The walk to the Edward Jones Dome from my downtown hotel exposed this California boy to the coldest whether weather he has experienced in his life. The temperature was in single-digits, and it was not real fun to be walking against the wind.
About two hours before kickoff, Frank Gore was out there on the field under the watchful eyes of strength and conditioning coach Duane Carlisle, head athletic trainer Jeff Ferguson and running backs coach Tony Nathan. Gore ran at about quarter-speed and he was grimacing a lot as he tested his sprained left ankle. It does not look good.
UPDATE: Gore will not play today. No big surprise. He hasn't practiced in two weeks, and he has said he needs that practice time to get ready. They gave it a shot during warmups today, but it was pretty obvious he's just not ready. Hopefully, he'll be able to get back on the field next week in the season finale against the Redskins and get his 22 yards for 1,000.
INACTIVES
49ers: Jamie Martin (third QB), Gore, CB Marcus Hudson, CB Reggie Smith, RB Thomas Clayton, LB Ahmad Brooks, C Cody Wallace and T Jacob Bender.
So those who wanted to see Clayton get some playing time will be disappointed. He is not even in uniform.
Rams: Brock Berlin (third QB), RB Antonio Pittman, CB Quincy Butler, S Eric Roach, C Cory Withrow, G Roy Schuening, T Anthony Davis and DT Antwon Burton.
DE Victor Adeyanju relaces Leonard Little at LDE; Adam Carriker replaces La'Roi Glover at DT; and Chris Draft replaces Will Witherspoon at MLB.
* * *
Barry Sims will start at RT for the 49ers, with Adam Snyder still hobbled with an ankle sprain.
* * *
This is Joe Starkey's final road game as the 49ers' play-by-play radio man. More than two hours before kickoff, Rams coach Jim Haslett paid a visit to the KNBR broadcast booth to wish Starkey well and offer his congratulations on a great career as the voice of the 49ers. Starkey was deeply touched by the classy move.
* * *
As I sit here watching the 49ers in pregame warmups, Delanie Walker is taking snaps at running back. Watch for that in today's game.
* * *
This is the smallest crowd I've ever seen for an NFL game -- regular- or exhibition season.
* * *
FIRST QUARTER
--Walt Harris with a huge hit on Bulger on a corner blitz to lead to an incomplete pass on the the first play of the game.
--ROMAN WITH AN INTERCEPTION! But, of course, it's coming back because of offsides on Aubrayo Franklin.
--After an eight-play drive, the Rams will punt. Rossum is back to return.
--Rossum runs up to catch it, but gets hammered by Larry Grant, the player the Rams signed off the 49ers' practice squad several weeks ago.
--The 49ers take over at the 21-yard line with 9:58 left in the quarter.
--Third and 8 . . . Niners have four wideouts on the field, as Morgan replaces Vernon Davis. Hill looks to get it down the field to Isaac Bruce, but Fakhir Brown breaks it up.
--Lee punts 57 yards to Looker, who makes Tarell Brown miss on his 14-yard return. Looker returns it to the 34. Rams take over with 8:24 left in the quarter.
--Steven Jackson with runs of 7 and 5 yards. Rams are going no huddle.
--Michael Lewis with a nice tackle of Klopfenstein. He's a yard shy of the first down. The Rams will go for it on fourth down.
--Jackson gets the yardage up the middle for a first down . . . and the crowd is going crazy. All 14 of them.
--Patrick Willis with a huge hit on Darby to stop him short of the first down.
--Rams going for it again on fourth and 3 from the 36 . . . Roman and Harris had good coverage in the end zone. The 49ers take over with 4:21 remaining in the quarter.
--Bruce gets his first reception. It goes for 21 yards, much to the delight of the 12 fans (two of them went to the concession stand).
--Deep for Vernon Davis on third down, but he can't locate it over his right shoulder. Incomplete. The 49ers will settle for a field goal.
--Joe Nedney with a 48-yard field goal. It's 49ERS 3, RAMS 0 with 2:00 left in the quarter.
