49ers 35, Falcons 28

49ers whimper, win against worst

What's more hilarious, the fact that the 49ers haven't played a decent team in 7 weeks, or the media that covers them?

Ok, so the NFL schedule-makers probably had a good laugh scheduling the 49ers' first half of the season, but the media coverage truly has to take the cake. The 49ers' media has launched an all-out attack against the intellect of its readers that can only be described as insulting. On Sunday, the 49ers, in classic style, rode generous calls and a weak opponent to cheese their way to a win over arguably the worst team in the NFL -- and what did the media have to say?

"War is swell as 49ers burn Atlanta"; "keeping another enemy in retreat"; "down the road this figures to be one they'll remember with fondness"; and the Steve Young quote, "Of all the games, this one was the most important so far . . . this is the game that will tell us that we can battle and go the distance."

Yes, if you didn't know better (most 49er fans don't), you would think that the 49ers just overcame the reigning Super Bowl champs in a knock-down, drag-out fight. It was indeed a dogfight, but what is missing is the crucial point -- IT WAS THE FALCONS, for crying out loud!!

Neither the S.F. Chronicle or San Jose Mercury mentioned the little fact that the Falcons are among the worst teams in the NFL. The Falcons are last place in the worst division in football. For the media to attempt to spin getting outplayed and almost losing to Atlanta as a resounding victory on all levels truly insults the intellect and makes us wonder, do they actually think anyone out there swallows this? Oh, we forgot, their main readers are 49er fans, who are very adept at swallowing.

Up until now we had been giving due credit to these local papers for mentioning the mediocrity of the NFC West. All that is now out the window because the media is up to their old tricks. Magically, the ease of the 49ers' schedule is not being mentioned anymore. Neither the Chronicle or Mercury mentioned the little tidbit that the Falcons are a 1-6 team. By ignoring that the Falcons are atrocious, they are avoiding the real story of Sunday's game: if the 49ers made the Falcons look like playoff contenders, as they did on Sunday, what is the real talent level of the 49ers? Apparently the media will do whatever it takes to keep the 49er Facade intact, to keep 49er fans ignorantly thinking their team is the "best."

No credit due

Last week we blasted the NFC West for repeatedly laying down like a bunch of sheep. Someone was listening, because the Falcons gave a good effort on Sunday and did many of the things we've been asking teams to do. They even ran a couple trick plays, which we were beginning to think was illegal to do against the 49ers or something.

However, that Atlanta finally decided to give the 49ers a game is not something that deserves congratulations. It still doesn't erase the wasted previous games where NFC West opponents laid down like sheep for the 49ers. But the most crucial point is that this is how the NFL should be, week in, week out. Congratulating a team for actually trying on Sunday would be like congratulating a certain player for working out to get in shape to play. It's their job, this is what teams are paid to do. The fact that they often don't against the 49ers is still the real story.

Decent QB exposes weakness

This week it wasn't Tony Banks, Billy Joe Tolliver, New Orleans' Gruesome Twosome (Heath Shuler and Danny Wuerffel), a shell-shocked Kerry Collins, or Tony Banks again... for once, the 49ers actually faced a starting QB that appeared in the weekly statistics sheet (all the others so far have been too awful to qualify). Chris Chandler is not exactly the best in the league, but he played decent and showed that all it takes is a QB to rise to any level above the familiar pigslop to challenge the 49ers.

Chandler riddled the 49ers' Pro Bowl secondary of Darnell Walker, Zack Bronson, Tyronne Drakeford, and Merton Hanks (oops, we were trying to be sarcastic, but Hanks did somehow undeservedly make his way to the Pro Bowl despite the fact he gets routinely toasted, as he did on Sunday). Imagine what would happen if the 49ers played a QB that was better than decent.

Unfortunately, Chandler's biggest foe wasn't the 49ers defense, but his own team. The awful Falcons defense (13th of 15 in the NFC) killed themselves allowing big plays. Of course, some horrendous officiating played a part in keeping 49er drives alive.

Officials back on the bandwagon

This website is often criticized for covering referee bias towards the 49ers, but if you were watching Sunday, you understand why we do. The 49ers were the recipients of some of the most outrageous acts of kindness or blindness on the part of the referees, including the good-old "huddle and over-rule in favor of the 49ers" tactic that we've grown all-too-accustomed to over these past years.

First, in the 2nd quarter, a personal foul was called against Atlanta's Juran Bolden. On the play, Bolden was the wide man on the punt team trying to get downfield through two defenders. One of them was Drakeford, who held Bolden so blatantly that his jersey nearly ripped off. Bolden shoved Drakeford away from him; the result, personal foul against the Falcons.

Then in the 3rd quarter, Atlanta partially blocked a 49ers punt but was called for roughing the kicker. This call even had the announcers writhing, because the rule is clear once a kick is blocked, there can be no roughing penalty. Later that same important drive, on 3rd down, DE Chuck Smith was called for an unbelievably ticky-tack roughing the passer. His crime was actually touching the protected Steve Young.

As if that wasn't enough, still in the 3rd quarter, Chandler was flagged for supposedly crossing over the line of scrimmage when passing the ball. The replay clearly showed otherwise. Even all the way into the final minutes of the 4th quarter the referees were still at it, calling the ever-popular "hands to the face" on a Falcon offensive lineman to call back an Atlanta TD.

But the real piece de resistance came with about seven minutes left in the game, when the referees engaged in the most time-honored tradition of 49er bias -- the referee "49er huddle." On the play, a blatant pass interference drew an immediate flag, drew an immediate comment from the announcer that it was pass interference, was immediately apparent to everyone in the building that it was pass interference -- but instead of the official immediately signaling P.I. and a Falcons' first down, other referees rushed to the scene and formed the classic "49er huddle", as it's come to being called. It's classic because we've seen it over and over since the advent of 49er football in 1981. What goes on in the huddle can only be speculated, but the one thing that remains constant is the result: obvious penalties are overruled to the 49ers benefit after a lengthy discussion. We theorize the discussion goes something like this:

HEAD OFFICIAL: Ok, what happened?
REF1: I saw it, it was P.I. all the way on #36.
REF2 (running onto the scene from afar): Wait, wait. Are you sure? I think I saw something different.
REF1 (confused): Yes, I'm sure, it was clear. What did you see? You weren't even near the play.
REF2: Ya, but, well, ok, I didn't exactly see it, but he is a 49er, and they are pretty good about not doing stuff, um, like that, you know?
HEAD OFFICIAL: That's good enough for me. No flag on the play, go pick it up. I'll tell the linesman to go apologize to Eddie at the end of the game.
49ERS (in background, clapping, nodding)
REF1: What?!?
HEAD OFFICIAL: Oh, that's right, you're new. We'll explain later.

Whether this is accurate or not, we'll never know. All we know is that others have noted this, such as Tampa Bay's Hardy Nickerson, when asked why the officials did not flag William Floyd for spitting in Nickerson's face: "I guess they got caught up in the 49ers' so-called tradition." Tradition is an awfully nice way of putting it.

But wait -- there's more. In the 3rd quarter, minutes after the roughing the kicker call that went against the Falcons, a 49er did a dangerous slide and knocked out the legs out from kicker Morton Anderson on an extra-point play. Curiously, there was no roughing the kicker call. Then in the 4th, minutes after the ticky-tack roughing the passer call to protect Steve Young, 49ers' DE Chris Doleman piled on a late hit to the head of Chris Chandler, knocking the Falcons' QB out of the game. Hmm, no call. If you're not a 49er-hater, you're probably shocked by now, but for us, we've seen it over and over.

Thankfully, the officials did finally get around to penalizing Kevin Greene's unsportsmanlike chokehold when the game was all but over. A welcome relief, because if you recall last week, despite that ultimately ten 49ers were hit with fines due to fighting, no call went against the 49ers, it was either off-setting or unsportsmanlike on the Rams. All in all, the officiating was a mockery, but a bigger mockery is that several 49ers, after all this, actually had the unmitigated gall to criticize the referees after the game.

Whimper

The big story played up in the media after the initial stroking is that ten 49ers suffered various ailments in the game. Out of all the supposed injuries, the most serious was a sprained foot. Boo-hoo. Two different stories detailed how many times poor Tommy Thompson was hit during the game. Sniff, sniff. How dare the 49ers have to play on that mean-old artificial turf, and against those big bullies, the Falcons!

Druckenmiller misses plane

Heir-apparent to the "best QB ever" label, Jim Druckenmiller, missed the team plane and was fined an undisclosed amount, then got snippy with reporters who dared ask him about the incident. We said it before and we'll say it again, "he's not the sharpest blade in the drawer." Maybe he just has an honest problem with being late -- he did show up to training camp late after holding out.

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