No Reason To Cry

"What we see is, we see the offensive player come in and initiate contact on the defensive player -- nothing that rises to the level of a foul which significantly hinders the defender, nothing that is clear and obvious through visual evidence, which hinders the defender," Riveron said. "The defender then braces himself. And there is contact then by the defender on the receiver. Again, nothing which rises to the level of a foul based on visual evidence."

And so much for all that. The better team won on Sunday night by the barest of margins, completing a goal-line stand for the ages in the face of what looked like an inevitable comeback led by the most relentless quarterback in the NFL, a player of such caliber he looks absolutely capable of doing anything with nothing-- which at times indeed appears to be his job description.   

Yes, Russell Wilson seems eminently capable of leading his, well, unusual team to victory this coming Sunday in Philadelphia, and if he does, the Seattle Seahawks will be right there, once again, in Santa Clara on January 11, for a third and final match against the 49ers.  And all those crybabies plaguing the twitterverse this morning will get their second chance. 

And that's more than enough bandwidth to waste on the hurt feelings of complainers and toadies who would prefer the referees, rather than the players, decide the outcome of games (as long as their passions and prejudices are served, that is).  

Has there ever been a more astonishing photo-finish in an important NFL game?  Jacob Hollister, the tough tight end who had interfered as much as he was interfered with on third down, landed with the ball in his arms and his left shoulder on the goal line on fourth down. But because of Dre Greenlaw's perfect tackle positioning, Hollister did not score, and it was abundantly clear he had not scored, an easy call to confirm from the replay booth as well as the TV screens of America. We've always held Dan Bunz's emphatic body-slam of Charles Alexander in Super Bowl XVI as the textbook example of a goal-line tackle, but young Greenlaw has just provided everyone another example. He couldn't have done it better, and it literally saved the game. 

That stand! A series of remarkable plays by Wilson, a series of desperate moves by a tired 49er defense, and a colossal coaching blunder by Pete Carroll-- who was classy and gracious in his postgame comments-- all served to offer up a 56-second drama that ranks with anything we've ever seen on a football field. As the Seahawks, trailing 26-21 with two minutes to play, began a slow but relentless march toward the goal line, 49er fans as well as game announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth wondered whether coach Kyle Shanahan would begin calling timeouts on defense, hoping to conserve precious seconds for his offense in the event of what looked like an inevitable-- inevitable?-- go-ahead touchdown. That's the watery, helpless feeling Wilson generates in the final moments of close games, which seem to be the only kind of games Seattle can win. And they win a lot of them. And they sure looked like they were going to win this one.

But Shanahan trusted his defense. The Seahawks had first-and-ten from the 49er 12 with 56 seconds left. They had first-and-goal from the 49er 1 with 30 seconds left. They ran eight plays-- one was a spike-- and they did not score. 

From first-and ten at the 12, the defense forced three end-zone incompletions. Wilson, on fourth-and ten with 42 seconds left, smartly went for the first down instead of the TD, and he got it on a perfect pass to rookie tight end John Ursua at the one-yard line. A sure tackle by K'Waun Williams pulled him back from the goal, just as Seattle had denied Kendrick Bourne's attempt to score a two-point 49er conversion in the third quarter. 

The Seahawks thought they had won the game, and so did a few 49ers on the sideline, as they later admitted. With no timeouts left, Seattle got to the line of scrimmage just in time and Wilson spiked the ball to stop the clock with 22 seconds left-- and onto the field came Marshawn Lynch, "Beast Mode" himself. His arrival this past week in Seattle to help out his injury-riddled former teammates had driven the "12th Man" crowd into a frenzy, and it erupted again as he put on his helmet and ran out. 

In the game, Lynch hadn't done much statistically-- Wilson's go-to guy out of the backfield all day was rookie Travis Homer-- but he'd broken off two big third-quarter runs that set up the Seahawks' first TD, and he'd made a sensational one-yard goal-line leap to score their second. 

It's that leap that was on everyone's mind. Was there any doubt Wilson, with 22 seconds, no timeouts, and a yard to gain, would hand it to Lynch to gain that yard and win the game? Was there any doubt coach Carroll would make that call-- remembering  the finale of Super Bowl XLIX and "Unfinished Business?" But Carroll may have outsmarted himself again. To make sure, he called in several players to the sideline, and sent out a "jumbo" offensive formation-- and that took time. Too much time!  The play clock ran out and Seattle was penalized for delay of game-- and the ball moved back to the six-yard-line.

