Category: Uncategorized

By Morris Phillips

The effort was there, the results were not.

The 49ers annual trip to the sound den at Century Link Field in Seattle saw the 49ers battle but come up short.  The showing was a stark reminder that the NFC finalists of the three previous seasons have slipped dramatically.  The 17-7 loss was also the official end of the team’s playoff hopes as the 49ers were officially eliminated from the post-season hunt.

After the game, the 49ers faced numerous questions about their new reality: a first-ever three-game losing streak in the Harbaugh era, which almost certainly will end at the conclusion of the season, and how that will affect their mindset entering the final two games of the season. The suddenly loquacious Colin Kaepernick, embracing the role of team leader, spoke loudest.

“I think, regardless of the situation, we are going out to win.  There is no one on this team that is going to step out on the field and say, ‘Hey, our season is over, we are not going out to compete.”

If nothing else, the 49ers’ situation is more clearly defined after their trip to Seattle.  As they did defensively last year in the ill-fated NFC Championship, the 49ers’ defense held the Seahawks to just a field goal in the first half only to be done in by Russell Wilson and crew in the second half.  Injuries to Chris Borland and Michael Wilhoite, the team’s new—if not as accomplished—answer to Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman were the key to Seattle establishing Marshawn Lynch, who gained 76 of his 91 yards after the break when Borland and Wilhoite departed.

Just as integral to the injuries that cost the 49ers their two key tacklers, was the patience and confidence of the Seahawks, who were able to fashion two scoring drives in the final 20 minutes of the game to seize control.  And as Wilson finally stood up to the 49ers and their staunch defensive effort, it was made that much easier by a 49ers’ offense that disappeared after the half.  The 49ers were limited to just 76 yards in offense after halftime, and their 3^rd down opportunities were anything but as the Seattle pass rush kept Kaepernick scrambling with few escape routes.

“It’s just a maximum group effort,” Seattle’s K.J. Wright said.  “Everybody is getting to the ball and making plays.  We’re not letting teams breathe out there.”

As unexpected as the 49ers’ initial competitiveness, the performance of Seattle’s defense was not.  In shutting down the 49ers when it mattered the Seahawks’ defense was simply doing what it’s been doing.  In their four-game win streak, Seattle has allowed just 27 points, 10 of those to the 49ers in two games.

With Seattle running around making plays, what ails the 49ers became crystal clear.  The 49ers’ injury-riddled offensive line can’t protect or pass block anywhere near a championship level.  Wondering why Kaepernick has regressed?  Wonder no more: key downfield target Vernon Davis is a wounded performer still limited from two very violent collisions earlier in the year and the injuries that resulted, and the rest of receiving corps offers little in terms of speed and ability to separate from defensive backs.

Davis played throughout, but saw just two passes thrown his way.  Michael Crabtree’s answer to all the verbal abuse thrown his way by Richard Sherman was to catch three passes, which combined totaled less than 20 yards.  Not letting up on the 49ers’ key possession receiver, Coach Pete Carroll demanded a review of Crabtree’s first catch as if it was unbelievable that he could catch a pass of any length with Sherman guarding him.

And the 49ers’ pass catching leader?  Fullback Bruce Miller who needed to be all things in all places with Gore and Hyde sidelined and the 49ers’ receivers blanketed.  Miller grabbed four balls for 56 yards.

In addition, the running game wasn’t exactly humming along, then Frank Gore was lost to a concussion and rookie Carlos Hyde had his afternoon end on a play where his knee and leg were visibly twisted during a tackle.  At least in Gore’s defense, he made a gutsy run on fourth down in the first quarter that went 10 yards for the 49ers’ only score of the day.

And what of the 49ers’ immediate future?  In the final two weeks, anticipate seeing more of the team’s record draft haul that saw the team draft and keep 12 rookies, including Borland and rush linebacker Aaron Lynch.  If the 49ers are brash enough to fire a coach as successful as Harbaugh, then the answer will be to embrace the challenge of hiring someone just as capable and prepared to lean heavily on their young draftees next season and beyond.

It’s not as sexy as deep playoff run, but it is the reality the 49ers face.

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By Jeremy Kahn

After narrowing the Kansas City Chiefs lead down to just four points early in the third quarter, the Oakland Raiders put themselves in position for a possible victory.

Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell that the Chiefs that the Raiders wanted to pull off another upset over their longtime rivals.

