Matt, how come you always travel on Mondays? It seems like you'd wanna get out of there on Sunday, no? I know you have deadlines to meet, but can't you just finish the stories and fly out Sunday night?

yea kind of annoying when coaches make players come in for practice on holidays. Like the pistons on thanksgiving, c'mon coach you're oging to make the players come in for an hour? don't waste their time.

So for these mustache mondays, what makes them different from mustache tuesdays, etc?

Matt, did Nolan do X-Mas practice? How about Erickson, Mooch, or some of the others?

Q: Matt, did Nolan do X-Mas practice? How about Erickson, Mooch, or some of the others?

My response: I've never been around a coach who gave off Thanksgiving or Christmas when it fell on a work day. Wednesday and Thursday are the big practice days, and Singletary has given his players and staff Thursday off. The 49ers will make up for it by having their typical Thursday practice on Friday. Then, they'll have a light practice on Saturday to do the work that's usually done on Friday. --Matt M.

Hi Matt,
I have a couple odd questions that I thought you might know the answers to. When Coach Singletary says that he watches the game on the flight home... do they watch the TV feed that we all watch or their own game film? Do they make the entire team/entire flight watch it on the overhead screen or on a laptop? I have this odd mental picture of them fiddling with an old super 8 movie projector in the planes aisle while Nedny and Lee hold up a sheet to show the film on. Just curious.

Q: Matt, how come you always travel on Mondays? It seems like you'd wanna get out of there on Sunday, no? I know you have deadlines to meet, but can't you just finish the stories and fly out Sunday night?

My response: When the game ends, that's when most of my work begins (although now with the blog stuff, I'm not exactly sitting around with nothing to do before and during the games). If a game ends at 4, I probably don't get back to the press box until 5:15 or 5:30 after spending time conducting interviews. By the time I finish all my post-game writing, it's usually pushing 8 p.m. So about the earliest I could get on a flight would be 10 p.m. There aren't many (or any) flights at that late hour. So instead, I generally take one of the first flights out of town on Mondays. --Matt M.

Matt M. - Could you please help explain this, b/c I haven't heard anyone talk about this and it's starting to eat at my curiosity.

On this play on the Rams last drive in the 4th qtr, (courtesy of your excellent live blogging) "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," the replay showed the ball coming out of Avery's hands on his way to the ground, basically he lost possession and landed on it. Shouldn't that have been ruled an incomplete pass??? Instead, the refs reviewed it and ruled it complete, giving the Rams a 1st and 10. I was going nuts after this play.

Great question Stampede. I thought the same thing.

I thought the same thing at the time, but rethinking it I believe the rule is if he gets both feet down, with possession, from that point on it's a "ground can't cause a fumble" deal. If he caught one in the air and landed on the ground and lost control, it's a different deal.

im pretty sure if you are catching the ball and falling out of bounds you need to keep possession through the whole process... Hill lost the ball earlier in the year when he fell out and they ruled it an incomplete.

They ruled that he had possession the whole time, whether they were right or not is a different matter.

Ya Stampede, we had that same situation called an incomplete pass a few games ago. I remember the call went against us after replay challenge.

You are correct. The officials ruled Avery maintained possession and had both feet in bounds. The ground can absolutely cause an incomplete pass on the sidelines. The player must maintain possession all the way thru the ground. Even a bobble after contacting the ground on those sideline catches is ruled an incomplete pass.

I thought the exact same thing. Avery definatly did not have clear posession. This exact scenario is EXACTLY what happened to Jason Hill earlier this year. I can't remember what game, but Matt explained to us that Hill didn't have complete posession of the ball when the ball HIT THE GROUND! Avery did the same thing. missed call by the refs. At least we still won.

Matt,
Can you ask Singletary or Martz about the routes that Hill and Morgan ran? I think that someone (probably Hill) ran the wrong route. They were just too close together, and it wasn't a Hail Mary.

Off the subject..Ted Robinson will replace Joe Staekey next season...that's great that what i was hoping for and i suggested Ted two days ago on your Blog 2 days ago..i think it's a perfect fit...

This silly thing with the mustaches is actually underrated in terms of unit morale and cohesion. Guys are not willing to be silly together unless they have a real affinity. Bigger thing than we think, says I.

Q: Off the subject..Ted Robinson will replace Joe Staekey next season...that's great that what i was hoping for and i suggested Ted two days ago on your Blog 2 days ago..i think it's a perfect fit...