Another Pete Carroll- Marshawn Lynch play-calling mishap! The mind reels. The ball back at the six, Lynch, no longer an option, trotted off the field. Once again it would be up to Russell Wilson to win it. And Kyle Shanahan's defense, the defense he trusted to save the game, did just that. Among the forgotten plays of this game will be Marcell Harris' amazing leap to nearly intercept Wilson's fade pass in the corner of the end zone on second-and goal, the ball and Harris tumbling out of bounds. On third down Hollister ran right into Fred Warner at the goal line. They grappled briefly and Wilson's quick pass zipped through the end zone. No flag was thrown, as Al Riveron has sensibly explained above. And on fourth down "The Longest Yard" became "The Longest Inch." Seconds later, Jimmy Garoppolo plowed ahead for a most meaningful one-yard gain to run out the clock and end the game, and the 49er sideline went wild, players celebrating a most meaningful win that had looked for all the world like a lost cause.  

Now the 49ers, who have been playing for 13 straight weeks, get a most-needed bye. They'll take the field Saturday afternoon, January 11, and we expect to see Wilson and his teammates on the opposition sideline again, though we'd really, really, rather not.

Bright moments:  

Deebo Samuel, his star ascendant, using his tremendous speed to run away from defenders on a beautiful caught-in-stride pass from Garoppolo in the first quarter, a play that temporarily quieted the crowd and set up his own touchdown run on the next play, a reverse, Kyle Juszczyk leveling Shaquill Griffin with the sweetest downfield block you'll ever see;

Jimmy G doing his Tom Brady impersonation throughout the game, absolutely unflappable, seemingly disregarding the shrieking crowd, the pressure of an increasingly close game, and a defense that supplied plenty of its own pressure with two sacks, finishing with 18-of-22 for 285 yards and, perhaps most importantly, leading two quick, emphatic touchdown drives to counter Seattle touchdowns; 

Raheem Mostert following a swath of blockers on a 13-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run, a thing of beauty and his second score of the game, putting the 49ers up 26-14; 

Juszczyk breaking wide open on a big downfield pass play that set up the 49ers' most crucial answer-back score of the game, Mostert's third-quarter run to make the score 19-7; 

Half the 49er defense stuffing Lynch on fourth-and-one from the San Francisco 30 late in the second quarter and ensuring Seattle would be held scoreless at halftime;

The overall team speed of this ballclub, the fastest group of 46 men on any football field today.


We've had the Baltimore game, the New Orleans game, the Atlanta game, and the second Rams game. Now this.  Our team has become its own NFL "Fantastic Finishes" highlight reel. Is there a any chance of a rout, or even a decisive win, in our near future? For now, perhaps it's enough that there's a weekend of stress-free NFL football ahead that will enable us to simply relax before the next one. 

Point to Point

As the two best teams in the NFC head toward an Inevitable Showdown a week from this coming Sunday, the spectre of a third team, like the Ghost of Seasons Past, shadows the fortunes of both.

Either our 49ers or their nemeses, the Seattle Seahawks, will win the NFC West this season. Both have a chance to end up the NFC's top-seeded playoff team. They are tied atop the division with identical 11-3 records. Right now Seattle holds the tie-breaker advantage, thanks to their overtime win at Levi Stadium a month ago. But that advantage is only temporary; it will be lost for good if the 49ers defeat  the Seahawks on Sunday night, December 29-- no matter what else happens. 

The reason for that can be laid at the doorstep of last year's NFC champions, the Los Angeles Rams, who Sunday lost in humiliating fashion and  essentially eliminated themselves from contention, just a week after their best and most important win since January. Whether or not their dominating 28-12 win over Seattle two weeks ago was illusory, it made this division battle between the two top teams as close as it could be. And the Rams get a chance to do the same thing to the 49ers this Saturday night, to play a spoiler role. Following the horrific and inexcusable loss to Atlanta last Sunday, the 49ers really can't afford to lose to the Rams now, can they?

Actually, they can. It would probably cost them the top seed, and it might even cost them the first-round bye, but the Niners absolutely can lose to the Rams this week and still win the division if they beat Seattle in the finale-- even if the Seahawks defeat Arizona this week and take a one-game lead. For that, we can thank the NFL's complex tiebreaking procedures-- and we can thank the Los Angeles Rams.

