RiceWatch: Game 3, at Panthers

1. 34 yd streak, called back on penalty. Beats man coverage, Poole 1-on-1. While it was a perfect pass, we have to give credit to Rice for making a good over the shoulder catch. Steps out of bounds after the catch.
2. 1 yard out under the zone. Goes out of bounds.
3. 13 yard across the middle! Beats Poole, man/zone (zone-blitz) defense. Tackled.
4. 10 yard slant. Went longer because the zone cut it off shorter. Dives under tackle but still surprisingly takes decent hit.
5. 14 yard out. Beats Poole 1-on-1. Poole all over him but makes fine catch. Tackled by Poole. Gets up slowly, shaking head. Of course, Millen jumps all over the opportunity to stroke Rice: "this is what makes Rice so great..."
6. 0 yard hitch. Zone. Tackled.
7. 30 yard streak incomplete. 1-on-1 v. E.Davis. Falls while pass drops to ground. The beauty of slow motion replay shows Rice perform his illegal patented push-off move. Millen seems to see it, commenting "there's the fighting, pushing," but inexplicably he makes no mention that ALL of the contact was being done by Rice.
8. 1 yard hitch under zone. Spins off a tackler, dives forward to avoid hit.
9. 20 yard streak to end zone, incomplete. Man coverage by Poole, crosses under Stokes in hopes of picking off DB.
10. 5 yard slant. Man coverage against the patented 49er pick play. The LB covering Brent Jones runs into Poole. Poole recovers to barely drag Rice down. Rice gets up adjusting pads, obviously annoyed someone tackled him.
11. 30 yard streak incomplete. 1-on-1 man against the 5'8" Poole who breaks up the pass, despite Rice having position. Falls to ground. Millen goes off on praising Poole. There's no mention about how someone called the "best receiver ever" should have caught the pass.
12. 12 yards across middle. Just outruns Davis to the inside. Dives under to avoid hit as Davis takes brunt of Pat Terrell and Davis gets injured. Millen actually mentions it: "Look where Jerry Rice was, nowhere to be found, he was underneath it all," but doesn't go far enough in attributing this duck and cover technique to Rice's longevity.
13. 16 yard out. Man by Lofton who freshly replaced the injured Davis. Dick Stockton exclaims that it's a "great catch by Jerry Rice!" when in reality, it was just an average completion. Tackled.
14. 17 yard seam incomplete. Zone. Pass could have been picked off. Millen gets up out of his chair shouting "What a great play by Jerry Rice!" thinking that Rice intentionally went out of his way to knock the ball out of the defender's hands. But replay clearly shows that all Rice's effort was in actuality a failed attempt at a 1-handed catch. Calls it an "all-pro cornerback play!" when in reality, it was a ball that many pro receivers, especially one called the greatest ever, could have brought in.
15. 10 yard out. Man v. Lofton. Lofton makes pathetic no-arm attempt at a tackle, Rice spins around him, scampers upfield for more yards and steps out of bounds.