Niners turn over the ball but not the game

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The New England Patriots are 3-0. So are the 49ers. This is fact, not an attempt to compare.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 The Maven 

Picks are in: Raiders, 49ers get defensive

By Art Spander

ALAMEDA, Calif. — I’m off the clock. The pick is in. And no, to answer the question posed on the NFL Network, I don’t know what is going to happen to Josh Rosen.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven

Niners lose ball and game to the only team that hadn’t won

By Art Spander

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The clues were as obvious as the footballs bouncing on the grass — and picked up by the opposition. And, in one case, run back for a touchdown.

If you lose the ball, which the 49ers did, then you lose the game. Which the 49ers also did.

Do turnovers make bad teams? Or do bad teams make turnovers? This is not so much a conundrum as a gentle way of saying that, right now, the San Francisco 49ers are a mess. They were beaten by the only team in the NFL that until Sunday had beaten no one else.

But if you give away the ball five times, twice on interceptions and thrice on fumbles, you’re going to lose to anyone and everyone, so it’s no surprise that the Niners were stopped, 28-18, by the Arizona Cardinals and that both Arizona the Niners are 1-4.

The surprise is that until the end, San Francisco was in the game, in a manner of speaking. And another surprise will be if the 49ers can win one of their next two games, Monday night at Green Bay and then a week from Sunday back here at Levi’s Stadium against the overwhelming Los Angeles Rams.

“We doubled their time of possession,” said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan — 40 minutes, 12 seconds to a virtual 20 minutes. “Our defense played its tail off. You look at a lot of things, it’s hard to find out how we lose this game. Then it’s very easy: turnovers.”

Especially one of them, a 23-yard fumble return by Cardinals linebacker Josh Byrnes, who picked up the ball after Niners quarterback C.J. Beathard was sacked and lost it on his own 33. The ball bounced, Byrnes grabbed it, and, yikes, with 4:41 to play Arizona grabbed a 21-12 lead — and the game.

Asked how many of the turnovers could be blamed on Beathard, the second-year quarterback who is filling in for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo, Shanahan did his best not to throw Beathard under the bus. He merely tossed him under one of those motorized scooters.

“I mean he’s the quarterback,” said the coach. “It’s his responsibility to protect the ball. But 10 other guys should make it easier on him. Usually fumbles are hard to pin on the quarterback.”

The Niners lost several starters, including halfback Matt Breida, a strong blocker as well as a fine runner. But pro football is a game of injuries, and the slogan is “Next man up.” Every player in the locker room is capable, or he wouldn’t be there.

“You can’t win ballgames turning the ball over five times,” Beathard confirmed. “I feel like we played well in all the other aspects except turnovers. Just got to take better care of the ball.”

Beathard didn’t quite know what happened when he was sacked by Byrnes, and the ball was returned for a score.

“I was trying to get the ball to (wide receiver) Trent Taylor,” said Beathard, “and he was getting held. I decided to wait a little bit. The guy hit the ball out of my hands and that was it. Just got to get the ball out quicker.”

Maybe Beathard is what we see. Surely the Niners would have thought more of him or they wouldn’t have signed Garoppolo, who was seen as a savior. Bur the savior is done until next year after knee surgery, so for better or worse it’s Beathard’s baby.

And Shanahan’s worry. After an 0-9 start last year as a rookie coach, Shanahan, and the Niners, finished with five straight wins. Yes, Garoppolo was in charge. Now he’s not.

“Last year it was frustrating to start that way,” said Shanahan, answering a question. “And we don’t like to lose. We put a lot of work into this. Every Sunday we come out confident, and we expect to win. We’ve come up short a number of times.

“I told our team we’d love to be 5-0 right now, and we’re not. We know why we lose each game. We fought hard, but when you have five turnovers it’s borderline impossible.”

The word borderline is not applicable. It’s simply impossible. As the Niners proved.

S.F. Examiner: Dwight Clark changed the course of 49ers history

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The talk was all about the failures and the disappointments — the halftime lead blown against Detroit back in ’57, the fumble by Preston Riley against the Cowboys on that fateful Saturday in ’72. For almost four decades, the San Francisco 49ers were defined only by negative history.

Until January 10, 1982.  Until “The Catch.” Dwight Clark grasped a football seemingly beyond his reach and changed not only the scoreboard — the 49ers taking the lead in the NFC Championship, 28-27 — but the culture of San Francisco pro football.

Read the full story here.

©2018 The San Francisco Examiner 

Niners, Raiders get necessities, not attention or quarterbacks

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — Let’s see, the Raiders took Kolton Miller and the 49ers Mike McGlinchey. Or was it the other way around?

For sure it wasn’t Baker Mayfield, the instigator, or Josh Rosen, Miller’s verbalizing teammate from UCLA, and that’s the disadvantage of having at least a decent team.

You don’t get glamour guys or the attention when you’re competent. What you get are necessities, players who block, who open holes for runners, set up pockets for passers and, even though they are usually the most perceptive and smartest players on any football team, rarely get mentioned until they miss an assignment.

The Niners and Raiders have their quarterbacks. Or so we think, Oakland having Derek Carr and San Francisco, after that seemingly brilliant deal during the 2017 season, Jimmy Garoppolo.

The Cleveland Browns, with one victory in their last 32 games, didn’t.

That lack of success and signal caller enabled them to have the No. 1 pick, and on day one of the draft that’s big stuff.

TV loves a train wreck. The stories were whether Sam Darnold of USC, a quarterback of course, or Josh Allen of Wyoming, a quarterback, or Rosen, a quarterback, would be the first player selected.

It turned out to be Mayfield of Oklahoma, a quarterback. Yes, Saquon Barkley of Penn State, a running back — and is he terrific — went second, but as we were reminded by the guys on ESPN and NFL TV, this was all about quarterbacks. Even the last pick of the first round, Lamar Jackson of Louisville, was a quarterback.

It’s understood that in the NFL — in football at any level — you must have a quarterback. He handles the ball on every offensive play, run or pass. And you also must have a defense, otherwise you’ll be receiving kickoffs from start to finish.

That said, the late Al Davis, who led the Raiders to championships and then in his declining years with draft selections such as JaMarcus Russell, a quarterback who just happened to look like an offensive lineman (the man could eat), led them to mediocrity, always believed the most important part of a team was the offensive line. You do remember Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, Bob Brown and Dave Dalby, right? All but Dalby are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Whether McGlinchey, a 6-foot-8, 315-pound tackle from Notre Dame taken with the ninth pick, or Miller, a 6-9, 309-pound tackle from UCLA taken with the 15th pick, turns out like those guys, we’ll learn over time.

Whatever, they fill a need for each team. And if drafting offensive linemen is not as entertaining as drafting QBs or running backs, that’s the way it has to be.

When you get your quarterback, you’d better keep him healthy and happy. When he was with ESPN, once and current Raiders coach Jon Gruden ran a “quarterback camp,” which was as much a TV show as a football test. He understands a quarterback needs coordination, arm strength, quickness — and an offensive line.

He passed that understanding to Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, not that McKenzie didn’t already feel the same way.

“What Kolton can do,” said McKenzie of his No. 1 pick, “when you talk about pass protection and staying in front of the guy, that’s what he does. He’s got the length. He’s got the great feet. And when you talk about the second level, pulling, this guy has a lot of talent.”

Surely so does McGlinchey, who was taken by San Francisco but was admired by McKenzie and Oakland. “We would have upgraded with either one,” said McKenzie.

O-linemen are somewhat obscure. Except to the coaches, players and front office.

Niners GM John Lynch said McGlinchey “has a special presence to him. He’s real. He’s authentic. And he’s a badass. We like that.”

Similar comments before the round would have made for great theater.

Rosen said a few things when he finally was chosen with the 10th pick — that Oakland had traded to Arizona — and they were explosive. And captivating.

“There were nine mistakes ahead of me,” said Rosen about the players taken earlier than he was. “I thought I should have been picked 1-2-3.”

The draft is all about opinions — and this year was about quarterbacks.