C.J. Beathard on win: ‘You couldn’t write a script for this’

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By Art Spander

It didn’t mean much, this 49ers victory. Then again, it meant so very much.

It meant a team that had lost too many players with injuries and too many games — including the previous three — could show that the talent and courage clearly hadn’t been lost.

It meant C.J. Beathard, who a year ago had lost a brother, slain outside a Nashville bar during an altercation, could, with a belief in religion and his own skills, step out of the shadows and quarterback the Niners to a 20-12 upset victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

It does no good to wonder what might have been, in life or sport, but so often that’s the way we think. What happens, happens, often for the worst. Occasionally for the best.

Let’s listen to Beathard, who in his fourth season with the 49ers and his role as third-string QB, cut the long hair he had worn in memory of his brother and then Saturday at State Farm Stadium not far from Phoenix threw three touchdown passes and the Cards for a loop.

All Arizona (now 8-7) had to do for a spot in the playoffs was beat the Niners (now 6-9), as it did in the opening game of the season.

It did not, because the Niners' defense was remarkable, because the offense was dependable, because C.J. (for Casey Jarrett) was reliable. If you choose to think there was a bit of magic involved, well, Beathard will not disagree.

“This means more than I can really put into words,” said Beathard. ”Everything I’ve been through this year. The year anniversary of my brother’s passing. I just couldn’t write a script for this.

“I couldn’t pick things to go the way they did. The vibe in the locker room at practice when I got out there, it was if I had nothing to lose.”

You know the background, the numerous starters from last year’s Super Bowl team getting hurt week after week, especially on defense. The Buffalo Bills threw TD pass after TD pass against the 49ers. And of course, starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was gone with another leg injury, and then a week ago Sunday his replacement, Nick Mullens, incurred an injury to his passing arm.

Up stepped Beathard, who hadn’t started in two years.

The coaches call the plays, but they also call upon the guy who takes the ball from the center.

“People don’t know how much is on the quarterback’s plate,” said Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk. “Every time we call a run, we’re calling two plays. It’s on the quarterback to decide on (reading) the defense. So much goes into the execution. I’m so excited with the job he did.”

And the job running back Jeff Wilson did, 183 yards on 22 attempts.

Or the defense did, limiting the Cardinals, the NFL’s third-ranked offense, to 350 yards (it was averaging 399) and of course, two field goals and a touchdown.

There was a missed extra point on the TD, something that seemed to be unavoidable. The Niners' consistent Robbie Gould missed one, after missing a 41-yard field goal, his first failure after 31 in a row.

Tight end George Kittle, he of the good humor and great blocking, returned after being out for weeks, and his presence helped as much as his play. “Practice was different with him there,” said head coach Kyle Shanahan.

“We didn’t have many guys left,” Shanahan added, referring to his lack of defenders, “but the people there were an inspiration. It came down to the final plays (when Arizona’s Kyler Murray was throwing deep).

“We didn’t tap out. We made the plays.”

And won a game, just as if it would have been scripted.

49ers' litany: Lose the ball, lose the game

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By Art Spander

At least the 49ers didn’t lose to the Jets. Or the Rams, who did lose to the Jets. The Niners simply have lost to a great many others — including, on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, the story is San Francisco losing more than Dallas winning, losing the football again and again, then the game, 41-33.

We've reached the point in this season that’s gone in too many directions — except the right one, other than those Rams games — that there’s little new, or good, to discuss. 

The mistakes are the same ones as virtually every week. Thus the observations are the same ones as virtually every week.

To wit, if you give the other team the ball on fumbles and interceptions, you’re doomed. The Niners did, four times, and they were.

How many times or ways need we hear a football team isn’t going to succeed if it keeps giving up the football? Answer: A great many, if it’s the 49ers.

They’ve had two turnovers or more in nine straight games. That can’t keep going on, only because for the 5-9 Niners the season can’t go on, literally, more than two more games. Thank heaven for small favors.

