He pushed off only in order to get free, when the defender wrapped his arms around him. And, it looked like 'oh he'd never catch that' because HE WAS BEING HELD. He would have been an extra couple steps and would definitely be in a place to catch it. Also, the defender was playing him, not the ball.
And SF got to the SuperBowl only because of a missed call against them in the NFC championship game. As I said, they are a fact of life. If SF was really the better team, it would not have come down to one call.