In a four minute 42 second span of the third quarter, the Chiefs lead went from 10-6 to 31-6 and the Chiefs defeated the Raiders 31-13 at Arrowhead Stadium.

DeAnthony Thomas got the Chiefs on the board in the first quarter, as he took a Marquette King punt and returned it 81 yards for a touchdown.

Cairo Santos gave the Chiefs a 10-0 lead, but Sebastian Janikowski cut the lead down to 10-3 at the half, as he nailed a 53-yarder with no time remaining in the second quarter.

After a Janikowski field goal, the Chiefs began to turn it on following the 33-yarder by the 15-year veteran.

Knile Davis scored from three yards out, then Alex Smith found Travis Kelce from 20 yards just 54 seconds later after a Derek Carr fumbled the snap.

Davis pit the finishing touches on the scoring for the Chiefs, as he took a Smith pass and took 70 yards for the touchdown.

James Jones caught a one-yard pass from Carr with 34 seconds left for the final margin in the 18-point defeat.

On the afternoon, Carr ended up going 27-of-56 for 222 yards and a touchdown.

The Raiders have lost 10 straight road games, and have not won back-to-back games since weeks seven and eight of the 2012 season.

In their two games in the State of Missouri this season against the Chiefs and the St. Louis Rams, the Raiders were out scored 83-13.

By Morris Phillips

Among the things the Oregon Ducks couldn’t control coming into Friday’s Pac-12 Championship Game was one pretty big thing: their opponent, No. 7 Arizona was talented, and brimming with confidence thanks to two impressive upset wins over the Pac-12 North champs with an eye on making it three straight.

So head coach Mark Helfrich simply asked his Ducks to trust the process, make sure they were in the right spots defensively, and rely on the fact that they were healthier and better equipped to take down their nemesis from the Pac-12 South than they were the previous two meetings.

And sure enough, just as Helfrich asked, the Ducks trusted, and the Wildcats were cooked.

“Well, they played well, we didn’t,” a downcast Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Outcoached us, outplayed us, did a nice job,”

“Tonight was a good example of us playing a complete game as a team,” Helfrich said.

What qualified as complete for Helfrich was pretty darn impressive. The Ducks’ place in the four-team national championship picture was assured with the win, but this was even better than that. In blowing away Arizona 51-13, the Ducks played near flawlessly in the first half, leading 23-0 at the break and quickly increasing that advantage to 30-0 at the start of the third quarter. Two statistical numbers were eye-popping in the first 30 minutes.

The Wildcats couldn’t string together even two positive plays and wilted. They finished the half with—take a seat and a deep breath—25 yards total offense.

And the Ducks kept the pressure on, running 57 offensive snaps, none of them eye-popping, but everyone plenty effective.

In a meeting of two teams highly dependent on pace and rhythm, Oregon got their engines revved first this time and took it from there. Arizona’s defense, which initially seemed more than capable, holding Oregon to a pair of first quarter field goals when they threatened to do much more, eventually gave in. Arizona’s offense, unable to hold the ball for any length of time, offered no help.

“The defense had to go back out there,” Rodriguez explained. “We know (Oregon’s) an up-tempo team. So our guys are in pretty good shape. But still when you’re having to go out that many times—57 snaps or whatever it was in the first half—with that type of offense, they’re going to get theirs.”

Helfrich said his guys were “tight offensively” early, which explains the two field goals, a rarity for one the nation’s highest scoring teams. But with Marcus Mariota healthy and patient, the tide turned quickly. Mariota ran for a pair of scores to cap two, lightning-fast scoring drives that were sandwiched by Aidan Schneider’s three field goals. Freshman running back Royce Freeman posted 100 yards rushing before the break, and Charles Nelson, one of the Ducks’ fleet of speedy game breakers, kept the defense on their heels with his 73-yard catch and run. Three plays later, Mariota had the second of his rushing touchdowns in Oregon’s 20-0 lead with 1:35 remaining before halftime.

Did we mention Mariota was workman-like and spectacular occasionally, befitting his stature as one of the nation’s best player?

Helfrich did afterwards, causing the quarterback to blush a bit. “If this guy isn’t what the Heisman’s about, I’m in the wrong profession,” Helfrich said while sitting next to Mariota at the post-game interview table. “If you want your son or daughter to emulate someone, pick this guy.”

Or pick this team.