How this all came about the season after they were in the Super Bowl is one of the mysteries inherent in sport. Maybe because of the numerous injuries. Maybe because a few uninjured were not what we thought they’d be — or were supposed to be. Maybe because the opposition was better.

In what has become litany, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan summed up the game thusly: “We played good football. Offensively, special teams, the guys did a lot of good. But if they get our turnovers, it doesn’t matter what you do. You have little chance to win.”

Up until a couple weeks ago the Niners-Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium, between Dallas and Fort Worth was hot stuff: Sunday night, prime time, two teams with a history. Unfortunately, also two teams with losing records, so it was flexed out, replaced by Browns-Giants.

Al Michaels also was flexed out when, only days before kickoff, he tested positive for Covid-19. And although he insisted he felt fine, he had to step away for Mike Tirico. Yes, it’s a very strange year.

As Shanahan would reaffirm.

“We’ve put up with a lot of crap this year,” he said when asked if the injuries combined with the temporary relocation to the Phoenix area proved insurmountable.

“But too much to overcome? I think we would have overcome it if it weren’t for the turnovers. You play the game of football, you have a chance to win every week regardless of the circumstances. That doesn’t mean you can turn the ball over.”

Three minutes into the first quarter of a 0-0 game, the 49ers' Richie James fumbled away a punt return on the San Francisco 24. Seven plays later, Dallas led 7-0. Before you knew it, Nick Mullens was sacked, fumbled and, whoops, the Cowboys were up 14-0. The first quarter still had more than six minutes left.

In time, the Niners would move into a 14-14 tie, then a 24-24 tie. But Mullens would then throw two interceptions, one of which Shanahan said was a good pass. By deduction, you can guess the other was not.

“We ran the ball well in the first half,” said Mullens, “but we couldn’t run the ball every play. We needed to make some big-time plays. I didn’t capitalize enough on the opportunities.”

Mullens, who after all is a backup, has been pilloried for his errors. But the offensive line has not protected well, and if he doesn’t get the ball away in a hurry, then he gets pummeled — and often fumbles.

This season is as good as finished, although the Niners have two more games, including Saturday at Arizona — where the Cardinals are the home team, as opposed to the 49ers calling the Cardinals’ State Farm Stadium home because they were evicted from Santa Clara.

Along with everyone in a Niners uniform, Mullens was asked whether the move to a new facility in another state was the reason for the recent defeats.

“It’s been a challenge, yeah,” said the quarterback, “but as far as the turnovers, it’s not a valid excuse.”

There are no valid excuses.

Niners’ Trent Williams: ‘Without the ball, it’s impossible to win’

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By Art Spander

They tell us good teams find a way to win. This season, the 49ers are finding ways to lose. Therefore, the Niners must not be a very good football team. But you didn’t need any deductive reasoning to know that.

Not after the last two games, one against the Buffalo Bills when they were ineffective on defense, the other on Sunday against the Washington Football Team, when they were, well, terrible on offense.

Terrible, not that they didn’t run or pass — the Niners had 344 yards total to 193 for Washington. Terrible that a pass by Nick Mullens was intercepted and run back 76 yards for a touchdown — the infamous “pick six” — and a fumble by Mullens when he was sacked was returned 47 yards for a touchdown.

Small wonder, then, in their second straight Covid-19-forced home away from home, State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the Niners were defeated, 23-15, by a team only slightly less worse than they have become. But one that, unlike San Francisco, is going to the playoffs.

Three turnovers Sunday, the two that proved destructive and another lost fumble. There have been a ton of them since Mullens replaced the injured Jimmy Garoppolo — some Mullens’ fault, some not — and they are a primary reason the Niners are 5-8 in a season going nowhere.

As Trent Williams, the offensive tackle who joined the Niners this season after years in Washington, pointed out, “The ball is everything. Without the ball, it’s impossible to win.”

