Former San Francisco 49ers tight end Delanie Walker still recalls being just one win away from a Super Bowl title before a crucial decision changed everything. During his last Super Bowl appearance in 2013, the 49ers had a chance to take the lead inside the red zone with less than two minutes remaining. But instead of running the ball on three plays, the Niners chose to pass and ultimately fell to the Baltimore Ravens. While that defeat still haunts the faithful, Walker recently shared that former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh later admitted he was at fault.

“How I saw it, he wanted Colin Kaepernick to get MVP of the Super Bowl,” Delanie Walker said in the recent episode of Bussin’ With The Boys podcast. “That was the mindset that Harbaugh had when he thought about throwing the ball 3 times, because if you do go back and look at our run game, they couldn’t stop Frank Gore. After the game, Jim Harbaugh comes in (to the locker room) and says, ‘That’s on me.’ He probably realized we should have run the ball at that moment.”

After trailing 28-6, the 49ers battled back despite an abrupt 34-minute delay in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII and erased a 22-point deficit. With 4:19 remaining and trailing 34-29, the Niners then marched down the field and set up what could have been a game-winning drive. With a sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy on the line, Harbaugh’s play-calling proved pivotal.

With under two minutes remaining, the Niners attempted three passes from the Baltimore 5-yard line. Then, with 1:46 on the clock, Harbaugh called for his quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, to throw on fourth-and-5 to wide receiver Michael Crabtree in the corner of the end zone. At that time, the Ravens, led by Jim’s brother John Harbaugh, prevented the completion and handed a 34-31 defeat to the Niners. 

Harbaugh’s confidence wasn’t entirely misplaced; Kaepernick was having a breakout season with a 98.3 passer rating and had already gashed the Ravens for 302 passing yards and a touchdown that night. Had he thrown the game-winning touchdown, Kaepernick likely would have earned Super Bowl MVP honors. He had already posted 1,814 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and three interceptions during the 2012 season. From that perspective, Jim Harbaugh’s confidence in his quarterback was understandable.

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However, Delanie Walker suggested that Jim Harbaugh could have turned to running back Frank Gore on that final drive. Gore had finished the 2012 season with 1,214 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. He also added 110 yards on 19 carries with one touchdown in the Super Bowl itself as the Ravens struggled to contain him throughout the night. Still, Harbaugh chose not to run the ball with Gore even once from the Ravens’ 5-yard line, and that call still haunted him when he took over the head coaching job in Los Angeles.

“I wish we had run the ball, would have taken a crack with Frank Gore [with] a couple carries down there,” Jim Harbaugh said in an interview back in 2024. “Woulda, coulda, shoulda. It’s the kind of stuff that haunts you, because you walk off the field and go ‘There will be other days,’ and you realize that might have been the only day. And to have a chance to have another day, that’s all you can ask for is a chance.”

Back in 2015, Pete Carroll faced a similar regret as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Trailing by four against the New England Patriots with under a minute left, the Seahawks stood at the Patriots’ 5-yard line. After Seattle’s RB Marshawn Lynch powered the ball to the one-yard line, most expected another run from him. Instead, Carroll decided on a pass call, only for Seattle’s quarterback, Russell Wilson, to throw an interception to Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler. 

The Seahawks lost that Super Bowl 28-24. And while the heartbreak from that defeat might’ve faded for the Seahawks’ fans following their team’s latest Super Bowl LX win over the Patriots, Super Bowl XLVII loss is still difficult to let go for the Niners in part because it also involved a controversial no-call from officials.

Did controversial officiating also play a part in the 49ers’ Super Bowl XLVII loss?

With 1:46 remaining in Super Bowl XLVII, Colin Kaepernick fired a fourth-down pass toward Michael Crabtree, and a non-call from the refs immediately drew scrutiny. During that play, the replay showed contact from Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith, though officials did not call pass interference. Broadcast cameras then showed Jim Harbaugh pleading for a defensive holding call that never came. Following the non-call, which cost the 49ers a chance to lift the Lombardi Trophy, Harbaugh went after the officiating.

“Yes, there’s no question in my mind that there was pass interference and then a hold [against] Crabtree on the last one… felt like he was grabbed and held,” Jim Harbaugh said in the presser after Super Bowl XLVII.

However, some argue that Kaepernick overthrew the pass, making it difficult to justify a pass interference call. So, Crabtree himself refused to blame the referees.

“It is what it is, man,” Crabtree said in an interview after the Super Bowl loss. “It was the last play, and I’m not going to blame the refs. And it came down to the last play, and it didn’t happen. (If) somebody grabs me, you always expect the call, but you can’t whine to the referee. It is what it is. You have to just take it like a man, take the ill.”

Harbaugh later left the 49ers after the 2014 season and returned to the NFL in 2024 with the Chargers, where he has already guided the franchise to consecutive playoff appearances.