GREEN BAY, Wis. — The bitterly cold forecast for Sunday's N.F.C. wild-card game at Lambeau Field concerned San Francisco 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh. So twice, on Saturday and again before kickoff, he asked his quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, to reconsider his plan to play in short sleeves and without gloves.
Both times, the Wisconsin-born Kaepernick declined.
"I'm a little hardheaded at times," Kaepernick said. "I played in cold-weather games before. I feel it's more mental than anything."
By nightfall, Kaepernick proved his mastery of the elements in San Francisco's 23-20 victory over Green Bay.
Maneuvering on a brown field with bare dirt between the hash marks, Kaepernick led the 49ers back from a 17-13 deficit with 12 minutes 6 seconds to play. On the final drive, Kaepernick improvised a key 11-yard run after a pump fake, setting up Phil Dawson's 33-yard field goal as time expired.
It may not have been record cold for an N.F.L. game, but the conditions were brutal — 5 degrees at kickoff, with a wind chill of minus 10. The winning kick sent 49ers players running from the sidelines to celebrate, shedding their long scarlet coats.
"Didn't think we were going to pull it out, did you?" Harbaugh asked reporters at his postgame news conference. Harbaugh added that he had no doubts. "It's not our first time," he said. "We've got a lot of tough guys who generated a lot of toughness."
It was San Francisco's fourth consecutive victory over Green Bay in the last two seasons, the second in the playoffs. The 49ers advance to face the host Carolina Panthers in a divisional-round game next Sunday.
Kaepernick completed 16 of 30 passes for 227 yards and a touchdown and ran for 98 yards.
"We did not get it done as far as keeping the quarterback in the pocket," Packers Coach Mike McCarthy said.
The runs, Harbaugh said, were largely unscripted.
"There wasn't a whole lot called out there today," Harbaugh said. "Our receivers were getting grabbed. I think Colin saw that and just took matters into his own hands. He gets around the edge so fast. If it was a yard, it was 20. It was unbelievable. Just clutch."
Though conditions were marginally better than for the N.F.C. championship game played here between the Packers and the Giants in January 2008, which began with a temperature of minus 1 (minus 23 with the wind chill), they were certainly not optimal. It grew colder after the sun set, but a crowd announced at 77,525 watched each team score 10 points in a wild fourth quarter that included three lead changes and a tie.
Green Bay, which lost cornerback Sam Shields and linebacker Mike Neal to knee injuries in the first quarter, went ahead by 17-13 after a strange sequence. San Francisco's Ray McDonald appeared to have quarterback Aaron Rodgers trapped on fourth down, but Rodgers slapped away McDonald's hand, scampered free and fired a 26-yard completion to wideout Randall Cobb at the 49ers' 4-yard line.
A Packer appeared to grab linebacker Ahmad Brooks's jersey on the play, but no penalty was called.
A week earlier, Rodgers and Cobb had hooked up for the winning score on a fourth down in Chicago, giving the Packers the N.F.C. North title.
When fullback John Kuhn scored from the 1 two plays later, he could not complete a Lambeau Leap, the Packers' celebratory jump into the end-zone stands. Appearing embarrassed, Kuhn stood flat-footed while tapping more than a dozen fan hands raised his way.
"The first play, that led to the touchdown, that was spectacular," Harbaugh said. "But our quarterback had two, and some more."
The 49ers came right back, scoring five plays later on a 28-yard pass that Kaepernick threaded between defenders to tight end Vernon Davis.
"Kap dropped back, and he just took a chance," Davis said. "He trusts me."
Rodgers then drove the Packers to the 49ers' 9, and two short runs and an incompletion left Green Bay with a fourth-and-goal from the 6. Mason Crosby kicked a 24-yard field goal to tie the score, 20-20, with 5:06 to play.
Early on the final drive, Kaepernick found Michael Crabtree for 11- and 17-yard gains, the longer pass on a third-and-10 from the 49ers' 31. Crabtree would finish with eight catches for 125 yards. Kaepernick looked for Crabtree again on a third down from the Packers' 38, but he pulled the ball down and dashed left, gaining 11 yards before running out of bounds at the Green Bay 27 with 1:07 to go.
"I tried to go to him one-on-one, but it didn't look good to me, so I tried to make something happen," Kaepernick said.
Hoping to give Dawson an easier kick, Harbaugh called four consecutive runs by Frank Gore, pushing the ball to the 15, and Harbaugh called his last timeout with three seconds to play.
"Every yard was valuable there," Harbaugh said. "That's why we kept trying to knock it closer."
Packers cornerback Davon House jumped offside from the left and nearly blocked the kick, which sailed between his outstretched arms. The 49ers, naturally, declined the penalty.
"I saw the guy off the left wing get what I thought was a jump prior to the snap," Dawson said. "I hurried up a little bit, knowing either I'd make it or get a retry 5 yards closer."
EXTRA POINTS
Packers fans hardly needed additional reasons to dislike the 49ers. But San Francisco right tackle Anthony Davis provided one via Twitter by disparaging Appleton, Wis., the small city about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay where the 49ers stayed Saturday night. In a Twitter message about the former professional wrestler Ric Flair's speech to the team Saturday night, Davis posted a photo and praised Flair for coming to Appleton, which Davis described with a vulgarity. Criticism of his description prompted Davis, in another message, to challenge Appleton supporters to defend their position.
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