Cycles. We go through them. So do teams. When things are going fine, well, there are lyrics to remind us that all too soon they won’t go well. “Riding high in April,” Frank Sinatra sang, “shot down in May.”

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. That’s Murphy’s Law. A season after so much went right, until the second half of the Super Bowl, the Niners have been beset by injuries, errors and bad breaks. That’s a blend guaranteed to ruin the hopes of any sporting franchise.

The Niners have been patching and matching and hanging on. Or had been. Was it appropriate that on the first offensive play of the game Sunday, receiver Deebo Samuel reinjured his hamstring and was finished?

Whatever, if you don’t lose fumbles and throw interceptions, you might have a chance.

Last year when he was at Ohio State, Chase Young was making the case why he should be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft. That turned out to be Joe Burrow, the quarterback from LSU. Young went second, to Washington. His claim to be first has some validity.

He tore through the Niners in the second quarter (Williams was out of the game temporarily), knocked the ball from Mullens’ hand and ran it the 47 yards for the score that put Washington in front, 13-7.

That came at the end of the first half. The hit may have been intimidating. On the final play of the third quarter, Mullens was intercepted by Kamren Curl and run back 76 yards for a touchdown.

“We had a bad day,” said Niners coach Kyle Shanahan. “We missed a few opportunities early on offense. You don’t keep getting those again; Nick missed a few open throws. We struggled with some big penalties, I thought we had more drops than we usually have.

“Regardless we could have found a way, if it weren’t for the turnovers.”

Shanahan said after Mullens’ big interception, he thought about replacing him with C.J. Beathard. But as Beathard warmed up, Mullens passed to Kyle Juszczyk for a touchdown.

Mullens said on the fateful pick he was trying to find an outlet.

“You have to protect the ball,” Mullens agreed. “You can’t make that mistake. That changed the game.”

Nothing, unfortunately, is going to change the Niners’ record. “I expect us to play better than we did Sunday,” Shanahan said.

But in this season, expectations are thrown or fumbled away.

No excuses for Niners; no defense either

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By Art Spander

No excuses. That was the brief observation of 49ers linebacker Fred Warner. No excuses. And no answers.

No doubt either. The Niners, as constituted now, with all their injuries, all, their backups, aren’t as good as the Buffalo Bills.

Or, the way things went Monday night, probably not as good as most other teams in the NFL.

Buffalo is on the rise, on the way to the playoffs. The Bills swept over the Niners, 34-24, Monday night in the first San Francisco home game to be played in Arizona because of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the Bay Area.

But it was the opposition that was responsible for the result, not the location. The Bills have the two basics of winning football, a brilliant young quarterback and fine excellent defenders.

The Niners seemed dumbfounded, as much by what they didn’t do as to what the Bills did. If we heard it once in the post-game rhetoric from the Niners, we heard it a dozen times.

They were not surprised. They were just, well, beaten. Not defeated, at least to their way of thinking. That would be a mental thing, an admittance, a concession. This was, well, confusion.

A lack of execution was the explanation, bringing us back to 1976 and the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers — coach John McKay being asked what he thought of the Bucs’ execution and answering, “I’m in favor of it.”

To a man, the Niners insisted they knew what was coming, other than Allen’s ability to avoid being sacked  — extending the play is what it’s called — even more than perceived from films. Patrick Mahomes did it to the Niners in the Super Bowl, moving, scrambling, avoiding and, when required, running. Now, déjà vu, here came Allen, in the 2018 draft, one year after Mahomes.

Allen on Monday night passed for 375 yards and four touchdowns. That he gained only 11 yards rushing is a trifle misleading. It was the way he kept a play alive that was important.

The Bills had 449 yards in all, the most allowed this season by the Niners, who are 5-7. The Bills are 9-3.

Asked what he thought about the defense, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said, “Obviously it didn’t work out well.”

The offense also was lacking. And no, the Niners didn’t blame their difficulties on needing to move for several weeks to the Phoenix area when Santa Clara County banned contact sports.