--On this drive, the 49ers are going with McDonald at right end, Fields at nose tackle and Balmer at left end.
SECOND QUARTER
--Rams have the ball in 49ers' territory.
--Haralson drops into coverage and causes an incomplete pass in the flat to Jackson on third down.
--Josh Brown on for a 43-yard attempt. It's good. He squeezes it inside the left upright. 49ERS 3, RAMS 3 with 13:07 left in the half.
--Niners open this drive with three straight runs after throwing five of the six plays on last drive.
--Shaun Hill takes off running for 24 yards on a scramble. Ball is on the Rams' 35.
--Tight end screen to Vernon Davis, who gets it inside the 20 before he fumbles. The Rams receover at the 18. Let's see if the 49ers are going to challenge it during the TV commercial break.
--Niners don't challenge it. The Rams keep possession.
--Niners defense holds the Rams to a three-and-out.
--Donnie Jones shanks one, and the 49ers take over at their own 40 with 9:21 left in the half.
--Man, what a boring game.
--Shaun Hill throws a floater down the field for Davis. It's intercepted by Atogwe. That's not the Shaun Hill we know. Why did he make that throw? It was a horrible pass. That's the kind of pass Hill has been seen throwing in practice. Rams take over at their own 18
--Another Rams three-and-out.
--Niners take over at their own 37. Does anyone see the same spark the 49ers have shown in recent weeks? They look dead. Let's see if they show us something now.
--Hill is sacked and fumbled. Brown got past Foster to strip Hill. Foster recovers it.
--Niners pick up 6 on a pass to Foster on third-and-13. Lee is on to punt.
--This might be the worst game -- with absolutely no energy -- that I've ever seen.
--Steven Jackson gains 12 yards out of the "Wildcat" formation. The Rams have the ball at the 33-yard line at the two-minute warning. He has 71 yards on 16 carries.
--It's third and 7 after Michael Lewis breaks up a pass to Holt (he might have gotten there early).
--Michael Lewis gives it back. He did not see the pass that was being thrown over his head to Kennan Burton for a 30-yard touchdown. Lewis was absolutely lost on the play. The Rams made the 49ers pay for their blitz. It's RAMS 10, 49ERS 3 with 1:12 remaining in the half.
--Mike Singletary can't be happy about what he's seeing today. This has been a horrendous performance from his team. The Rams are dominating.
--Completion to Morgan to the 39. That sets up a third and 3 with :51 left in the half.
--Hill to Hill for 6 yards and a first down. The 49ers burn their second timeout.
--Shaun Hill with another horrendous pass. It's intercepted by Bartell. The Rams take over at the 32 with :37 left. This is the worst I've ever seen Hill in a game. (But it's pretty close to how he looks sometimes in practice.)
--The Rams move close to midfield on a screen play to Darby. There's 28 seconds remaining in the half.
--Darby with a nice move at the sideline on another dump-off pass. He gets down to the 23-yard line with :19 left. It was a 25-yard gain.
--Another pass to Darby for 3 yards. The Rams burn their final timeout with :10 remaining.
--Josh Brown attempts a 38-yard attempt. He makes it. RAMS 13, 49ERS 3 with :06 left.
--I would love to be in that 49ers' locker room at halftime to hear what Singletary is going to say to his thoroughly uninspired team.
--I missed practices Thursday and Friday this week because I was sick. But I'm told Shaun Hill had a good week of work. Hmmm . . . maybe he should practice poorly every week.
THIRD QUARTER
--Niners will receive the kickoff to open the second half.
--Third and 3 for the 49ers from their own 31 . . . three-man rush, Hill with time to throw but it's broken up by Witherspoon. That's a three-and-out.
--Lee with a 62-yard punt. Tarell Brown downs it at the 7.
--Lawson with a nice hit on Jackson for an incomplete pass. Lawson goes off the field on third and 12.
--Niners go with five DBs with Stickland on the field. Jackson on a draw play, gains 7.
--Jones with a monster punt -- a 66-yarder. Rossum returns it 15 yards to the 49ers' 37.
--Hill misfires for Bruce on a deep out.
--Hill is sacked on a blitz. Vernon Davis looked down, and Tinoisamoa came off the right side untouched.
--Hill is sacked again. The 49ers have ZERO answers for what the Rams are doing. Andy Lee is on to punt.
--Dominique Zeigler with a great tackle as the gunner on the return. Lee had a 55-yard punt. Rams take over at their own 27 with 10:34 left in the third.
--Marc Bulger with a reception from Looker out of the Wildcat. Bulger caught it for 6 yards at the sideline. Niners defensive coordinator Greg Manusky tapped Bulger on the head with his play-sheet after Bulger stepped out of bounds.
--Bulger sacked by Takeo Spikes off the edge to force a Rams punt. Neither team has recorded a first down yet in the second half.
--Niners take over at their own 28 after Strickland missed a block and Rossum got clobbered on the return.
--Hill throws behind Johnson, but he makes the grab near midfield. The Rams were holding on the penalty, but it's declined. It's a 21-yard gain.
--Third and 2 from the Rams' 40 . . . Foster is buried for no gain on a delay.
--Niners will go for it on fourth and 2 from the Rams' 40 . . . Hill scrambles for the first down.
--Chris Long beat up on Staley to get pressure on Hill, who has to throw it out of bounds.
--Another Hill interception.
--J.T. O'Sullivan is grabbing a football and he's warming up. Singletary goes over to O'Sullivan, and O'Sullivan sits down. Now Singletary is talking to Hill. It looks like they told O'Sullivan he was going in, and then Singletary changed his mind.
--While the 49ers' defense is on the field, Singletary is laying into the offensive unit on the bench. The Rams just picked up a first down at their own 47 with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter.
--Clements called for pass interference. Singletary came out on the field to argue the call. Looked like a good call to me. Rams at the SF 41.
--On third and 1, Jackson gets the call up the middle. It's close. It's a first down by the nose of the football. Rams have a first down at the SF 31.
--Bulger hits Holt down to the 16-yard line.
FOURTH QUARTER
--Michael Lewis stops Jackson for a 3-yard loss at the 8-yard line, bringing up a second-and-goal. But Lewis is injured on the play. Dashon Goldson enters the game for what might be the first time today.
--Now, it's third and goal from the 7 . . . Bulger tries to run but doesn't get far. Roderick Green brings him down.
--Josh Brown on for a 22-yard field goal. It's good. RAMS 16, 49ERS 3 with 11:36 remaining.
--Shaun Hill is jogging out as QB, but I'm sure he's on a short leash. The 49ers take over at the 21.
--St. Louis radio analyst Jim Hanifan says, after the 49ers run on first down, "This is not Mike Martz's offense."
--It's third and 4 . . . incomplete to Johnson. The 49ers are 1 for 8 on third downs. This is really, really pathetic against a really, really pathetic opponent.
--Rams take over at their own 38 after a fair catch.
--Rams pick up a first down. Jackson has 102 yards. They're just pounding the 49ers in all areas of this game.
--Jackson fumbles as he goes down. They rule that he's down by contact. Right before the next snap, Singletary throws the challenge flag. Remember, former NFL official Ron Blum has been in the 49ers' coaches booth. Referee Carl Cheffers will review it. This is a big call.
--The ruling stands, and the 49ers just lost a timeout.
--The defense holds. Jones' punt is a touchback.
--Niners take over at the 20 with 7:00 remaining. Hill is back at QB.
--Hill hits Bruce for his second catch of the game. It goes for 12 yards. The 49ers are not in hurry-up mode. Why not?
--Eleven-yard pass to Foster. Now the 49ers are going with the no-huddle offense.
--Third and 4 . . . Hill scrambles for 17 yards up the middle. Hill has three carries for 46 yards. He's their leading rusher.
--Bartell knocks the ball loose from Jason Hill in the end zone. That's where Shaun Hill's arm strength is an issue.
