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 

Raiders have a QB, a defense and a win

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — They can’t finish. Not the way the coach would like. But oh, the Oakland Raiders can start. And survive. If they are not yet a complete football team, one that belongs among the NFL elite, they are at least a competent football team, as well as a team in progress.

A team finally with a defense and a quarterback, the two elements absolutely necessary for success at any level.        

The Raiders defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-18, Sunday at O.co Coliseum, and if this was a Steelers team far from greatness it still had Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu, players and leaders, and certainly the residue of history.

Pittsburgh-Oakland wakes up echoes, Franco Harris and Jack Tatum, Terry Bradshaw and Ken Stabler, Chuck Noll and John Madden. Days gone by, two teams wearing black, two franchises dressed in pride. The best against the best.

If that’s no longer true, the Steelers remain an attraction, if at 2-4 perhaps for the wrong reason, an example of unmet expectations. As there is a Raider Nation, fans far from the home base, so there is a Steeler Nation, clinging to memories. In sports, nobody forgets.

Raiders coach Dennis Allen won’t forget what he saw Sunday: the way Terrelle Pryor, on the game’s first offensive play, ran 93 yards for a touchdown, apparently the farthest ever by an NFL quarterback; the way Oakland limited the Steelers to 90 yards total — and eight yards rushing — in the first half; the way the Raiders kept hanging in after mistakes when maybe a year ago they would have folded.

“I thought our defense was outstanding,” said Allen. As we know, in football, baseball, basketball and hockey, defense wins. It certainly did for the Raiders, who won for the first time in 11 games coming off their bye week.

Oakland now is 3-4 in seven games this season. The Raiders on Sunday face the Philadelphia Eagles, a team where two quarterbacks, Michael Vick and Nick Foles, are injured and a third, rookie Matt Barkley, is unprepared. It’s all there for Oakland.

Pryor isn’t fully prepared yet either, but he’s adept and learning. He’s also quick and agile. “That big run by Terrelle,” said Allen, “obviously was a huge play to be able to start off and get the type of momentum against a defense where they haven’t given up a lot of explosive plays.”

The Steelers, leaning on defense, deferred after winning the coin toss and let the Raiders make the choice. The idea was Pittsburgh would go to its strength. The plan was a bust.

“We can’t choose to defer,” said Mike Tomlin, the Steelers' coach, “and allow them to explode, and we’re spotting seven on the first play of the game . . . It was a nice play for them, and obviously a poor play for us. Over-aggressive, I guess, could be a way to describe it.”

A way to describe this game was long and wearisome. There seemed to be an officials’ review on almost every play, ref John Parry and his clique unable to make the proper calls at the proper time, dragging this baby out 3 hours and 26 minutes.

Not that a crowd announced at 52,950 seemed to mind. Nobody left early, not with the Steelers trimming a 21-3 deficit to 21-18 in the closing minutes.

“We want to make sure the fans get their money’s worth,” was the opening remark by Allen. Step aside Jay Leno and David Letterman, here come the laughs. Or the smiles. Allen, with a pencil behind his ear and a visor on his head, is more accountant than comedian.

“You still have to learn how to finish better,” insisted Allen. “You get a team 21-3 . . . now listen, we knew this is the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re not going to throw in the towel. They’re not going to give up. But when you have that type of lead, you have to have the killer instinct, and we’ve got to be able to come out and be more effective in the second half of the football game.”

On offense that is. The Raiders had 182 yards rushing at halftime. They had 183 at the end of the third quarter. That neither team scored in that third period enabled Oakland to bumble along.

“I think we had a phenomenal first half,” Pryor observed, “and then our defense had a phenomenal second half, so at the end of the day it’s a team win.”

At the end of the day Pryor, the 2011 supplemental draft pick from Ohio State, had 106 yards and that long touchdown on nine runs and 88 yards on 10 carefully thrown completions. He also had two less carefully thrown interceptions.

“I’m very proud of the offense, the offensive line, Darren (McFadden), Marcel (Reece), the outside guys blocking,” said Pryor. “We had the run game going very good.”

In the first half, they did. In the second half they ran for only 15 yards.

“It’s just another game,” said Pryor with a figurative shrug. “Another team (to overcome) in the roadblock. I’m very proud we got the W.”

Ah yes. Just win, baby. Against the rival Steelers, the Raiders did just that.

RealClearSports: When Lights Come on, It's 49ers Football

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Let's skip the obvious and refuse to describe the performance as lights out, because literally at Candlestick Park on Monday night, they did go out - twice - in a power outage.

Let's not skip the obvious: The San Francisco 49ers are a very good football team, and they proved it by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, another very good football team, 20-3.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: A perfect finish to Super Bowl XLV for Packers

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Bumbling Christina Aguilera forgot the words to the national anthem, the bumbling NFL forgot to make sure all the people who had tickets had seats, and the bumbling Pittsburgh Steelers forgot what to do with the football, which is not turn it over.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Of Late Nights and Super Bowl Victories

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

DALLAS -- Saw a story that Ben Roethlisberger and a couple of Steelers teammates had been witnessed post-midnight at a Fort Worth bar. Then a few hours later saw in person Dick Vermeil, now in the wine business but previously a coach of football champions.

Such a perfect link.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011