“We just didn’t get it done,’ said linebacker Dre Greenlaw. “They ran similar things to what we expected. We just didn’t execute.”

They were outplayed, but few people — if any — tell you that. Nobody wants to admit they didn’t have a chance, which after the first quarter the 49ers didn’t. Sure, there were a few key plays, an interception by Warner negated by a penalty; a lost fumble by Brandon Aiyuk. But the Bills owned the game.

“They were calling the perfect plays to everything we were dialing up,” said Warner.

The Bills were in control, literally. They had the ball only two seconds fewer than 25 minutes. The 49ers couldn’t get much done on offense and virtually less done on defense.

“We knew Allen could run,” said Shanahan, “and he’s got a big-time arm.”

Watching the game from a box at State Farm Stadium was rehabbing Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, as once more the position belonged to Nick Mullens who, well, looked decent but didn’t look like Allen.

He threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns, but trying a sneak at the goal line in the fourth quarter he was called for illegal procedure.

“I anticipated the snap,” said Mullens, “and moved too early.”

That wasn’t an excuse, just an error in judgment.

Reminder of the ’80s: 49ers don’t whine, they win

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By Art Spander

This one was reminiscent of the way the 49ers played in the ’80s, responding to adversity with a win, not a whine.

This one told us all we need to know about Kyle Shanahan’s leadership and his players’ character. 

This one told us that despite the changes and the passing of years, the Niners retain a link to those teams of the ’80s, the team of the decade.

In those great seasons of long ago, with men such as Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott, nothing seemed to get in the Niners’ way.

They overcame bad breaks and bad flight connections. They played in the ice of Chicago and the humidity of Miami. They had injuries. They had dropped passes.

They never had misgivings.

It was as if their unspoken motto was “Shut up and play,” words that after this weekend would perfectly fit the current team, which Saturday was in effect evicted from its facility and stadium and then Sunday in Inglewood beat the Rams, 23-20, in the final seconds.

“What our team went through really the last two weeks, then a week off, the Covid stuff,” said Shanahan, “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

What they went through were consecutive defeats, three of them, a bye, then a declaration from Santa Clara County that, because of a spike in coronavirus cases, they weren’t permitted to hold games or workouts at their team's normal venue.

What they went through were doubts about where the team would move temporarily — Texas? Arizona? — and questions about being separated from families.

But the doubts and worries didn’t throw them off the task at hand, playing and winning a football game. Beating the Rams.

Which they did for a fourth straight time, Robbie Gould’s field goal over the crossbar with 0:00 on the clock breaking the 20-20 tie.

The story of the game that pushed the Niners’ record for this confusion of a season to 5-6 was defense.

Along with the unending Covid-19 threat. Along with the return of Raheem Mostert and Richard Sherman. Along with turnovers (four for the Rams, three for the Niners).

Niners defensive coordinator Robert Saleh had a brilliant game plan. (“He’ll be a head coach very shortly,” said Shanahan, as rumors circulated of Saleh replacing the fired Matt Patricia at Detroit.)

The Rams early on seemed incapable when they had the ball, trailing 17-3 midway through the third quarter. It was when the 49ers had the ball that problems started.

Mostert, who had been out the last couple of games — isn’t everyone on the Niners injured, or does it just seem that way? — scored a touchdown for a 7-3 lead in the first quarter.

That went to 14-3 when rookie tackle Javon Kinlaw, the first-round draft pick, swatted a Jared Goff pass, grabbed it and carried the interception 27 yards for a TD. A pick-six, as they say.

Mostert was carrying in the third quarter when the Rams’ Aaron Donald, the best defensive lineman in the league, reached around and extricated the ball. It was brought back 20 yards for a score by Troy Hill. Oops.

After a 61-yard run by rookie Cam Akers, the Rams then scored another touchdown, and the Niners were behind, 20-17. When you’re figuratively homeless for some three weeks plus, and then possibly have to be quarantined to get back where you’re supposed to be, a scoreboard deficit is trivial.