--It's third and 10 with 4:26 to go . . . penalty on the Rams for neutral-zone infraction. So now it's third and 5 . . . Hill burns a timeout with the clock stopped. That's not good.
--Niners are in the red zone after 15-yard pass to Johnson.
--Bruce with the grab at the 10. It's second and 6. That's Bruce's fourth catch of the game.
--Bruce again for a first down at the 3. He now has 999 receptions in his career.
--Isaac Bruce makes the TD catch. That's catch No. 1,000 of his career. It comes with 4:03 left in regulation, and the crowd is yelling, "Bruuuuuuuuce!" It's a standing ovation from the sparse crowd.
That makes the score RAMS 16, 49ERS 10.
--The Rams take over at the 20.
--Jackson takes up the middle for a couple yards out of the "Wildcat."
--At least we have a game now. It is simply amazing tht the 49ers have a chance to win this game. Jackson stopped for 1 yard.
--It's third and 6 . . . Niners bring five, and Clements makes a great play to break up the pass to Holt along the right sideline. Donnie Jones is on to punt.
--The punt goes out of bounds. The 49ers will take over at the SF 33 with 2:27 remaining. The 49ers have one timeout remaining.
--Hill gets taken down on a coverage sack. He should've gotten rid of the ball. Instead, he takes a 7-yard sack, and the clock ticks down to the two-minute warning. The 49ers need a touchdown to win. It'll be second and 17 from the 26.
--Second and 12 after another neutral-zone infraction. Bruce catches an 8-yard pass. Bruce moves past Tim Brown into No. 2 all time in yards receiving.
--Thirteen yards to Johnson. The 49ers are at the Rams' 48.
--Are you kidding me? Josh Morgan makes the TD grab, a 48-yarder. He essentially took it away from Jason Hill. That is unbelievable. What a great catch for the rookie. It's 49ERS 17, RAMS 16 with 1:22 remaining.
--Justin Smith sacks Bulger for a loss of 5. He destroyed Rams rookie John Greco.
--Holt on a crossing pattern, but Willis makes a great tackle to hold him to a 6-yard gain.
--It's fourth and 9 from the Rams' 38 with :32 remaining. All the Rams need is a field goal . . . Avery with the catch of a tipped pass from Harris. Did he get both feet down? I'm not sure. The play will be reviewed.
--Looks like he got both feet down. Josh Brown will need about 10 more yards to get into range to win this game. The Rams have the ball at the SF 49.
--Patrick Willis stops Jackson for a loss of 3 on a draw play. Rams call a timeout with :22 remaining.
--Tarell Brown with the game-ending interception. And that's the ballgame, folks.
NFL Network is has confirmed no Gore. Hopfully the team can own time of possesion today like last week against the Phins.
Matt, is Allen Rossum at full strength? I think his absence has really hurt the team. I know he is plasying, but is he 100%?
Matt - any impressions on Ahmad Brooks? How's he look at practice? I can't believe he can't get on the field even on ST's.
(Your spell check must be off: whether s/b weather)
What's the word on Snyder? If he can't go the team must keep Vernon or Bajema in to help Sims.
Q: Matt, is Allen Rossum at full strength? I think his absence has really hurt the team. I know he is plasying, but is he 100%?
My response: I don't know if he's at full strength, but he's healthy enough to be in action today for the first time since the Dallas game when he sustained an ankle sprain. --Matt M.
Q: any impressions on Ahmad Brooks? How's he look at practice?
My response: Brooks did not practice this week after straining his back while lifting weights on Tuesday. --Matt M.
hi matt
have a good game today
1 question
isnt this a very important game for the 49ers
im thinking that if we cannot impose our will on the lambs then next season will be much the same?
any views?
Matt, it was 10 below actual temperature with about a 25 mph wind here in Fargo yesterday...Forgive me for not sympathizing with your "cold" experience lol. If the 9ers/ Vikings game is in the winter next year, you'll have a new coldest ever story.
Also: any word on Morgan? I guess he's healthy, but is he going to get extended PT?
