From: rege@bongo.Berkeley.EDU (Ashutosh G. Rege)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: Niners Beat Aints, Refs
Date: 29 Sep 1992 22:47:15 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: bongo.berkeley.edu

In article <BvCqq9.47I@news.orst.edu> curt@oce.orst.edu (Curt Vandetta) writes:
>
>In article <z5_p5vj.mzimmers@netcom.com> mzimmers@netcom.com (Michael Zimmers) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep28.191955.15422@cs.tulane.edu> buckley@cs.tulane.edu (James Buckley) writes:
>>
>>>Remember, the 49ers have to play the Saints one more time this year.
>>>So I wouldn't get all "high and mighty" just yet ...
>>
>>Especially if the officiating is as choice for that game as it was
>>for last night's.  Even the best teams can't consistently come up
>>through *that*.
>
> I won't argue that the Rice Fumble was a bad call.  It should have been ruled
> down by contact with the spot of the ball on the 1/2 yard line, since that
> is where the ball was when his knees were down.  But other than that one
> call the Refs did all right.

  Sorry, the Rickey Watters 'fumble' was also caused by the ground and 
  equally clear on the replay. The problem is simple : if a referee for
  some reason has his line of sight obstructed he won't be able to 
  tell what happened. With the players moving all over the place that happens
  all the time. Instant replay has to be back.
 
> If I was a 49'er fan (and that's a big IF) I would be more concerned about
> the offensive line play than the Refs.  The Saints were putting a lot of
> presure on Young from the outside (OLB's rushing to be more specific) a
> less mobile QB than Young, like Montana for example, would have been sacked
> quite a few times.  If your looking for a reason why they didn't perform
> at various points of the game, that is why.  Young was constantly having
> to step up and scrabble up the middle.  It also appeared to me, but the
> camera view you get from TV makes it hard to know for sure, that Rice was
> doing a very poor job of coming back to Young when Young was in trouble.
> Perhaps he was starting to block when Young was scrambling around, but it
> didn't appear that they were working together very well.  

  The OL line is one of the best in the league and incredibly under-rated. 
  They've allowed only 3 sacks in 4 games. The Saints have the best (THE
  BEST) LB's in the league. And all they managed was one sack. Sure Young
  was pressured every now and then and scrambled. But his critics would
  say that if he only waited a fraction longer he'd have the receiver open
  (in fact Odessa Turner WAS open and waving frantically on Young's run
  to the 1 yd line which set up Rathman's score). Thankfully not many
  teams have the same calibre LB's and the Niner OL will manage fine
  (case in point is the neutralization of Bruce Smith in the
   Buffalo game)

  Another important factor was that John Taylor was missing and the
  Saints secondary was mugging a somewhat rusty Rice. Sherrard is too
  fragile to run the middle routes so Turner will have to pick it up
  else Rice is going to be really banged up.
 
> It looks like the Saints might have found a weakness in the San Francisco
> offense.  Presure Young hard from the outside, force him to scrabble up
> the middle and try to contain him with an inside LB playing the middle
> zone.  It may not stop the SF offense, but it sure slowed them down.  If
> the Saints had any kind of offense at all, they could have won that game.

  The Saints had several things going for them : 
  1. Refereeing 
  2. Crowd noise
  3. JT missing.
  4. Not-up-to-speed Rice.
  5. A Niner team that doesn't gets into top gear till December. 
  5. (Last but not at all least) Possibly the best set of LB's ever to
     play together and a great overall defense.
 
  And they still lost. The Niner/Saint game has always been a 
  tooth-and-nail affair, both teams know each other too well. I
  wouldn't put too much stock in the effect of the game on
  the rest of the Niner season. In fact the Niners are definitely
  several steps ahead of the rest of the NFC West.

  Ashu Rege


Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro