A diehard's thoughts on the Fins-49ers game

I've been digesting our latest victory, and there are several things I want to discuss in light of the happiness I feel that we are in contention, playing meaningful games in December.  I'm so happy, I think I just sharted. No, really.

Ok, here we go.

Props to Special Teams: Aside from Ted Ginn running sideways and getting tackled well before the 20 yard line on two kickoffs, our Special Teams unit did an excellent job on Sunday.  Much of our early 14-3 lead can be directly attributed to the field position game.  Brandon Fields consistently pinned the 9ers inside the 12 yard line, and he must get credit for not pooching any kicks into the end zone.  One sequence saw the 49ers punt from deep in their own territory, Davone Bess returned it 25 yards to the 30 yard line, and in something like 2 plays later we were in the end zone.  Our kick coverage was also very good.  I counted on 3 different occassions, the first guy down the field made the tackle (Patrick Cobbs, Jason Allen, and Charlie Anderson).  Obviously this group was much maligned just a few weeks ago, with many people questioning special teams coach Jon Bonamego, but they've cleaned up the past few weeks. 

Questions with play calling: Typically, I love Dan Henning's play calling during a game, but like many of you, yesterday was a head scratcher.  Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but I think Ronnie Brown should have been more involved.  However, the play that almost cost us the game was on the down immediately preceding Dan Carpenter's field goal attempt late in the game.  We were at the 29 yard line, which as we all know is borderline range for Carpenter, and Henning called a toss left that resulted in a 2 yard loss.  Most coaches would agree in that situation, the best call is to run it up the gut, where you'd probably gain a yard or 2.  Well, the difference in those yards contributed to Carpenter hitting the crossbar, which might not have happened had we been a couple of yards closer.  Getting cute with play calling late in the game when every inch counts is probably not the way to go, but thank god it didn't cost us the game.

Bill Parcells' offseason conditioning program won us this game:  How else can one explain that our defense didn't fold after being on the field for 39 minutes ?  Nine times out of ten, if your defense is on the field for that long, they're going to get steamrolled in the 4th quarter.  With that much playing time, I've never seen a defense rise to the occasion like that.  Our offense did absolutely no favors with their consistent 3 and outs.  Sparano even said in his presser that he was worried about it, scanning the players' faces, but they never showed fatigue.  Which brings me to the point about Parcells.  He has a specific, detailed approach to conditioning that's proven very successul both in our lack of injuries, and the abundance of stamina, particularly late in games.  We all remember Jason Taylor's pissing match, telling Parcells that his role in the Nutcracker (Dancing with the Stars) has helped him to be in the best shape ever.  Well, apparently not, since JT has been injured twice (the first time in his career), and has arguably had the worst season of his career.  Parcells knew that players needed to condition on his terms, and we're now seeing the proof is in the pudding, especially in games played in December.  Parcells, I think, deserves much credit for this win, getting the players ready, etc...