Shanahan said he was impressed the way occasionally maligned QB Nick Mullens (252 yards, one INT) rallied the Niners down the stretch. He said he was no less impressed with the arrangements by the Niners organization in what the TV announcers say “are challenging times.”

“Everyone here has been so committed to keeping safe,” Shanahan said. “We know how big a deal the virus is.”

Without saying so, Shanahan implied the Niners were blindsided by the Santa Clara decision to halt contact sports — is there any sport which has more contact than the NFL? Hockey maybe, but the Sharks aren’t practicing yet.         

The unexpected happens. It’s happening to the 49ers.

They didn’t whine, they won. Like the teams of the past.

Berserkley once more: Stanford wins on a blocked PAT

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By Art Spander

BERKELEY, Calif. — It was Berserkley all over again, this time with cardboard cutouts in attendance.

You can put masks on the coaches, but you can’t cover up the unpredictability of a game when Stanford is at Cal.

So much has been made about The Play, the laterals, legal and illegal, that gave Cal the win in 1982 and gave TV a lifetime of reruns.

Then, almost forgotten, in 1988 a kid from Vietnam, Tuan Van Le, blocked a short field goal with three seconds left to keep Stanford in a 19-19 tie.

In this Covid-19 season, on a Friday at Memorial Stadium, without fans but certainly not without drama, Thomas Booker of Stanford blocked a Cal extra point attempt with less than a minute left to preserve a 24-23 victory.

That was after Cal had a field goal partially blocked late in the first half.

When the PAT was blocked, on the sideline Cal coach Justin Wilcox showed his shock by grabbing at his mask and momentarily pulling if off his face.

Cal also lost two fumbles, one on a muffed punt deep its own territory that set up Stanford’s first touchdown.

Asked what he would do to correct the failings, Wilcox said, “It’s unacceptable. On special teams, it’s literally a simple technique that we have to execute with great effort, and we are having issues.”

That’s putting it mildly.

“I’ve got to help give them answers,” said Wilcox. “We’ve got to coach better. And we’ve got to perform better on special teams.”

So someone perceptively asked why, after that last touchdown, didn’t Cal — which had been moving the ball well — go for the two-point conversion?

“I felt we had shored up (the defense) where we needed to be shored up,” said the coach, “and I felt good about going into overtime. That’s on me.”

Booker, a 6-foot-4, 310-pound junior, said the defense had been getting in against Cal on place kicks.

“We had put pressure on them earlier,” Booker said, “so I knew we had a chance.” 

What both teams wanted this bizarre season, with games being cancelled, was a chance to get off the schneid, in gambling lingo, to grab a win. And although outplayed the first half, Stanford got that win.

And thus in what was the 123rd Big Game, the Cardinal regained the old trophy, the Stanford Axe.

Cal took it in 2019, after nine straight Stanford wins, and the school’s rally committee was not going to allow anyone to forget.

On a huge section of empty seats, the big, colored ones used for card stunts were aligned so they read “OUR,” with a depiction of the axe.

We’re familiar, unfortunately, with the restrictions and adaptations brought about by the pandemic, golf tournaments held without galleries, ball games with nobody in the bleachers, but perhaps nowhere is the void more noticeable than in college football.

It was a spectacularly beautiful late-autumn afternoon for the game, and in any other year on a day like that there would have been tailgate parties packed with people wearing red or blue, laughing, shouting and relishing the camaraderie of sport.

But it was not to be, understandably. The streets were empty. The only sounds were from those piped in growls and groans that have nothing to do with cheers or chants.

The national anthem and Cal fight song were played. That should be enough, right?

Maybe next year we return to normal, as far as celebrating our sports. Of course, the way this one ended seems normal for a Cal-Stanford game.

Niners learn difference between starters and subs

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By Art Spander

What could Kyle Shanahan say? What could anyone say, except that what happened to the 49ers on Thursday night was, given the circumstances, inevitable.