Q: Also: any word on Morgan? I guess he's healthy, but is he going to get extended PT?
My response: Morgan is one of five wide receivers who is active for today's game. Morgan is active, as is Zeigler. Because the 49ers have five receiver active, Clayton is not suiting up. That's why Delanie Walker was taking handoffs in pregame warmups. --Matt M.
Q: isnt this a very important game for the 49ers im thinking that if we cannot impose our will on the lambs then next season will be much the same? any views?
My response: There is no crowd here. It is laughable how few Rams fans decided to show up today. There will be no excuse for the 49ers losing this game. So, yes, I agree that this is important for them to pound the Rams. --Matt M.
Hey Matt, quick inquiry- did Zack Keasey make the trip to St Louis? I haven't seen him on the sideline thus far on Fox's coverage and can't find any current injury report anywhere online. Is he there and playing?
Q: did Zack Keasey make the trip to St Louis? I haven't seen him on the sideline thus far on Fox's coverage and can't find any current injury report anywhere online. Is he there and playing?
My response: Where have you been? Keasey tore his biceps tendon and has been on injured reserve since mid-October. --Matt M.
Willis and Haralson are our best defensive players. We need to extend Haralson now.
People here slammed me for saying that VD is not that good. So far today he's turned the wrong way and missed a TD pass with the ball going through his hands and then he fumbled. Face it he's got a lot of talent but he can't catch and when he does he's prone to funmle because he is so hard to take down he is easy to strip. $4 million a year for good blocking, dropped passes, fumbles and unrealized talent. I rather trade him get what we can and go with Walker to catch and Bajema to block. And don't give me the Pro Bowl garbage he made it on hype and doesn't even deserve to be in contention to go to Hawaii.
Sweet, two turnovers already. And Bruce was wide open underneath VD.
Vernon Davis aka. Gimme the ball sucks
Hi Matt, Following the game on NFL.com, the KNBR feed has been shut down in India. Would anyone know where I can listen on the net without paying NFL.com
Thanks
We're having a serious emotional letdown in this game after the big efforts of the last couple of games. The Rams look to be in this one most of the way.
Never a good idea to let a bad team have hope.
It'll be interesting to see if we can pull this one out today while NOT playing our best game. Good teams find ways to win against bad teams, even when they are not playing their best. Can we do that?
We will see how good Singletary is when the team comes out after the half.
Great coverage by Harris, Lewis & Roman. So glad they can stand around and watch the Rams score a TD. They didn't even try to defend that one. 3 guys right the to replace. I don't want to be so negative but some of the players on the 49ers give me no reason to be positive.
Time for Coach to pull down his pants again at halftime! Wow! What a drop off today against a very bad Ram team.
Can we stop saying that Shaun Hill is the QB of the future in SF now? He's being embarrassed by the Rams right now! Cassel in '09.....
SF left their Hearts in Miami
SF left their Hearts in Miami
half time analysis
horrible
next season...much the same as this without major surgery
matt over to you?
Martz better quit trying to show-off to his ex-home boys here. Why did he get away from the run so early?? Why the 7 step drops so early? Go with WHAT GOT YOU HERE....the running game, short passes & ball control offense.
I swear I think this guy looks for an excuse to air it all out full time. Then we get out of control, crazy, get out of character & start throwing picks all over the place.
VD, c'mon dude. Here's your daily screw up, got it out of the way now?? C'mon get your head out of your ***.
Wake up people!! That means you secondary!! Safeties! The Defense was playing solid & the O's not giving them any rest 'cause Martz is getting out of control again. Start running if only to give these guys a freakin' rest & give them some support.
Hey Matt, quick question. If the niners lose this game does it hurt Coach Sings chances of staying?
Any chance we see JTO in the 2nd half? The 9ers haven't scored a TD in 6 quarters and Hill looks bad right now.
Q: If the niners lose this game does it hurt Coach Sings chances of staying?
My response: You have to evaluate Singletary's entire time on the job. Of course it would hurt his chances. This kind of play is completely unacceptable. --Matt M.
