Post by Narcizo on Jan 26, 2011 13:04:50 GMT
Having got to the Soup Bowl again I had mixed feelings about the fact that the Browns lost to the Chiefs. The Browns had beaten us twice in the big game already so there was the fear of them making it three in a row countered by the chance to get some revenge and closure and all that malarkey. Oh, and the fact that the Cheifs had spanked us 34-7 in regular season with the league’s best running back Tito Schneider leading the way.
Right enough things ddn’t start out well for us as veteran running back Ralph dos Santos, hero of the Vikings game, spilled the ball on our 26-yard line in the opening drive. We made them fight for those yards but an offsides call on 3rd and 16 made it 3rd and 11, whcih they got and then Schneider ran it in from 9 yards out. A quick three and out and the Chiefs marched the length of the field only to come up short in our red zone and settle for a field goal to make it 10-0.
Another underwhelming drive and we have to punt again. We pin them on their 1 and force a fumble the ball on their own six. Huzzah for tweener defensive lineman Dale ”Crockett and” Tubbs. We don’t fanny around running it in on a sweep to the left. 10-7. Unlucky Chiefs! And more unlucky when we stop them quickly again and get the ball back. With the wind in our
sails dos Santos makes up for his balls up earlier on by breaking off a 42-yard run through the middle of the Chiefs nickle formation. Passes of 23 and 11 yards are enough to get us into the end zone and we take the lead. However ”Automatic” Farmer chooses this point to miss his first ever extra point (well it was blocked but I blame him anyway) so the score is 13-10 rather than 14-10. Would it be a miss that’s significant later on, as they always go on about in the NFL gameday highlights? The rest of the half sees the Chiefs move the ball well but get stuck in midfield while, well, we don’t. 13-10 at the break and you’d have to say that we’re pretty lucky to be ahead at the break.
A crappy kick-off gives the Chiefs the ball in the middle of the field and then Schneider gets to work on us. A defensive holding call lets them keep moving the ball until they get the ball to our 3. An offsides call means they have four attempts to get the ball in but our defence stiffens up and forces the field goal to tie up the game.
It’s pretty clear that we weren’t going to get anywhere with this fancy new balanced team approach. Time for Alan to stop shilly-shallying around and take it to the air. Passes for 20 and 21 yards and a bunch of short passes later and we’re on the Chiefs 4-yard line. Quick pass to veteran receiver William Hannon and we’re a touchdown up again.
Schneider continues to tear into our defence but he can’t run with it all the time and as soon as they try to pass we stop them DEAD! After a couple of drives they briefly get into our red zone. We stuff back-up running back Max Penn to force a 3rd and long. Their quarterback looks like a startled deer as he runs from our blitz but it does him no good as rookie linebacker Desmond Raymond catches him ten yards behind the line of scrimmage and knocks the ball out of his hands. We save at least 3 points and get the ball back with 12 minutes on the clock. Our offence enters its own version of a clock-draining offence. What this involves is failing to pick up much in the way of yardage rushing on the first two downs of a sequence and then Alan pulling it out of the fire on 3rd and medium to keep the drive alive. All this takes us to the Chiefs 27 where Alan finally messes up the 3rd down conversion but a 44-yard field goal puts us 10 up with less than 9 minutes to play. Still enough time for them. As long as Schneider’s legs don’t fall off.
It looks like they might have though, so instead the Chiefs look to journeyman quarterback Jorge Beyer to pull it out for them. We start to miss our tackles so short passes turn into big games and before you know it they’re inside our 10-yard line. They stay there for 7 plays but only one minute. Incomplete, delay of game (!), defensive pass interference to our 1, screen for -1, defensive pass interference, blocked pass, dropped pass leaves them 3rd and goal on our 1. Finally they manage to get the ball to a receiver and they pull it back to within 3 – that missed field goal looking pretty significant now. Still, only 4 minutes or so to play.
We start on our 28 and they seem to think that we’ve turned into a rushing team or something. We go for a conservative pass approach, stupidly you might argue. After 2 time outs we face 3rd and 14 on our 36 just before the 2-minute warning. What’s that you say? Run it and then punt. No no no. Alan doesn’t even bother faking a hand-off facing nickle coverage. He checks down with Erickson in double coverage and threws over the middle to sophomore Marcus Simmons for 18 yards. After that we do run the ball with predictable results – we run out most of the clock but don’t convert 3rd down. 4th and 1 on their 37 and we decide to go for the field goal. Gah! Farmer misses and the Chiefs get a chance for heroics. First pass doesn’t connect, second pass does and for a terrible moment it looks like the Chiefs might get the ball into the end zone as time runs out. I like to envision it as them chucking lateral passes hither and thither but in the end we tackle them. Woohoo! We win again.
Repeat!