Although as a head coach, Shanahan never would make that sort of a concession.

He called the game a challenge, which is a sanitized way of pointing out that his team — many of whom were injured, three of whom were on the reserve/Covid-19 list — was loaded with substitutes. And overmatched.

Especially against the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack beat the Niners, 34-17, at Levi’s Stadium. Unlike the election, it was decided quickly.

Maybe the game shouldn’t have been played after the Niners facility in Santa Clara was closed Wednesday morning, when it was disclosed that receiver Kendrick Bourne had tested positive.

After all, Cal‘s Saturday night game against Washington was cancelled because a Golden Bears player tested positive. But supposedly the city of Berkeley made the call, not the school. 

And there are two differences. Call off a pro Thursday nighter, and the NFL network is losing money, which we have come to understand is what drives sports. Also, NFL coaches seem obsessed by Tennyson’s Light Brigade, a sense of do or die, figuratively riding onward.

Asked about pushing the Niners-Packers game back a few days, Shanahan said, “I don’t think about that stuff. It was never brought up. I don’t think about it. We were going to play Thursday at 5.”

And so with a backup quarterback, a backup tight end, and numerous other backups, the Niners did play. It was estimated that San Francisco had $80 million of cap space on injured reserve, including of course QB Jimmy Garoppolo, tight end George Kittle, running back Raheem Mostert and defensive end Nick Bosa.

To steal a line from another sport, there’s no crying in football. There’s just playing. And in the Niners’ case, waiting. They face New Orleans a week from Sunday, and for a third straight game a Super Bowl-winning QB — Drew Brees. On Thursday, it was the Pack’s Aaron Rodgers; four days previously, Seattle’s Russell Wilson.

The Niners used Nick Mullens at the position Thursday night. He wasn’t very good, throwing an interception and losing a fumble. But most of the 49ers weren’t very good. As is Mullens, they’re subs.

The Niners were in a hole quickly enough, 21-3, in the second quarter, and Mullens was under a heavy rush. On the other side, Rodgers, the Cal grad who should have been taken by the Niners in the first round of the 2005 draft, was passing for 305 yards and four touchdowns.

Some media considered this the Packers’ chance for retribution, since the Niners last season stomped Green Bay twice, including in the NFC Championship game. But as Shanahan reminded, different years, different personnel. (And it might it be pointed out, a different result.)

“I’m looking forward for the next three days off for our players,” said Shanahan. “Something that’s needed pretty bad.”

After consecutive defeats, the Niners are 4-5. The playoffs seem unlikely, except to the coach.

“We’ve got one game in the next 24 days. After New Orleans, we can enjoy our bye week. Then we can get back on track and try to turn this thing around, come back and play some better football.”

Not if they don’t get some better players.

There’s a reason some people are starters. That next-man-up mantra sounds great, but invariably the next man up isn’t as good as the man he replaced — otherwise he would be the starter, not the replacement.

Nobody’s really to blame for the Niners situation. “Sometimes you bite the bear,” former Niners owner Eddie DeBartolo used to say, “and sometimes the bear bites you.”

There have been too many bear bites this season for the 49ers. Also, too many defeats.

Mediocre may be proper description for Niners

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By Art Spander

Nick Mullens was better. The 49ers were not. You take the triumphs where you can. Especially in a season full of defeats. One of those — another of those — coming on Sunday.

That the Niners couldn’t beat the Seahawks, especially at Seattle, especially turning the ball over twice — two interceptions by the star-crossed guy Mullens replaced, Jimmy Garoppolo — was not exactly headline stuff.

The Seahawks have one of the best quarterbacks in the game — yes, Patrick Mahomes is included — and a great quarterback makes a difference. Some would add, “Along with a strong defense,” although until Sunday, when they beat the 49ers, 37-27, the Seahawks had a mediocre defense, ranking 24th of the 32 teams.

