American Football Spectacular: Vermeil's Shun Goku Satsu Gambit.
Pain. Both of our Bay Area NFL teams fell last Sunday, beneath the weight of a precious few key plays falling to the opposing teams' favor.
For our San Francisco 49ers, the game against the New York (American football) Giants was reasonably within reach, but for a few big plays. Had these panned out differently, things might have been closer: The Lloyd catch (covered below); the Shockey 4th down "forget - it - I'm - gonna - reset - the - Playstation - if - this - play - doesn't - work" touchdown catch; the bomb to Plax in double coverage; and Manning's blitz-killing long lob to a single-covered Toomer, which enabled super-sized RB Brandon Jacobs to waltz into the endzone for the second time. That put the game out of reach at 24 - 6, and in the replay, you could even see a couple in the crowd lean together to discuss whether they should head out to get a jump on the traffic.
Under two minutes to go in the first half, Brandon Lloyd made one of the most beautiful catches that any field has ever seen. On a long, long pass from Pickett, Lloyd reached back behind his head, fighting against his body's momentum, and with one hand snatched the ball from the air. The crowd roared. The cut-rate TV announcers fell all over themselves attempting to find the words. Inside the twenty, Lloyd grinned as he rose with the pigskin. And the refs brought the ball back because backup left tackle Anthony Clement had been called for holding on the play. After that, an incompletion and two more penalties followed by an force-it interception. The Niners never got close to the end zone again.
SFist Christopher Rogers, contributing
The SF offense was again overmatched, picking up their initial first down at 5:15 remaining in the second quarter. No one could succeed with the way our offensive line was pushed around. That's one of the key reasons why the Niners were able to jump the Buccaneers two weeks ago; the light Tampa Bay D-line couldn't find any purchase, and the Niners were able to run the ball.
The Niners' tackles couldn't keep the Giants' defensive ends away from Pickett. Stanford alum Kwame Harris was beaten time and again on the right side of the O-line by the terribly efficient pass-rush of gap-toothed Michael Strahan.
Sadly, for those of us hungry for the sight of Jesse Palmer in the game, all he did was hold a clipboard, and look raall purty as he watched the field, his blue eyes each underscored with a flick of eyeblack. We would imagine that he would present you with a few well-chosen flowers, given the chance, and your address.
As for our Oakland Raiders, oh man, last Sunday hurt. In a toe-to-toe slugfest against the hated Kansas City Chiefs with the basement of the AFC West on the line, the Raiders were beaten by a goal-line rush as the clock expired. Kerry Collins had gallantly led OAK back to take the lead with a touchdown throw to a noticeably-hobbled Randy Moss, but too much time was left on the clock. Back came KC, with Trent Green dicing the Raiders D. Down by three points on the doorstep of the endzone with just a few seconds remaining, Kansas City's head coach Old Man Vermeil chose to go for the win rather than accept the gimmie chip-shot field goal, and the overtime that would follow. High risk, high reward. Camaro rather than mini-van. Hunter S. Thompson rather than USA Today. Akuma/Gouki rather than Ryu. And it worked.
The story goes, that with the ball inside the 2-yard line, seconds to go and no timeouts remaining, Coach Vermeil asked for the Chiefs' best short-yardage run play. The call makes sense, considering the Chiefs' fearsome run personnel, and the faith that Vermeil puts in his players. Snap, leap, touchdown, game over. Larry Johnson leapt into the end zone through the gap created by all-world guard Will Shields. And the fans left Arrowhead happy that day. It hurt a lot.
American Football Spectacular's Favored Raiders Correspondent MC Fried Chicken related that the loss hurt worse than a blowout, because the game had been so close.
On the college front, this Saturday, undefeated two-time defending national champion USC Trojans come to Cal's Memorial Stadium, the site of their last loss. Excitement! Can Terra Linda High School's own Joe Ayoob (QB) silence the critics by slaying the biggest, baddest team in the land? Well, the odds are against him, but it'd be awesome if he could.
Next weekend, your Raiders go to Mile High to face Shanny's evil cut-blocking Broncos, your Niners go to the new Soldier Field to battle the new-school Bears, and Jesse Palmer knocks on your door, bringing you secrets and treasure. Just for you.
Next week in your American Football Spectacular: I am not f**king around about that Jesse Palmer prediction. That is going to happen.