You want the good news first? Sure. Let’s start this blog the way the game started for the Niners offense.
The 49ers hadn’t scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game in 19 straight contests dating back to a 27-24 win over the Redskins on Dec. 28, 2008.
But that streak ended with a 10-play, 88-yard march in which Mike Johnson showed some nice play-calling chops, dialing up a third-and-1 deep ball to Delanie Walker that resulted in a 34-yard pass interference penalty.
Truth be told, the Niners hadn’t been awful on their first drives of the
games, seven of those 19 previous drives had ended with a field goal or
missed field goal. A look inside the drought:
* The 19
touchdown-less drives had ended with nine punts, six field goals, two
interceptions, one missed field goal and one safety.
* The Niners have had 25 first downs on the drives.
*
The first play on the 19 drives: Runs (8), incomplete passes (5),
complete passes (3), pass attempts that resulted in sacks (3).
*
Prior to Sunday, their last opening-game touchdown drive was a 10-play,
65-yard march capped by Shaun Hill’s 2-yard run. DeShaun Foster had
three carries on the drive and the big play was a 29-yard completion
from Hill to Billy Bajema. Yes, it was a long time ago.
• OK, now that we have that out of the way …
After that first drive, the Niners offense didn’t score again. Seven drives. Five punts. Two interceptions.
Yes,
two interceptions. (Deep breath) Regarding Alex Smith, if he was
accurate as he was accountable Sunday, he would have been the winning
quarterback.
Smith said on several occasions that his two interceptions cost the 49ers the game. And he was right. Both were killers.
Leading
14-7 late in the second quarter, the Niners had the ball on the Falcons
34 and were poised to make it a two-score game at halftime. Instead,
Smith, under pressure, panicked and threw a high pass that caromed off
Frank Gore’s hands and was intercepted by linebacker Curtis Lofton.
“I
was trying not to take a sack,” Smith said. “In actuality, a sack’s not
that bad – throw it away. I tried to make a play – forced it – and it
ends up costing us.”
The Falcons turned the miscue into a field
goal and trailed 14-10 at halftime. But the Niners got the ball to open
the second half and appeared ready to seize the momentum right back.
Instead, their promising 10-play, 32-yard drive ended when Smith’s pass
intended for Josh Morgan was picked off by safety William Moore at the
Falcons 33. Smith admitted he got fooled on the play.
“The guy
made a good play on the ball,” Smith said. “I thought he was going to
the flat and he came back underneath the curl and made a play.
Obviously, a poor decision. Two critical errors there cost us.”
Similar
to the Seattle game, Smith started well (13 of 15, 118 yards, 1 TD,
121.6 rating) and ended miserably (8 of 17, 70 yards, 2 INTs, 18.8
rating) His poor finishes in both games are a big reason the Niners have
been dreadful on the road in the second half this season – getting
outscored 44-7 (the garbage-time TD vs. the Chiefs accounting for the
only points).
• For those wondering what kind of toll a crushing
loss can have on an NFL head coach, Mike Singletary’s postgame press
conference could serve as Exhibit A.
Simply put, the man appeared fried – to the point of being a bit loopy.
His
performance, if you will, wasn’t too impressive. But in this case, I
think he deserves the benefit of the doubt. It just seemed like his mind
was somewhere else, like he was looking at us but still seeing Nate
Clements streaking down the sideline, football hanging loosely.
A sampling:
*
In the fourth quarter, the Niners called a timeout with 43 seconds left
with the Falcons facing third-and-2 at the San Francisco 31. The
purpose seemed obvious – if the 49ers forced fourth down and Atlanta
made the ensuing field goal, they wanted to have time left on the clock
for their offense.
Singletary was asked if the timeout was called
to give his tiring defense a breather. He initially didn’t remember the
timeout. Then offered, “I felt the defense was getting tired, but I
didn’t call a timeout because I thought they were getting tired. It had
something to do with time management or something like that.”
*
Asked why Taylor Mays started ahead of Reggie Smith, the presumptive
backup strong safety, Singletary seemed to think the question had
something to do with the controversy surrounding Michael Lewis.
“You know what, I want to talk about the game,” he said. “If you want to talk about that, that has nothing to do with the game.”
With the situation clarified, Singletary was asked what qualities he saw in Mays that gave the rookie the starting nod.
“There are a number of things,” he said. “But I don’t want to get into them.”
*
Other oddities: Asked if his defense was tiring in the final minutes,
he began discussing the Nate Clements fumble again. Asked why Adam
Snyder replaced Chilo Rachal, he responded, “I think we had an injury
somewhere.” Rachal wasn’t listed on the postgame injury report.
•
A housekeeping note: I’ll be away for the rest of today and tomorrow.
My family and I are moving from Santa Rosa to Fremont. It will be nice,
both personally and professionally, to get closer to Santa Clara. I look
forward to seeing you — blogging to you? — Wednesday.
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