Mediocre also may be the proper listing for the Niners. They are 4-4 halfway through a season that, because of injuries and errors both in judgment and commission, appears destined to end up in a manner that fans fear.

We’ll find out more in four days. On Thursday night at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, San Francisco gets another considerable test, the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack lost Sunday to Minnesota, another franchise in America’s cold country. But in Aaron Rodgers, he of the State Farm commercials, and no less a Cal alumnus, Green Bay has what the 49ers lack, stability at QB.

No, you can’t do much about injuries, particularly in the salary cap era. Is anyone old enough to remember when the Niners of Eddie D, Bill Walsh and Carmen Policy signed everyone and anyone? These days, you just have to hope the next men up are talented.

San Francisco has used three different quarterbacks this short stretch, QB roulette, if you will, because Garoppolo incurred a high ankle sprain the second game of the season.

On came Mullens, who did so well some observers thought he should be the permanent starter — until two weeks later when Mullens was, well, ineffective is the the gentle way of phrasing it, and was replaced by C.J. Beathard.

Asked what happened that day against the Philadelphia Eagles, Mullens said, “I wish I knew.” Since then we do know, Garoppolo, gutting it out but restricted by his ailing ankle, returned until Sunday Mullens returned.

Mullens directed the 49ers to a mini-comeback in the second half. He completed 18 of 25 for 238 yards and led touchdown drives of 80, 79 and 61 yards.

Presumably he’ll be the starter Thursday, and presumably he’ll be better than the last start. He certainly knows the proper things to say.

“I think what I learned,” he said, “is how tough the NFL is. The thing that creates energy is making plays. And I feel on the both sides of the ball (Sunday) we obviously didn’t do that well enough.”

The Niners were missing wideout Deebo Samuel, who is as much a part of the running game — which is the Niners’ offense — as the passing game. San Francisco must play from ahead, get the ball and grinding away yards and time off the clock. When they fall behind, as they did on Sunday, well, they stay behind.

All this affects the tactics of Niners fourth-year coach Kyle Shanahan, whose philosophy is built on powerful backs and ball control.

Drawing x’s and o’s on paper can be fascinating, but as what has befallen the supposedly unconquerable Bill Belichick this month — the Patriots lost their fourth in a row on Sunday — you must have the players.

Misery may love company, but football takes no relief if others are stumbling along with themselves.

“I was frustrated with the whole offense,” Shanahan said about the way his team played, “starting with myself. We were trying to hit some big plays. We didn’t get much from the run game (52 yards).

“We tried to get it going. Eventually, we had to get away from it and start throwing.”

Giving Nick Mullens another chance.

Niners looking for their identity — and some touchdowns

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

This is the season that every team in pro football has, other than the Patriots for that long period. The season that coaches fear and fans dread. The season when you stop asking what’s wrong and instead ask what’s right — if anything.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven

Harry Edwards on sports: ‘The normal will never be again’

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

He is the man to credit. Or blame. For Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their black-gloved salute. For Colin Kaepernick coming to his knees. For the willingness of African-American athletes over the past half century to let us know a system’s imperfections.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven

The draft: A few boos (taped), a lot of quarterbacks

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

Roger Goodell got his boos — recorded as they might have been. The 49ers got their replacement for DeForest Buckner. And the Raiders got their official acknowledgment they belong to Las Vegas, which as the virus-denying female mayor of the city said on CNN is not China.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven

Chiefs take the Super Bowl the Niners should have won

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

MIAMI — This is what the great ones do. They win a game that could have been lost, maybe should have been lost. The 49ers and their fans know all about it. They watched Joe Montana and Steve Young do it for them in the good old days.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven 

Richard Sherman, waiting for KC, reminisces about Kobe

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

MIAMI — This time Richard Sherman had the stage to himself, as if it ever seems to matter. He’s one of a kind, a man who can talk a great game and play an even greater one, who went from the tough streets of Compton to the campus of elite Stanford and then to star in pro football.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven