Anyone else shocked by the ending of the 49er/Cards game?

renman · Post by **renman** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:50 am

I am still stunned by how that game ended and how inept the 49ers were in handling that situation. The 49ers, a dead team with nothing to lose, hit a pass for a 1st down on the ONE YARD LINE with about 50 seconds to play. To me, the OBVIOUS thing to do is spike the ball leaving 40ish seconds and you now have THREE SHOTS AT THE ENDZONE with some tall, speedy and active wideouts and a mobile QB.

What do the 49ers do? They stand there and waste 20plus seconds thinking about what to do and then spike the ball. Ok, not the end of the world.. still have three shots at the endzone if you make the plays quick. What do they do? They run a sweep that if he is tackled results in a loss of a down (and chance at a score) due to clock running. Gore gets tripped up and the 49ers are lucky that the refs have to review the play thus stopping the clock.

Ok.. No TD... they can still run a quick fade that would stop the clock if incomplete OR they can spike it again on 3rd to give them one last shot on forth down. What do they do? They run a confused clumsy fullback dive into the teeth of a defensive line that had been blowing up the A gap all night... game over...

Now while I will admit this hurt me personally in fantasy and a massive suicide pool... I still stand by my opinion that this may be the worst performance I have ever seen in the NFL in a situation like this...

I saw the "experts" after the game talking about the game and they did not even mention it... I turned it off and went to throw up.

Captain Hook · Post by **Captain Hook** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:58 am

Ren you are right about the ending - they had plenty of time for several plays....until they wasted most of it.......BUT this is often what you get with bad teams, young teams - teams that have not been in the situation of trying to win a game late.

I Guarantee you that last 50 seconds at the goal line has NOT been practiced by the 49ers this year...I would also guarantee it has been by other teams....NE, PIT, etc teams that expect to win and have been there before and practice "Winning situations" in addition to the rest of their playbook.

Samlawyer · Post by **Samlawyer** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:59 am

Couldn't agree more. After the spike on third down, you throw it twice and then either run or pass on fourth down. Seemed so obvious. I too was surprised that no one criticized the play calling.

renman · Post by **renman** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:03 am

Hook,

I suppose you are right about bad teams. But to me this was as simple as knowing to take a knee at the end of a game with a big lead and 45 seconds left. I am amazed that they did not understand that having 3 planned shots (where you have time to huddle up) at the endzone is better than having 2 chaotic rushed shots. Even the announcers in the booth were talking about spiking on 1st down, running a play, THEN spiking the ball again (wasting a shot at the endzone) to leaving a shot for a 4th down play.

Why would having 2 shots at the endzone be better than having 3? These are the "experts" in the booth saying this! I guess I am shocked any team past JV in high school would need to practice what to do with no timeouts and 1st down on the goaline.

Just blew my mind.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:05 am

I don't know; I thought taking 40 seconds to spike the ball was pure genius.

Old School · Post by **Old School** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:39 am

As a Niner fan, I feel like hurling my pop tarts thsi morning. That was putrid. I would call it "high school", but I'd be insulting all high school coaches. I also needed just one TD from Gore to win an FFOC league championship . Robinson up themiddle??????

Martz should be fired asap for that horsebleep play calling. He thinks he's so effin smarter than anyone.

To quote Getta "That is all"

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:44 am

Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:
I don't know; I thought taking 40 seconds to spike the ball was pure genius. It looked like the 49ers were changing personnel to get their goalline passing package onto the field -- blame goes to an inexperienced coaching staff. Then, Hill was waiting for all of his receivers to line up correctly to avoid the 5-yard penalty -- blame goes to an inexperienced QB and 1st/2nd year WRs.

As previously mentioned, all they had to do was step up to the line and spike the ball. Then, take 3 shots at the end zone. They could have run it on 2nd down AND 3rd down if they'd just spiked it on 1st down.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:46 am

Another shocking thing about this game: why didn't Arizona pass on 2nd or 3rd down to get the 1st down themselves? Throw a quick slant to Fitzgerald or Boldin, and the game is over.

Old School · Post by **Old School** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:48 am

Exactly KOQ. We coulda used you on the sideline last night....

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:53 am

Originally posted by King of Queens:
quote:Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:
I don't know; I thought taking 40 seconds to spike the ball was pure genius. It looked like the 49ers were changing personnel to get their goalline passing package onto the field -- blame goes to an inexperienced coaching staff. Then, Hill was waiting for all of his receivers to line up correctly to avoid the 5-yard penalty -- blame goes to an inexperienced QB and 1st/2nd year WRs.

As previously mentioned, all they had to do was step up to the line and spike the ball. Then, take 3 shots at the end zone. They could have run it on 2nd down AND 3rd down if they'd just spiked it on 1st down. [/QUOTE]I laughed when Tirico said that Hill was looking calm. Yeah, he was calmly letting about a minute go off the clock. Absolutely horrible decision by the QB and incompetent clock management by the coaching staff.

On the bright side, though, that was a really great call on the last play of the game. I don't know what was more idiotic - calling a running play or not giving it to your best RB if you are going to call a running play.

The 49ers are truly an awful football team.