rule.
The fourth quarter
San Francisco answered with its longest drive of the day. After a 55-yard punt by Johnny Hekker went out of bounds at the 49ers’ 1-yard line, the 49ers drove 94 yards over more than eight minutes. They stalled at the Rams’ 5-yard line on fourth-and-5, and David Akers kicked a 23-yard field goal to make it 10-2 with 8:47 left.
| Time | Play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter, 3:01 | Frank Gore runs 1 yard for a touchdown; Akers kicks the extra point | 49ers 7, Rams 0 |
| 3rd quarter, 4:36 | Kaepernick is flagged for intentional grounding in his own end zone, a safety | 49ers 7, Rams 2 |
| 4th quarter, 8:47 | David Akers kicks a 23-yard field goal | 49ers 10, Rams 2 |
| 4th quarter, 3:11 | Janoris Jenkins returns a Kaepernick fumble 2 yards for a touchdown | 49ers 10, Rams 8 |
| 4th quarter, 3:04 | Bradford passes to Lance Kendricks for the two-point conversion | 49ers 10, Rams 10 |
| 4th quarter, 1:38 | Akers kicks a 33-yard field goal | 49ers 13, Rams 10 |
| 4th quarter, 0:02 | Greg Zuerlein kicks a 53-yard field goal | 49ers 13, Rams 13 |
| Overtime, 0:30 | Zuerlein kicks a 54-yard field goal | Rams 16, 49ers 13 |
Then the game turned. On third-and-3 from the 49ers’ 17-yard line, Kaepernick tried to pitch the ball to Ted Ginn Jr. The pitch was off target, and Jenkins, a rookie cornerback, fell on it at the 2-yard line and went into the end zone. The replay official reviewed the backward-pass ruling, and the call stood. It was the third defensive touchdown in two weeks for Jenkins. A false start moved the Rams back five yards before the conversion, and Bradford threw to Kendricks, who beat linebacker Patrick Willis, to tie it at 10. Our backward pass guide covers pitches and what happens when one hits the ground, and the Try guide covers the two-point rules.
Kaepernick took the blame afterward. “I gave up those points that were on the scoreboard for the Rams so that’s 100 percent my fault,” he said. Coach Jim Harbaugh said the coaching staff was responsible for calling the pitch.
The 49ers did not fold. On their next possession Kaepernick hit Michael Crabtree for 16 yards and then ran 50 yards on a scramble to the Rams’ 14-yard line. A holding penalty wiped out a Gore run and the drive stalled at the 15, and Akers kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 13-10 lead with 1:38 left. His kickoff went into the end zone, and the Rams started at their own 20 with 1:34 to play.
St. Louis went 45 yards in seven plays. Bradford ran for 14 yards and 11 more, and a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on San Francisco moved the ball into the 49ers’ half of the field. The Rams used their last timeout with two seconds left, and Zuerlein, who had missed four of his previous seven field goals, drove a 53-yarder through the uprights as time expired. The score was tied at 13.
Two misses and a fourth-and-1 in overtime
Overtime in 2012 lasted 15 minutes. Each team punted on its first possession, and once both teams had the ball, the next score would end the game. On the Rams’ second possession, Hekker punted 14 yards out of bounds on fourth-and-1 from his own 36, which gave the 49ers the ball at midfield. They drove to the Rams’ 33, and Akers, who had set an NFL record with 44 field goals the year before, missed a 51-yarder wide right with about four minutes left.
The Rams then drove from their own 41 to the San Francisco 37, where they faced fourth-and-1 with 30 seconds left on the clock at the snap. Fisher chose the kick, and Zuerlein’s 54-yarder was good with 26 seconds remaining. “I was just trying to make the kick and not think about anything,” Zuerlein said. “I was pretty relieved, you know.”
Akers said afterward that he had missed it “by 3-4 inches to the right” and that he felt horrible for letting his teammates down. It was the second time in three weeks that he missed an overtime kick against the Rams: he had missed a 41-yarder in the tie on November 11.
By the numbers
| 49ers | Rams | |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterback | Colin Kaepernick, 21 of 32, 208 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions | Sam Bradford, 26 of 39, 221 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions |
| Rushing leader | Frank Gore, 23 carries, 58 yards | Steven Jackson, 21 carries, 48 yards |
| Receiving leader | Michael Crabtree, 7 catches, 101 yards | Chris Givens, 11 catches, 92 yards |
| Quarterback runs | Kaepernick, 9 carries, 84 yards | Bradford, 3 carries, 31 yards |
| Sacks taken | 3 | 2 |
| Field goals | Akers 2 of 3 (23, 33; missed 51) | Zuerlein 2 of 3 (53, 54; missed 58) |
Neither team could run the ball. Gore and Jackson averaged 2.5 and 2.3 yards per carry, and the biggest play on the ground was Kaepernick’s 50-yard scramble. Zuerlein finished his rookie season 23 of 31 on field goals, and seven of 13 from 50 yards or more. His 53 and 54 were the sixth and seventh of those he made, and he missed two more from that range, from 57 and 51 yards, in the last month of the season.
Fisher had bristled during the week at the idea that the tie was a wakeup call for San Francisco. “I think the perception was, well, we might have caught them on a bad day,” he said after the game. After the win, defensive end Chris Long called it “gratifying.” The Rams wore retro uniforms from their 1999 championship team that day, marking the franchise’s 75th anniversary.
What came next
The Rams were 5-6-1 and had won two in a row after an 0-4-1 stretch. They won at Buffalo 15-12 the next week, then lost 36-22 to Minnesota, won 28-13 at Tampa Bay and lost 20-13 at Seattle, and finished 7-8-1 in Fisher’s first season.
The 49ers were 8-3-1 after the loss. Harbaugh said Kaepernick would start the next week against Miami, and he did. San Francisco beat the Dolphins 27-13 and the Patriots 41-34, lost 42-13 at Seattle, beat Arizona 27-13 and finished 11-4-1 as NFC West champions. Kaepernick started every game from then on, beat Green Bay 45-31 and Atlanta 28-24 in the playoffs, and lost Super Bowl XLVII to Baltimore 34-31.
The two teams meet again in 2026. The 49ers beat the Rams 27-7 in Los Angeles in Week 1 and are 6-1 through Week 8, while the Rams are 4-4. They play again in Week 14, on Sunday, December 13, in San Francisco.
The scoring plays, drive notes and player numbers above come from the official play-by-play and game data, with quotes from postgame interviews. Standings are through games of November 2, 2026.
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