My response: You stole my thunder. I haven't heard anything official, but I was going to write in the next couple days that Ted Robinson was looking as if he would be the guy. Ted is very professional. He does everything well. And you can't underestimate that Notre Dame connection. --Matt M.

Q: Matt, Can you ask Singletary or Martz about the routes that Hill and Morgan ran? I think that someone (probably Hill) ran the wrong route. They were just too close together, and it wasn't a Hail Mary.

My response: Both Jason Hill and Morgan were running "9" routes. That's a go-pattern or a deep fade. Morgan was on the outside and Hill was in the slot. So they're basically just running straight down the field. Both of them ran the right route -- kind of.

At the 20-yard line, Jason Hill had already turned to find the ball. When he saw the ball in the air, he adjusted his route to get to the corner of the end zone. That brought him right into Morgan's path. That is why I believe Shaun Hill was definitely trying to get the ball to Morgan. Morgan did not have to adjust his route to get the ball. --Matt M.

Q: the replay showed the ball coming out of Avery's hands on his way to the ground, basically he lost possession and landed on it. Shouldn't that have been ruled an incomplete pass??? Instead, the refs reviewed it and ruled it complete, giving the Rams a 1st and 10. I was going nuts after this play.

My response: It was very, very close. He does have to maintain possession of the ball through the entire act, so the ground can cause that to be incomplete. Although I never saw conclusive evidence of the ball on the ground (without Avery being in possession of the ball), it does look like he did not maintained complete control. I agree that by the letter of the rule, it should have been incomplete.

I'm sorry you were going nuts after this play, but I'm glad ref Carl Cheffers ruled it the way he did. Justice was served. Avery made an simply amazing play to catch the deflected pass and have the instincts/athletic ability to get both feet down. And on the next play, Tarell Brown had the game-clinching interception. Did you notice that as soon as Brown intercepted the pass, he went to a knee? I see a lot of guys in that situation start running with the ball. --Matt M.

Q: Hi Matt, I have a couple odd questions that I thought you might know the answers to. When Coach Singletary says that he watches the game on the flight home... do they watch the TV feed that we all watch or their own game film? Do they make the entire team/entire flight watch it on the overhead screen or on a laptop?

My response: Good question. They watch the "coaches" film. So they see two angles of every play: The all-22 man angle from the 50-yard line, and the end-zone view to best view the line play. No, they don't show it to everyone on the flight. I'm not sure how many DVDs the film guys burn for the flight home, but I believe it is available for players to watch, too. --Matt M.

[Tarell Brown had the game-clinching interception. Did you notice that as soon as Brown intercepted the pass, he went to a knee? I see a lot of guys in that situation start running with the ball.]

Nice veteran play by one of our young guys. The more we see Tarell on the field, the more I think he needs to be a major part of our plans for 2009.

Matt - I have two questions:
1. It's pretty obvious that Singletary is a religous man. He wears his cross over his sweatshirt/jacket every game. How big of a part of that has to do with having Christmas off?
2. Manny Lawson has been playing well the past couple of games. He didn't really register on the radar against the Rams however. Have the niners incorporated him more in their offense and is he seeing more third downs?

Matt since you brought up the 22 angle view do you know if teams use advance computer models to study actual player movement to analyze, predict, & prepare offense or defense sets and tendencies? In fact any use of technology would be interesting.

Thanks everyone in blog land, I'm glad I wasn't alone on that one.

I was excited to see Brown make such a "heads-up" play after that pick, very "Westbrook-esk" of him. In those game clinching situations, I always hope that the defender goes down so as to avoid a turnover. Especially after that nightmare scenario the Chargers were in a couple years ago where they lost that playoff game. I think it was Chromartie that fumbled the pick, and the game away.

p willis' mustache is pretty nice too

Mustaches Rock! check out some awesome staches and help out the kids at the same time @ m4ksacramento.org .... !!!

go niners

Matt seems to me a good indication of the York's interest in extending Singletary would be how quickly they move next week?
How does the league mandate the hiring of Singletary as HC?
Being 1 of many teams that isn't moving onto post season play, can the Yorks approach and extend him if desired?
If it's allowed by rule and he isn't pursued, it might indicate interest elsewhere?
I like your guy Mularkey, but, still think Singletary deserves the chance to continue what he's started.