The division tie-breaking procedures start with head-to-head record, then division record, then conference record, then common opponents, at which point almost all ties have been broken in the past.  Right now the 49ers and Seahawks are dead even in division record (3-1) and conference record (8-2).  Each is 3-1 against the AFC North, with victories over Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, and a loss to Baltimore. Each is 3-1 against the NFC South; the 49ers lost only to Atlanta (at home) and the Seahawks only to New Orleans (at home). Each beat a different team in the NFC East and NFC North, so those don't count as common opponents. Nor does the 49er-Seattle game last month. So, against common opponents, the 49ers are 9-2 and the Seahawks 8-3. That's meaningless, today, because Seattle won that game over the Niners and holds the head-to-head advantage.

Now follow the bouncing ball. If the Seahawks beat the Cardinals and the 49ers lose to the Rams this weekend, Seattle would then take a one-game lead, 12-3 to 11-4. The Seahawks would have a 4-1 division record and 9-2 conference record to the 49ers' 3-2 and 8-3, and both would then be 9-3 against common opponents.

But one-game lead and head-to-head win notwithstanding, Seattle still would have  to win or tie on Sunday night the 29th to win the division.

If the 49ers, trailing by a game as outlined above, should summon up their best effort and beat their rivals on their home field that night, the teams would be tied even tighter than they are today: both 12-4, even in the head-to-head series, both 4-2 in the division, both 9-3 in the NFC-- and both still 9-3 against common opponents, which would then become extremely meaningful.

That's tied, all right. Tied at five levels.  Tied up tight. Maybe tighter than any division race, ever.

What happens then? The NFL rules say it goes to "strength of victory," and all of a sudden it's no contest. The 49ers have outscored their opposition by 161 points this year, an 11.5-point margin of victory. The Seahawks have barely broken even, outscoring the opposition by a total of 26 points over 14 games, same as the 8-6 Rams.  That's less than two points per game. If we look only at victories, it's almost as lopsided; the 49ers have a 173-point margin in their wins, Seattle is at 62.

Has a NFL division, or any playoff berth, ever been decided by points? We don't know. But if this year's NFC West race ultimately is so decided, it's nice to know our guys will come out on top.

Lonely at the Top

And then there was one.  The New England Patriots ran into a human highlight reel named Lamar Jackson on Sunday night, and after it was over the Belichicks had given up as many touchdowns in one game as they had all year, and their record dropped to 8-1. Thus, as Week Ten unfolds and our 49ers enjoy a long week before taking the field Monday night against Seattle, San Francisco boasts the only undefeated team in the NFL.  Did anyone really expect this?

Long-suffering (well, relatively so) 49er fans were the butt of countless internet jokes, gibes, and insults a year ago after many made a slew of hyperbolic Super Bowl predictions in the wake of Jimmy Garoppolo's arrival. His subsequent season-ending injury splattered egg all over many a Faithful face, and coming off a 4-12 season few were ready to make reservations for Miami. Yet here we are. The naysayers who've loudly blared that "the 49ers haven't beaten anybody yet" are getting a bit muted now.  Holding the Rams to one first-quarter touchdown in LA is pretty impressive, completely demolishing a decent Carolina team is several times more so, and hanging tough to decisively finish out a division opponent on their turf is exactly what good teams do in a "trap" game.

That the 49ers have done this over the past month without two starting offensive tackles and their go-to fullback is even more impressive. It was the offense, after all, that closed out the Arizona game, driving for emphatic first downs that took the ball and the clock away from the Cardinals. The defense, with a fearsome pass rush, active linebackers, and a turnover-focused secondary, has been solid all year. But there's a reason Jimmy G is 14-2 as a starter here; he "just wins." He doesn't let things bother him; he's cool, calm, and collected regardless of situation or circumstance. There's no way to accurately measure just how infectious this type of confidence is, but we can see it in action.

The last time the 49ers started a season 8-0 was in 1990. They were the two-time defending Super Bowl champions then, going for the unprecedented "three-peat."  All told, the Niners won ten straight to open that season, as did their bitter rivals, Bill Parcells' New York Giants. A week ahead of their Monday Night Showdown in week 12, both teams were upset at home by division rivals-- the Rams, in San Francisco's case. Nonetheless, that Monday night battle against the G-Men, which ended 7-3 in the 49ers' favor, was a classic, and it foreshadowed the NFC Championship battle a month later, in which New York still couldn't score a touchdown, but did win the game.