I can't believe Roman's starting again after last week. UNBELIEVABLE.
The Rams are pumped up & have the momentum. We get the ball back. We need to wake up, settle down, & go back to being physical running the ball & go to short passes keeping the ball control. Keep that D off-balance.
Truthfully we lack Gore. He is a monster of a football player and that's the difference.
Can we sign the FOX robot to play for us?
Must be the Nolan curse
Damn if they would have played this game last week our D' might have gotten Bulger voted to the pro-bowl
Well, I think that last INT might have been Jason Hill's fault for stopping the route. But still not good either way.
WHY SO FLAT? -- Matt, I know you don't have definitive information, but speculate: Why are the Nines so flat? What happened to turn off their energy and passion?
Walsh used to say you can't just play on emotion... because you can't get up 16 or 19 times a year. Sometimes you have letdowns. Thats when you need flawless execution and good play calling to win those games anyway.
Our play calling is suspect to say the least, and our team's execution, with apologies to John McKay, might be a good idea. ;)
3 points??? Against the Lambs D??? WTF??? Disgraceful, lack of effort, pride and heart. I guess we are back to cleaning house and ridding the team of guys that don't go full out every play. Sing would rather play with 10...how about 5 or 6?
congratz bruce! listen to those cheers! although the niners have been playing a terrible game today, I wonder what happened during practice this week, the rams pass rush is giving the OL some dirty looks.
okay here we go again, need to punch it in!
Holy cow!
how did this happen
WHOA!!!! WB MORGAN!
whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
whhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
woooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
wooooww
Tough to win without Gore, especially on the road, being one dimensional. Seems like the team was overlooking the lowly Lambs. I'm glad they finally woke up to get the win!
Until today I was of the mind that the Niners shouldn't make an emotional decision with Singletary. Yeah, they'd won a few games, but if the Niners really wanted to get to the root of their problems, they needed to fire McCloughan (since they can't fire the Yorks), and put a football guy in the VP/GM slot (Holmgren, Billick, someone like that if they could get him), and let THAT person make a decision on the head coach. But after today, we need to keep Singletary. Who gives a crap who's calling the X's and O's on offense? They change the coordinator every year anyway. What matters, I think, is that Sing gets a lot out of a team that really isn't loaded with talented players. They could've EASILY folded today, but they kept grinding, and got a W. Yeah, the Rams suck, but what's looking like a 7-9 season now is impressive to me, ESPECIALLY after those final lifeless Nolan coached games... Ideally, we could get a new GM, a better talent evaluator that wants Singletary to stay and we could move on from there, but since there are no sure things in the NFL, you need to stay with a coach that shows he can win, that shows he can motivate a team with lackluster talent. Keep Sing!
Oh, and Matt... I'm a CA guy now living in Chicago. Wind chill is -30 today. You can get used to it with a little toughness.
Part of becoming a good team is learning how to win games when you aren't playing your best. Joe stole a lot of games in the eighties that the Niners didn't deserve to win. It was nice to see that again, for the first time in years.
Still think that Hill and Martz are an odd couple, and I still think Hill would be most successful in a WCO. Time will tell.
Too bad... we'll end up picking 9th instead of 8th in the 09 draft. But I'll take the W, even if it was ugly.
Sing is our man in 09. Holms is heading to the Cow Patties to play for Golem.
Well at least I'll be in a good mood as I fly back to SFO tonight. It was great to see the team come back like that and not get discouraged by all of the turnovers. On the other hand, they should have never been in a hole to the Rams. But nice rally.
Point well taken Grumpy. That's what I miss about Walsh, that perfect flawless execution. That's because what was harder for the players was PRACTICE. I remember Sapolo saying on a Niner special that they would go over the same play over & over & over until it was damn near perfect. I wish we had an OC or HC that would run things that way. I would rather have a handful of plays that we run excellently knowing & being able to run it with our eyes closed than trying to be oversophiscated with a lot of plays but not having them mastered.