AP Photo/Ben Margot

 

By Jeremy Harness

SANTA CLARA – Midway through the third quarter, an exasperated Rich Rodriguez was shown letting out an emphatic sigh as his team continued to struggle on both sides of the ball.

Two plays later, the coach had to watch as quarterback Jesse Scroggins III’s deep pass was picked off by Erick Dargan. To add to the misery, senior lineman Steven Gurrola was flagged for fighting and was promptly kicked out of the game.

That gave Oregon the ball on Arizona’s 23-yard line, and quarterback Marcus Mariota punched it in six plays later to give Oregon a commanding 37-point lead.

That pretty much summed up the night for Arizona, as second-ranked Oregon cemented its spot in the inaugural BCS playoff with a dominant 51-13 win over the Wildcats to take the Pac-12 title Friday night at Levi’s Stadium.

In the process, Mariota, already the front-runner for this year’s Heisman trophy, likely put his name on the award with his performance on Friday by throwing for 303 yards and a pair of scores while running for three more.

He did that against an Arizona team that had beaten Oregon each of the previous two head-to-head meetings and ruined the Ducks’ chances of reaching this game last year.

The No. 7 Wildcats entered Saturday with a chance to again thwart Oregon’s title run while crashing the College Football Playoff party themselves.

However, those visions, just like the field at Levi’s Stadium, got soggy very quickly and only got worse as the offense couldn’t make a dent while a tough, resilient but increasingly-fatigued Arizona defense developed cracks that Oregon used to blow the game open in a hurry.

Missed opportunities also handicapped Arizona, as Wildcat defenders had a pair of potential first-half interceptions squirt through their fingers while missing out on a fumble recovery early in the third quarter, all of which had the potential of swinging the momentum in its favor.

Rodriguez said that the key to the Wildcats’ 31-24 win over Oregon in Eugene on Oct. 2 was that they were more physical than the Ducks in all three phases of the game. The physicality was certainly there for Arizona.

The execution, on the other hand, was another story altogether.

“From my vantage point, it was a lack of execution and them playing a little better than us,” Rodriguez said. “It seemed like it was a different reason every time (as to why) this play didn’t work or that play didn’t work.

“We’ll examine it, get better and get ready for the bowl game.”

The four-team playoff bracket will be released Sunday morning, with Oregon fully expected to be one of those teams competing for the national title. Arizona, meanwhile, will have to wait a while longer but are still considered to have an outside shot at getting into one of the BCS bowls, including the Fiesta Bowl.

The Wildcats displayed a bend-but-don’t-break defense in the first quarter. Although Oregon gained yards and benefited from a short field resulting from an early Arizona turnover, the defense did not permit the Ducks to get into the end zone – the Ducks had to settle for field goals on each of their first two trips into the red zone – and even stopped Oregon on a fourth-and-3 at the Arizona 25.

However, the Wildcats could not get anything going on offense, gaining only 25 total yards in the first half and increasing the amount of strain on their defense. Arizona finished with only 224 yards of offense while collecting only 10 first downs, only two of those coming in an opening half that proved to be decisive.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Anu Solomon struggled especially, throwing for only 34 yards on 6-of-12 passing. He was also sacked three times and just could not generate any momentum that carried the Wildcats to this title game.

“I just didn’t execute,” Solomon said. “If we’re not doing well, it all starts with me, and that’s just what happened.”

The field goals were only going to last for so long, and if you give the Ducks enough chances, they will eventually get their rhythm and cash in. That’s what happened midway through the second quarter, as the Arizona defense finally gave way.

Starting yet another drive in Arizona territory, the Ducks took the ball to the Wildcats’ 7 before Mariota beat an Arizona defender to the corner of the end zone to give Oregon a 13-0 lead.

Oregon scored twice more and went into the locker room with a 23-0 halftime lead, while Arizona searched for answers.

Rodriguez attempted to solve one issue by putting the more mobile Scroggins in place of Solomon and threw a 69-yard touchdown to receiver Cayleb Jones early in the third quarter to momentarily stop the bleeding.

That momentum was squashed in a hurry by Mariota and the Ducks, who picked up right where they left off in the first half and left Arizona in their wake.

“Oregon’s the best in our league this year, and I think they have a chance to prove they’re the best in the country,” Rodriguez said. “But any team that makes the four-team playoffs has to be really good.

“I just haven’t seen the other ones on film like I’ve seen Oregon.”