Going into the NFC championship game, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Kyle Williams had returned just five punts in his NFL career. He was compelled into duty on Sunday when the team's regular return man, Ted Ginn Jr., was sidelined with a knee injury. The inexperience showed and may have cost the Niners a chance at the Super Bowl.As most of his teammates quickly put on their civilian clothes Sunday night, Kyle Williams sat at his locker and slowly peeled off the remnants of his 49ers uniform. One teammate stopped to offer words of consolation. Williams removed his skull cap and rubbed his eyes.
Moments earlier, he calmly faced a scrum of cameras and notepads. He seemed more stoic than emotional, more stunned than anything else after his mistakes - one muffed punt, one overtime fumble - sent the 49ers spinning to a 20-17 overtime loss to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
"It was one of those situations that ended up for the worst," Williams said. "It's hard to be the last guy to have the ball, to have it end that way."
The game ended when New York's Lawrence Tynes lofted a 31-yard field goal through the uprights, prompting Giants players to swarm the field in exultation. The game had turned, twice, when Williams dropped back to return a punt and failed to secure the ball.
The job belonged to him Sunday night only because Ted Ginn Jr. missed the game with a knee injury. Williams, 23, is not exactly new to returning punts - he did so 74 times during a four-year career at Arizona State - but he returned only two punts this season, both Dec. 24 at Seattle.
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