Congratulations to the San Francisco 49ers for making it all the way to the Super Bowl and congratulations to them for putting up a good fight in a losing effort to the Baltimore Ravens. Having handed out congratulations, I would like to point out a few things.

Only three Bay Area sports writers predicted a Ravens win — me, Grant Cohn, Ray Ratto. I’m not sure what that means but it means something.

I once heard John Madden say on KCBS — “There is no such thing as a good loss.” Madden knows more than I do, but I want to emphasize the Niners played valiantly — really valiantly — but they lost.

All season long, I have expressed my dissatisfaction with offensive coordinator Greg Roman, whom the Niners should fire forthwith. The loss to the Ravens had much to do with his miserable play calling in the first half. That seems to be his pattern. He gets all confused in the first half and mounts a resurgence in the second half. The Niners need an offensive coordinator who has his wits about him the entire game.

Especially at the end. The Niners had the ball at the Ravens’ 7 with plenty of time to score a TD and win the Super Bowl. Roman called a run by LaMichael James. What a joke. He had Frank Gore who was going absolutely nuts and he called a run for the runt. Two yards.

Let me pause a moment and say it’s unclear Roman called that play. It may be Geep Chryst who calls plays in the red zone. Who knows? I’ll say it was Roman. Let the Niners work it out among themselves. Roman, or whoever, then called three passes in a row, all incomplete. Niners lose.

Hey, Greg or Geep or whoever you are, just run Gore. Run him and you win.

Roman or whoever lost the game.

Colin Kaepernick played great after not playing so great. And I believe he will be a special quarterback. But he and the Niners broke new ground. He threw a Super-Bowl pick and neither Joe nor Steve ever did. Jim Harbaugh broke new ground. Neither Bill nor George lost a Super Bowl. Jim did.

And there’s one other thing and this is personal. And it’s about sports journalists, me being one of them. For the past two weeks, all I read was how the Niners were going to win, how Kaepernick is the new Joe Montana, how Jim Harbaugh is the new Bill Walsh. I object for professional reasons. No one should have written that fan stuff, that blatant rooting stuff, until the two teams played the game. 

Kaepernick, who has started 10 games, is not Joe Montana until he wins a Super Bowl. And Jim Harbaugh certainly is not Bill Walsh until he wins three.

Kaepernick can never be Joe Montana because Joe never lost a Super Bowl. And Harbaugh can never be Walsh for the same reason.