Schneider doesn’t look as dominant in the box score but at the time he seemed to be murdering us. Still Alan picks up his first ever Soup Bowl MVP award and all is well with the good ship 49ers. So let’s torture the English language and go for a Three-peat!
Right enough things ddn’t start out well for us as veteran running back Ralph dos Santos, hero of the Vikings game, spilled the ball on our 26-yard line in the opening drive. We made them fight for those yards but an offsides call on 3rd and 16 made it 3rd and 11, whcih they got and then Schneider ran it in from 9 yards out. A quick three and out and the Chiefs marched the length of the field only to come up short in our red zone and settle for a field goal to make it 10-0.
Another underwhelming drive and we have to punt again. We pin them on their 1 and force a fumble the ball on their own six. Huzzah for tweener defensive lineman Dale ”Crockett and” Tubbs. We don’t fanny around running it in on a sweep to the left. 10-7. Unlucky Chiefs! And more unlucky when we stop them quickly again and get the ball back. With the wind in our
sails dos Santos makes up for his balls up earlier on by breaking off a 42-yard run through the middle of the Chiefs nickle formation. Passes of 23 and 11 yards are enough to get us into the end zone and we take the lead. However ”Automatic” Farmer chooses this point to miss his first ever extra point (well it was blocked but I blame him anyway) so the score is 13-10 rather than 14-10. Would it be a miss that’s significant later on, as they always go on about in the NFL gameday highlights? The rest of the half sees the Chiefs move the ball well but get stuck in midfield while, well, we don’t. 13-10 at the break and you’d have to say that we’re pretty lucky to be ahead at the break.
A crappy kick-off gives the Chiefs the ball in the middle of the field and then Schneider gets to work on us. A defensive holding call lets them keep moving the ball until they get the ball to our 3. An offsides call means they have four attempts to get the ball in but our defence stiffens up and forces the field goal to tie up the game.
It’s pretty clear that we weren’t going to get anywhere with this fancy new balanced team approach. Time for Alan to stop shilly-shallying around and take it to the air. Passes for 20 and 21 yards and a bunch of short passes later and we’re on the Chiefs 4-yard line. Quick pass to veteran receiver William Hannon and we’re a touchdown up again.
Schneider continues to tear into our defence but he can’t run with it all the time and as soon as they try to pass we stop them DEAD! After a couple of drives they briefly get into our red zone. We stuff back-up running back Max Penn to force a 3rd and long. Their quarterback looks like a startled deer as he runs from our blitz but it does him no good as rookie linebacker Desmond Raymond catches him ten yards behind the line of scrimmage and knocks the ball out of his hands. We save at least 3 points and get the ball back with 12 minutes on the clock. Our offence enters its own version of a clock-draining offence. What this involves is failing to pick up much in the way of yardage rushing on the first two downs of a sequence and then Alan pulling it out of the fire on 3rd and medium to keep the drive alive. All this takes us to the Chiefs 27 where Alan finally messes up the 3rd down conversion but a 44-yard field goal puts us 10 up with less than 9 minutes to play. Still enough time for them. As long as Schneider’s legs don’t fall off.
It looks like they might have though, so instead the Chiefs look to journeyman quarterback Jorge Beyer to pull it out for them. We start to miss our tackles so short passes turn into big games and before you know it they’re inside our 10-yard line. They stay there for 7 plays but only one minute. Incomplete, delay of game (!), defensive pass interference to our 1, screen for -1, defensive pass interference, blocked pass, dropped pass leaves them 3rd and goal on our 1. Finally they manage to get the ball to a receiver and they pull it back to within 3 – that missed field goal looking pretty significant now. Still, only 4 minutes or so to play.
We start on our 28 and they seem to think that we’ve turned into a rushing team or something. We go for a conservative pass approach, stupidly you might argue. After 2 time outs we face 3rd and 14 on our 36 just before the 2-minute warning. What’s that you say? Run it and then punt. No no no. Alan doesn’t even bother faking a hand-off facing nickle coverage. He checks down with Erickson in double coverage and threws over the middle to sophomore Marcus Simmons for 18 yards. After that we do run the ball with predictable results – we run out most of the clock but don’t convert 3rd down. 4th and 1 on their 37 and we decide to go for the field goal. Gah! Farmer misses and the Chiefs get a chance for heroics. First pass doesn’t connect, second pass does and for a terrible moment it looks like the Chiefs might get the ball into the end zone as time runs out. I like to envision it as them chucking lateral passes hither and thither but in the end we tackle them. Woohoo! We win again.
Repeat!
Schneider doesn’t look as dominant in the box score but at the time he seemed to be murdering us. Still Alan picks up his first ever Soup Bowl MVP award and all is well with the good ship 49ers. So let’s torture the English language and go for a Three-peat!