Is this team better than that one? Well, consider: the 1990 49ers, after two years of a powerful running game led by Roger Craig and Tom Rathman, couldn't run the ball at all. Joe Montana attempted more passes, was sacked more times, and threw more incompletions in 1990 than in any other season of his career. The team scored 353 points, down from 442 in the epochal 1989 season, and scored over 30 only twice. For reasons we still can't figure out, the coaching staff shuffled the offensive line that year, moving Steve Wallace from left to right tackle and Harris Barton from right tackle to guard. The line simply didn't dominate in 1990 as it had in 1989. The Niners' success that season--  a 14-2 mark and top seed in the NFC again-- was primarily due to the defense, which had a terrific year.

This team runs better than that one did. Jimmy G hasn't had to throw as many times as Joe did. This defense may not be at the level of that one, yet, but it's sure getting there. And, just as in 1990, there is a NFC team standing in the way, confident it can block the 49ers' path to Miami.

That's the Seattle Seahawks, of course, who come in to Levi Stadium next Monday, Veterans' Day, on a roll, with a 7-2 record and a MVP-worthy season from Russell Wilson. This isn't the "old" Seahawks we learned to hate earlier in the decade. That team relied on constant defensive holding and relentless pressure, waiting and waiting for the opposition to make a mistake and then pouncing on it. The offense generally stumbled and bumbled through much of a given game, relying on Marshawn Lynch to break a big run or a Wilson prayer to somehow come down in the right hands. Those things happened often enough to earn Seattle back-to-back Super Bowls.

This Seahawks team is different. Wilson is now the best quarterback in the NFC. As with Jimmy G, though in a completely different way, Wilson inspires his teammates to a great level of confidence. The Seahawks have a legitimately explosive offense now with a lot of talent. On the other hand, their defense has been vulnerable all season, as Tampa Bay and Jameis Winston showed last week, running up 34 points on Seattle's home field.

Time was when the Seahawks' game plan was to keep it close and low-scoring, and wait for something to break. (Green Bay, in the 2014 NFC Championship, and Minnesota, in the 2015 playoff, are textbook examples.) No more. With Wilson playing lights-out, the Seahawks can win a shootout against anyone, especially if they can get the ball last. Monday night, we believe, will be the game that shows us just how good the 49er defense really is, and whether their running game can effectively keep the league's most dangerous man on the bench.  Bring it on!

Our team is fun to watch again!

WHEN was the last time it was so much pure unadulterated non-stressful fun to watch a 49er game? We're not talking about nail-biting excitement, pressure-packed situations, dramatic comebacks, or improbable last-minute wins.  It's been a long time since we saw a 49er team "roll out" with such power, control, and dominance over a 60-minute period. facing a decent, if flawed, team (and what 2019 NFL team outside Foxboro isn't flawed?) in prime time. With plenty of opportunity to do a frustrating national-TV face-plant, the San Francisco 49ers instead put on a clinic titled "This is what we do!" And they did it well indeed-- a "reveal", as MNF announcer Joe Tessitore had it.

The 49ers ran the ball, 275 yards' worth, with Matt Breida, Tevin Coleman, and, later,  Raheem Mostert.  Breida's sensational, explosive 83-yard touchdown run on the Niners' first play from scrimmage set the tone for the game.  They ran the ball 40 times, used 37 of the game's 60 minutes for their 69 offensive plays, and consistently crushed the Browns' talented front seven with effective blocks and traps. Kyle Shanahan even dusted off the old tight-end reverse, a favorite of Bill Walsh back in the day, and George Kittle rumbled for 18 big first-quarter yards. Offensive lineman love run-blocking, and the Niners'  frontmen showed it all night.

40 runs against 29 passes pretty much guarantees a good night for your quarterback, and Jimmy Garoppolo was generally solid and effective. His touchdown pass to Kittle was a thing of beauty, as was a quick-slant fourth-quarter shot to Dante Pettis in full stride that would have been a touchdown had Pettis remembered to catch the ball. Now and then we see Jimmy G showing signs of "happy feet," and short-arming the ball; there's reason to be concerned about what a determined pass rush in a close game might do to him and to this offense. But thanks to coach Shanahan, the O-line, and secret-weapon fullback Kyle Juszczyk, the game was not close over the last three quarters.

