San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks had his best season of his career in 2013 and has continued his outstanding play during the playoffs. On Sunday he did prove that he is not Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.
The Steelers safety has been known to anticipate snap counts and get into the backfield just as the ball get snap to make big plays. This is where Brooks comes into play as he made an attempt to make a play on Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton on a third and goal situation with the Panther ahead 7-6. The 49ers linebacker anticipated the snap count jumped over the center and there was one problem the ball hadn’t even come close to being snapped.
Newton barely got touch and attempted to draw a penalty by flopping fortunately the referees didn’t buy the acting job. The penalty didn’t cost San Francisco as linebacker Navorro Bowman stopped Mike Tolbert short of the goal line and forcing a field goal attempt. Ron Rivera made the decision not to attempt to go for the touchdown on fourth down as earlier in the second quarter allowed Newton to go for it and came up short resulting in a turnover on downs and Brooks was the one who stopped the Panthers on that play. After a delay of game penalty Graham Gano kicked a 24-yard field goal to give the Panthers a 10-6 lead.
The linebacker finished the game with six tackles including five solo, 2.5 sacks and one tackle for loss.