49ers 24, Titans 22

49ERS DINK BY IN BACKUP BOWL

October 7, 1999 (NHS) -- Gee, who knew Jake Plummer would be forgotten faster than you can say, "Rick Mirer"? Oh, that's right, we did, last week.

Taking the place of Plummer this week in the latest episode of the "The Genius Says He's the Next Joe" saga is Jeff Garcia. Apparently after getting by the Tennessee Titans last Sunday, 24-22, Garcia has "validated" (to use the syntax of the Associated Press) Walsh's status as the Inventor of Everything Holy in Football.

But before we get to Garcia's "best ever" performance last Sunday against the Titans, let's have a moment of silence for Plummer, because wasn't it just a couple weeks ago we were hearing how "the Genius" tabbed Jake as "the next Joe"? Well, all that silly talk has been swept under the rug in the wake of the combination of Plummer's demise and the 49ers' win behind Garcia. Now, Garcia is apparently "proving" Walsh's genius, even though -- according to Walsh -- he would have drafted Plummer; ergo, Plummer would currently be starting for the 49ers and Garcia would still be peddling his wares in Canada. But, hey, why talk about that?

What's really hilarious is that nobody seems shocked whatsoever by the silence on anything Walsh does wrong (i.e., Plummer, Mirer, etc.). Maybe that's because the silence is easily explained, as Garcia himself said, "I also think it's unfair to put Bill Walsh in a position where if I fail, he's criticized by the press. If I do great, then he's still a genius. The guy is a genius no matter what."

How right you are, Jeff! "No matter what." Even if Plummer goes down in flames, even though Mirer was a bust, even though Walsh sees Montana everywhere (he recently said of Dick Vermeil, of all people, "There was some Montana in him.") - all of that doesn't matter, because no matter how many times he's wrong, he's a genius no matter what. And any of our criticism is just "unfair".

The Backup Bowl

The game, of course, was the same old story: 49ers win unimpressively, Bandwagon goes nuts, NHS alone has to present reality. The Bandwagon (the 49ers, their fans and their media) is trumpeting that the 49ers beat a 3-0 opponent and have all but scheduled the 49ers to appear in the Super Bowl. Here we go again with another patient explanation of reality for the Bandwagon.

Despite the novelty of the 49ers actually having to face a winning opponent this late in the season, in reality, this was an ugly contest, an exhibition of bad football that put the audience to sleep. Sure, if the viewer happened to awaken in the final 5 minutes they saw some entertainment, but, overall, the Backup Bowl left much to be desired. On one hand you had the unknown Garcia dumping two-yard passes all day long. Yawn. On the other hand, you had Neil O'Donnell who - well, let's not even go there. Mix in the classic 49er interception -- you know, the tipped ball that magically falls right into their hands -- and some questionable coaching from the Titans, and once again, we're left with yet another win where little or no credit goes to the 49ers.

Don't get us wrong; we really want to give the 49ers credit for a win. It's not our fault that they simply haven't won legitimately since we've been around. We don't want every 49er win to be because of a pathetic opponent, gift turnovers, referee bias or other circumstances. We really want to see the 49ers actually earn a victory straight-up with no extenuating factors. But we can't remember that happening, and we can't force ourselves to give credit where it's not due.

Take this game for example. Where are you going to give credit? To the 49ers' defense? Yes, they shut down Eddie George -- but so did Cincinnati earlier in the season. Perhaps they shut down the Titans' backup QB, O'Donnell? Yikes, he threw for 355 yards. The 49ers offense? They amassed 329 whole yards and a whopping 17 first downs. Their leading rusher was Charlie Garner (69 yards, 53 of which came in one run), their leading receiver was Jerry Rice (56 yards). Not exactly worthy of accolades. How about the 49ers supposedly "great" stop of George on the two-point conversion play that could have tied the game? That call -- a toss-sweep -- is being universally lambasted as a sign of brainlock on the part of Jeff Fisher, although it's not like he had many more options given O'Donnell at QB.

In short, there's just not a lot of room for credit for the 49ers short of simply saying they squeaked out their win against a decent opponent. This game was a four-letter word: U-G-L-Y. If not for the Bandwagon reaction, we could simply let it slide, but as long as the 49ers, their media and their fans continue to celebrate every unimpressive 49er win as "proof" that the 49ers are "the best ever" (as they do by constantly citing the 49ers' record since 1981), we will be here to present the other side, which we believe is the truth. And the truth is that despite the initial teasing this year that it might be over, the 49er Facade -- the false image the Bandwagon attributes to the 49ers -- is alive and well.

Dink-fest flashback

The most interesting part of this game was the approach of the Tennessee defense. Everyone expected the Titans to bring it to the 49ers. After all, there's a reason Steve Young is wearing street clothes; the 49ers offense line has crumbled consistently under any sort of pressure. Then throw in the Garcia factor -- a guy making his first NFL start at QB -- and everything about this game screamed that Tennessee would bring the kitchen sink. Most people had visions of Garcia running for his life as Jevon "The Freak" Kearse and a host of Titans poured through the 49ers' sieve of a line.

Instead, the Titans sat out this game in a soft zone. The result, as one 49er-hater remarked, was like watching a game straight from 1985. You know -- watching the 49ers dump the ball to a running back repeatedly and time after time, no defender is visible on the television screen until they've scampered at least 10 yards. Not only were the 49ers running the classic Walsh Offense -- refusing to throw any ball downfield more than two yards -- but the Titans reacted to the dink-fest in classic style -- refusing to challenge it. They took a page from the book that made the 49ers the Team of the '80's: they sat back softly and gave the 49ers exactly what they wanted: dink after dink after dink.

It's as if the Titans felt they could win by giving the West Coast Offense exactly what it wants. What, were they sick that day in class? How do you think the 49ers won all those Super Bowls? It certainly wasn't talent.

Even the San Francisco Examiner was befuddled by Tennessee's choice of defense, "Other teams had rattled Young with the tactic and the unwritten NFL defensive code mandates that inexperienced quarterbacks pay their dues in the face of heavy pressure. For some reason, the Titans chose to lay off."

Tennessee defensive coordinator Gregg Williams didn't offer an explanation other than remarking, "They protected (Garcia) very well with dinkin' and dunkin'." Gee, who would have anticipated the 49ers would do such a thing? Guess not an NFL defensive coordinator.

"The Next Joe"

The Bandwagon is giving a lot of credit to Garcia, reveling in his mistake-free performance. But again, should we give credit to Garcia, or should we realize that there's simply not that much room for error when all you are doing is "dinkin' and dunkin'"? Seems that any credit has to go to the Titans for not pressuring Garcia. Therefore, as much as the Bandwagon wants to use Garcia's "best ever" performance to "validate" the 49ers and Walsh, his report card still stands with an "Incomplete".

However, that's not to say Garcia's performance wasn't significant in the eyes of 49er-haters. After all, any time a new guy comes along in the 49er system and instantly cashes in a "best ever" performance, it feeds directly into the NHS theory that 49ers of the past are overrated due to the offensive system.

For example, it has long been our take that guys like Joe Montana, Steve Young and Brent Jones (all casually referred to as "the best ever") are overrated because virtually anyone could do the same thing in the 49er offense. Sunday's game was exhibit A. Garcia was the model of efficiency, completing over 60% of his passes with no mistakes -- just like Montana routinely did, and Young after him -- not to mention Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Mike Moroski and so on. Now, is Garcia the next "best ever", or is there something else going on here? Perhaps -- and we're just guessing here -- that throwing a lot of short passes leads to a lot of completions and reduces the chances of interceptions. Perhaps the success of that offense has less to do with who is running it and more to do with whether the defense contentedly sits back and gives up the short pass.

Also shedding some light on the past was the performance of 49ers TE Tony Cline. This unknown caught short passes and chugged slowly downfield just like Mr. Best Ever Brent Jones used to do (not to mention Ted "Bay Area Earthquake" Popson after him). Once again, if the Garcia-to-Cline connection can repeat exactly the Young-to-Jones connection, what does that say? That Cline is the next "best receiving tight end ever", or perhaps Jones was overrated. Hilariously, Cline wears #84, making the point even more clear.

Ruffling some feathers

With all the flak NHS received over last week's game review, we should be the ones protected by a jacket; you know -- like the kind Young wears to protect his tough body. We ruffled more than a few feathers by presenting the possibility Young was faking the severity of his injury. But take a look at the following arguments:

The hit was not typical of the type to cause head injury. Neither of the small DBs that hit him touched his head. People have been pointing out that his head hit his own offensive lineman, Dave Fiore, on the way down. However, according to the San Jose Mercury, "Fiore didn't remember Young striking him" when asked about it after the game.
Steve Young has a history of being over-dramatic. It seems after every little hit he stays on the ground or limps around, only to scamper for a TD run the next play - the limp mysteriously absent.
The 49ers have a history of lying about injuries. They lied about Steve Young's ribs. They lied about Jerry Rice's knee.
The initial report given by Lesley Kisser was "Steve Young does NOT have a concussion. That is what the team physicians and the trainers from the 49ers say" (her emphasis).
The MRI is showing no signs of serious head trauma.

Once Young actually sat out, the team physicians reversed themselves and are now calling it a concussion. It is being printed over and over that Young suffered a concussion from a "ferocious hit" (to once again use the AP syntax) -- in fact, it's being repeated so often and awkwardly it's as if the media is going out of its way to repeat it in order to convince people it must be true. As usual, we leave it up to you, the reader, to examine the evidence and make your own call.

No brainer

The 49ers have a tough test in the high-flying Rams next week, and despite Garcia's performance, the bigger story in 9erLand is about whether Young is going to play. Make no mistake, they will hold Steve Young out next week against the Rams. In fact, they never even considered the possibility of letting him play. Why? To once again turn the contest into another Backup Bowl.

Think about it; it's a no lose proposition once again. If the 49ers win, it "validates" them as the Best Ever if they can win with a backup QB. If they get blown out, as they should, they will say, "We didn't have Steve Young so it wasn't really a fair test, wait until we play the Rams at home with Steve." No matter what, the 49er Problem gets extended at least a few more weeks.

As we've pointed out, given the two-yard dink offense, the absence of Young is no factor. He has been proven no factor time and time again throughout his career as the 49ers have compiled a better record when backup QBs start than when Young starts. The only really important factor in a 49er game is how the defense is philosophically approaching the 49ers offense. After watching Jacksonville then two bad teams clamp down on the 49ers' dinking, reducing Young to an ineffective 60 passer rating, we assumed that defenses had finally changed their historical "soft zone" approach. Tennessee proved us wrong. Next Sunday, watch whether or not the Rams defense decides to contest the short passing game. That -- not Jeff Garcia -- will decide how the game will go very quickly.

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