49ers will stick with Akers as kicker
San Francisco kicker David Akers will keep his job for the Super Bowl despite missing another field goal attempt in the NFC championship game on Sunday.
"The decision's been made," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday.
Akers missed a 38-yard try that bounced off the left upright in the third quarter against Atlanta that would have tied the score at 24. The 49ers pulled out the 28-24 win with a touchdown and a late-game defensive stand to advance to the Super Bowl against the Baltimore Ravens on Feb. 3.
Akers has missed 14 of his last 38 field goal attempts, but he did kick a 36-yarder in the NFC divisional playoff win over Green Bay the previous week.
Concerns about Akers' kicking before the playoffs prompted the 49ers to bring in free-agent Billy Cundiff for a tryout, but Akers held off the challenge.
Last February, Akers underwent surgery for a sports hernia after a stellar 2011 season in which he kicked an NFL-record 44 field goals and set the league mark for points by a kicker with 166.
