EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Colin Kaepernick was joined in the visiting press conference room at MetLife Stadium with a number of his relatives.
His mother, father, brother and sister-in-law were in the room to congratulate the San Francisco 49ers quarterback after his team's 16-10, road victory over the New York Giants.
"Am I getting evaluated?" the quarterback said as he looked over at his family members.
"Yeah," one of the Kaepernick's said in response.
Colin's full day of work will be analyzed. It's only right since he's one of 32 starting signal-callers in the National Football League.
So while Kaepernick's stat line read 15-of-29 passing for 193 yards, one touchdown pass and an 84.4 passer rating, the 49ers quarterback was more concerned with the only statistic that really matters: A win.
"We're trying to take full advantage of the opportunities that we have," Kaepernick said on a day in which he completed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree to put San Francisco in position to win its sixth game of the year. "We know our backs are against the wall, so we have to play every week like it's our last game."
The 49ers are certainly in must-win mode. With the Seattle Seahawks losing on the road to the Kansas City Chiefs, the NFC West rivals are now tied for second place with two head-to-head matchups in the next four weeks.
Select images from the San Francisco 49ers clash with the New York Giants in the Meadowlands.
For now, Kaepernick can take pride in knowing his defense recorded five interceptions against Eli Manning on Sunday.
"Our defense played great," Kaepernick said. "That's the biggest thing we took from this game. They continue to play great and put us in position to win."
Kaepernick, himself, helped San Francisco score the only touchdown of the second half when he fired a short post pattern to Crabtree in Giants territory.
"He made a great play catching it, breaking a couple tackles and taking it all the way," Kaepernick said.
Still, the 49ers know they have to finish off more scoring drives. That's especially the case in the fourth quarter, when Kaepernick, who has thrown a touchdown pass in 17 consecutive games, has not thrown a fourth-quarter score all season.
"You want to score as many points as you can," he said. "but at the end of the day, we got a win and that's all that matters."
Kaepernick said the fourth-quarter issues are fixable.
The team will surely need it to be corrected with NFC West battles on the way.
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