About Hill I think it's obvious he's better in a WCO. When Hill is most successful is when Martz goes to that style.
BTW MERRY CHRISTMAS on this W!! Way to hang in there everybody. Once again Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce!! The pass pro came through in the end & so did the DEFENSE who played a lot of extra minutes today. This was great for this young team to go through & succeed with getting the win like this. Without a doubt they would have folded & fallen apart with Nolan in charge. Great small steady steps today. I can't wait for the off-season to fill in our many holes with more PLAYMAKERS & having this same motivation & belief in each other & the HC. NINERS!
Mr. 16280,
Any follow up comments? Or did you turn the game off before it was over...
I wonder though if you just have a few plays that you run, with today's athletes, the overall level of defenses have gotten so much better, that why WCO isn't as effective as it once was. I do agree though that Hill plays better when he gets the ball out of his hand, but it really is scary when he's throwing ahead of the receiver breaks, like that Hill-Hill interception. No doubt this was a terrible game for him in terms of stats, but I think he matured in that he had to put the team on his back, finding bruuuuuce, finding johnson, and just running like heck for the win. I hope in the offseason though, he can find a way to put a little more zip on his ball so he doesn't keep throwing those rainbows that are just asking to get picked. I overslept and only caught the last half of the game, looks like I lucked out =).
Fickle fans tend to do that...
Remember how Joe Montana used to lead comeback after comeback? Y'all ever consider the fact that the only precondition to a comeback is.... Your team must be behind, as you approach the finish? And why is your team behind? Because of Bill Walsh's poor play calling; Jerry Rice's dropped passes; Ronnie Lott's missed coverages, etc. Kinda fun to think about...
I didn't mean literally knowing a handful of plays only. As a starting point yes especially when we first started to learn Martz's new Offense. Don't get too overly complex until you've MASTERED the basic plays/formations. Once you know these like the back of your hand then you build on that. What stands out to me is last year when we heard the old OC was moving on to the next plays of the gameplan even when we made mistakes & didn't execute the previous ones properly during practice. Or this year with Martz feeding too much of his playbook to QB's & players in the beginning (I thought) instead of building it up steadily. I'm guessing the WCO might seem less effective because so many teams use it. The guys that are good are the creative HC/OC's who add their own tweaks to it. The WCO has tons of plays. There's only 1 Master in BW as we all know. Since he was the creator he had the ability to keep evolving & add new plays to it. I wonder if his disciples are doing that. The good ones probably are but to the less creative limited OC's they're just using what's already there which allows Defenses to play against it easier because they see it so much. That's what I'm thinking.
It's easy to see how Hill was so easily relegated to 2nd or 3rd string during training camp. His mechanics are awful. BUT he sure does have something about him that makes good things happen. That was a dreadful game for the first 55 minutes.
I watched this game at a sports bar and I will admit I left early (must have been before the Bruce TD possesion). I just didn't see how the offense could score twice given how they had performed all day.
Oh well, all wins can't be pretty and I'm happy to see the team kept plugging away instead of packing it up. The defense played well considering the pass rush was non-existent yet again.
Let's close out the season with a win over the Skins (I promise I'll watch the whole game)!
Good comeback win. It was obvious that the Ram defense was not putting much emphesis on the run with Gore out and that contributed to S. Hill's woeful 3 1/2 quarters. Much respect to 'Sing' for staying with Hill. I believe that he gained an even higher admiration from HIS TEAM today. I can't see the York's bringing in another coach at this point because it would prove to be more disruptive than positive since 'Sing' has earned the players' trust and respect. With the addition of a few key players next year the Niners should be in the hunt for the division and more importantly, finally transforming the team to a culture of winning which is our true identity. As Al Michael' said during a Monday night game featuring the Niners back in the 90'; "The 49ers are the sports equivalent of the Roman Empire." After years of futility, I believe the 2009 season will see the rise of the Roman Empire again. Go Niners!
Does this offense look like the old (early) West Coast offence. He is not Joe, but the short passes and the "take what they give you" mind set is there.
Thanks.