"The Wreck of the New 97": Nick Bosa's game was phenomenal. Not since Bryant Young have the 49ers drafted a top-ten pick who had this much immediate impact on the team. Young Bosa was unstoppable on the pass rush, and the twin towers of DeForrest Buckner and Arik Armstead had Baker Mayfield looking for daylight every time he dropped back. The unsinkable Richard Sherman, whom we've come to appreciate more and more now that he's put on a proper uniform, benefited from an early jailbreak attack by the DL: his second interception of the season, after none at all a year ago. The secondary played well, as most do when a murderous pass rush is on, and K'Waun Williams made the heads-up play of the game, grabbing a bobbled pass at the 49er one-yard line and denying Cleveland their best chance to score the touchdown they never got.

One of the 49ers' many lightning-fast players, Richie James, supplied the lone special-teams highlight with a nifty 32-yard punt return. But when a normally-reliable kicker like Robbie Gould misses two field goals and has a third blocked, you know the special-teams coach will have some 'splainin' to do this morning. All three of the failed kicks looked "off" from the moment of the snap; Gould's first attempt sounded-- splat-- like he'd kicked a rotten watermelon. He finally made his fourth try, to a sarcastic, if generally affectionate, standing ovation from the crowd already deep into celebration mode. Yes, they picked a good night to screw up. No, we don't want 'em doing it again.

And we await with trepidation the MRI results on Kyle Juszczyk's knee. It didn't look too bad when he went down, nor did he look especially hobbled as he left the field, but a ride on the cart is never a comforting sight. The team will need him against the Rams Sunday, because without that smash-mouth running game, Nick Bosa may end up taking a back seat to Aaron Donald-- and there's no way that scenario ends well for our Undefeateds.

Fare Thee Well

Robert Burns Hunter, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 78, was a throwback and a visionary at the same time. As a lyricist who wrote songs to be sung by someone other than himself, he worked in the great tradition of Lorenz Hart, Sammy Cahn, Oscar Hammerstein, and rock & roll's own Jerry Leiber. But he also delivered his songs, co-written mostly with his best friend Jerry Garcia, specifically for performance by one of the most innovative, unpredictable, and musically challenging bands of the last century, the Grateful Dead. Though he professed himself often astonished by the tunes Garcia and the band chose to frame his words, Hunter had a poet's gift for rhythm, for emphasis, and for timing.  The Dead's songs, which unabashedly celebrated American exceptionalism while also humorously poking holes in its paper facade, were a lot more, well, interesting-- and provocative-- thanks to Hunter's contributions.

He was a prolific writer and poet who produced a lot more than just Grateful Dead tunes; on several occasions he formed his own backup group and took his songs on the road, singing them in his earnest, sometimes strained, everyman voice. We remember a two-man folkie-type show in spring 1979 at the Other End in New York; we also remember a time he rehearsed what he hoped would be a full-blown stage musical, complete with sets and chorus girls.  As the Dead's cult-like popularity became something of an albatross, the publicity-shy Hunter may have been hoping to extricate himself from its burdens by branching out into other forms. But over time, his obvious gifts led him to work with just about everybody; to cite just one example, Bob Dylan's wonderful "Together Through Life" (2009) is almost entirely co-written with Hunter.

Geoffrey Himes at Paste magazine has written a fine and fitting tribute to the man; it can be found here.  The article is worth reading if only for the hilarious anecdote on how the key line in the Dead's signature tune, "Uncle John's Band," came to be.

Robert Hunter's best-remembered lyrics came during that amazingly fertile period from 1970-1977 when he and Garcia (and occasionally Bob Weir) wrote the Dead's most beloved songs. There are so many, it would be hopeless to list them. But one thing both he and Garcia noted at the time was that this golden age came about when Hunter learned how to phrase his lyrics to fit the way the band played. Perhaps the ideal blend was the serendipitous composition of "Terrapin Station," certainly among the more complex and challenging of Hunter's pieces, yet one that fit perfectly into Garcia's theme. In that song, Hunter writes, and Jerry sings,

                                             The storyteller makes no choice,

                                             Soon you will not hear his voice--

                                             His job is to shed light, and not to master.

At his best, Robert Burns Hunter did both.