Will the San Francisco 49ers Get Back to the Super Bowl Next Year?

The San Francisco 49ers were five yards short of doubling the largest comeback in Super Bowl history on Sunday, with three incomplete passes giving the Baltimore Ravens the championship instead. In only his tenth NFL start, Colin Kaepernick had his team within striking distance. We make the claim that CK & Co. aren't done contending for the NFL crown, and it would not be a surprise to see the Niners return to the big game next February in the Meadowlands.

San Francisco has one of the toughest schedules in all of the NFL for the 2013 season. The 49ers will have a pair of bouts with their NFC West division rival, the Seattle Seahawks (who were an Atlanta Falcons miscue away from playing the Niners in the NFC Championship). San Fran has five more games scheduled against teams that made the 2012 NFL Playoffs, but they're mostly games at home for the red and gold. The Niners will play the Falcons, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts on familiar turf. The road schedule features a bout with the Washington Redskins just outside the Nation's Capital. One other game to watch out for is the team's return to New Orleans, as the Saints could rebound with a big 2013 season while having head coach Sean Payton for the whole year after the Bountygate scandal this past campaign.

Some ancillary characters in the Niners' deep playoff run may not be back in the red jerseys again, but the core of the team is intact and young. We didn't hear much about Patrick Willis and the linebackers, but that's because the Ravens didn't try to run all that often in the big game. Colin Kaepernick (barring an injury) will have an entire continuous season of games under his belt. Although he struggled in the first half last night, he was able to pilot his offense to an explosive third quarter and almost win the game late in the fourth. If Kaepernick learns to spread the ball out more beyond Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis, the offense will have literally every possible weapon at its disposal with one of the most versatile quarterbacks in the league at the helm.

The 49ers have played in each of the past two NFC Championship Games, and were one fumble removed from making the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons. All of that came after San Fran struggled through some years of serious mediocrity, but a new coach revived one of the NFL's most storied franchises, and it doesn't appear Jim Harbaugh would be able to have an underachieving team in the near future with the creativity and guts he's shown.

I can't imagine another team being favored to win the NFC in the upcoming season. That doesn't mean the Niners get a free ticket to MetLife Stadium, but there's not much other teams in the conference can do to rebuke that, outside of having many lucky breaks go their way.