Vikings 27 - 49ers 24: In Singletary we trust!

But I think he did get some sucess today (ie, Vernon Davis).

I just hope the coaches learn that playing too conservatively just doesn’t work.

But the fact that it hurts means that we are good this year!

I WANT WINNERS!!!

Morale and mentality won’t be a problem. These guys are professionals, and they aren’t going to let a loss like this effect them for too long.

Unfortunately, I feel that offensive playcalling will remain an issue all season long. This may not be the last time we have seven 3-and-outs and go 0-11 on third down.

I figured after the Seattle game we’d lose in Minn and beat the Rams at home, so I’m expecting to go into that Atlanta game 3-1. Not sure how the Falcons game will play out. 4-1 looks play-off bound; 3-2, who knows. We’re 2-0 against birds, so hopefully the Falcons fall …

Play calling will probably improve

Man, Raye really was driving me crazy on that last drive. Three unimaginative runs between the tackles. Three and out. Like I said in the other thread, they really needed to play to win, instead of playing to not lose.

But I don’t think this loss will destroy them. They’ll rebound.

Is that SF is as good if not better than Minnesota. This game was at their place. No Gore after four plays. On 3rd down conversions. And yet SF spent most of the 2nd half in the lead and were one play from winning. I certainly hope we see them in the playoffs.

Although i am not happy with the proverbial “moral” victory i did see a lot more good in this game then i saw bad.

First off we lost our workhose in the first offensive play of the game.

Then the refs screwed us over and gave the Vikings 3 points, which did prove to be the difference in the game.

Then we lost both David Baas and Joe Staley. When Barry Sims comes into the game it cannot be going great when Barry Sims comes in to block

I am not too upset with Raye’s play calling on the find drive. If Lee had dropped that inside the 10 we would have won the game. If Roman could have made a play on the ball we would have won the game. If we could have converted on a couple 3rd downs we would have won the game. If Clements or Bly had caught sure INT’s we would have won the game. If we had no played prevent defense in the final drive we would have won the game. And of course if we had not let Harvin go 101 yards we would have won the game. So many if’s and so many plays left on the field. So much controversy and so many issue yet we put ourselves in position to win the game.

            Although i will not call it a “moral” victory i will say that with Singletary at the helm and the tenacity of this team the 49ers will use this as a building block for things to come. The 49ers are a good team and will most likely be in the playoffs. And i for one hope that we face Favre and the Vikings again, because yes we are a better team. The better team lost today

it was a terrific game even though we lost and if we can take care of business against St. Louis next week we could be 3-1 overall and 3-0 in the division which is great and we get the Falcons at home where Shaun Hill is undefeated
if we go 4-1 in the first 5 games I think that will definitely make us forget about this loss

remember, we were 12 seconds away from beating the Vikings WITHOUT Frank Gore

As a team they did play a hard fought game, They did not give up and as we all know except for 1 last play of 3 extra seconds we would have won. They will need to be somthing done to improve the O-LIne.

Hill is a good QB, he is not Bret Farve nor is he Joe, or Steve, but he sure the heck isn’t Smith either.

In the win @ AZ, the Cardinals had only two T.O.s remaining so when the got the ball back the clock was under one minutes. Today Minnesota had all three and thus had more time. Also, Lee’s punt went into the endzone this time.

Lastly, Smith ended the AZ game with a sack but today just missed Favre. If he gets him, this game ends the same way. It was all there just like week one. We didn’t make that one play. Example: I’m still seeing Bly just dropping that INT on the second to last possession. He takes that to the house and we’re celebrating a 31-20 win. I still say I hope we see these guys in the playoffs because they’re not better we are.

In the playoffs.

I look forward to that game.

I want revenge.

That is it. Favre reminded me of Jordan out there with all the respect he got from the announcers, 49ers players and even the refs. Next time Willis should not help him up, next time he should hit him in the mouth on the next play. I see no reason to respect Favre. He is our nemisis, you don’t respect your enemy in the NFL. You hit him in the face and knock him down.

                  And the Viking fans can go shove it where the sun don’t shine. We proved to be a better team. Do they realize our best offensive player (Gore) and our best offensive linemen(Staley) missed practically the entire game.

I like that we have committed to the run and that Hill is not asked to throw many balls downfield but why not let him throw some west coast offense type short passes in those end of game plays. Opposing defenses know we are going to run in those late game situations.

Although the team put points on the board, it does feel like the play-calling can get in its own way a lot of the time. Mike Singletary wants a team that can finish games, but the play-calling is definitely not built to “finish.”

This is the most important point of this whole post if we want to contend in the playoffs this season.

Bring back Merton Hanks!

I’m trying to understand how we have 3 guys rushing the QB and only 1 defender in the back of the end zone for that final pass. If anyone can find a breakdown were the rest of the 49ers defense was on that final play I would like know.

Cause when you rush 3 the pass is suppose to go into double or triple coverage! Worst of both worlds, ouch . . . going back to other post game thread . . . again.

If Detriot hadn ‘t won for the first time in over a year, Favre would be leading the way in top sports stories. As it stands, Detriot gets the nod instead. Still, they’ll be plenty of sports comentators going off with their man crush of Favre.

Revenge is coming

anyone know where I can see the press conference. It hasn’t been posted on NFL.com yet.

it must be our fate to always lose to favre. sure “the catch 2”, but favre owns the 49er franchise. i’m beyond angry now. i’m sort’ve in a haze. why can’t we ever beat this rat?
favre is the only player in the league that i absolute hate, loathe, and abhor. always have and always will. what i loathe more is that the 49ers can never beat him. such is fate

I just hear the guy on NFL Redzone channel say that the Favre pass is the play of the year. really? You don’t think that maybe the Stokley play might be play of the year and perhaps next few years. Good lord, a week of this crap and it’s us on the losing end.

But had to stop – I’m too gutted still to take in any football. 3-3 at the half so glad I didn’t bother. It’s almost 11pm here, so I’m gonna go to bed instead. Hope I wake tomorrow to discover Indy have beaten Arizona, and Dallas have further increased our first-round pick from the Panthers (I know you can’t cheer for Dallas, but I’m hoping Carolina lose … they just happen to be playing Dallas this week).

The last two Mondays I have woken tired buy joyful after staying up late for Niners wins. Tomorrow I shall be well rested but furious. So who’s making me a (site decorum) cup of (site decorum) tea?

Rush, rush, rush. They should have at least tried a play action pass on 3rd down. They probably would have converted.

Sulkface needs to get his act together over in Seattle. I can root for the guy, I know he’s better than this.

He has something to prove too, so prove it dude.

We are going to bounce back so hard I can feel it. I wish I knew what Singletary said to them in the lockroom. I need a major pep talk this one HURTS.

Seriously guys, you and the ‘9ers have NOTHING to be ashamed of or feel bad about, your team played one HECK of a game, and it could easy have gone other way. Kudos to you guys and your team, and the way most of the fans on both sides have conducted themselves :) . I’m glad the Mighty Purple pulled it out at the last second, but I have lots of respect for SF.

Cal got disemboweled. Giants have lost three straight. And Niners lose in heartbreak fashion. Let’s get this sports weekend over with.

richeisen says "jasonlacanfora is reporting that Frank Gore suffered the dreaded high ankle sprain vs. Min and could miss a couple of games. Ouch." Not good.

@TakeoSpikes51We let them off the hook!! As a whole,we take it for what’s it worth & move on to next week against St. Louis.

@MattMaiocco: Very good locker room atmosphere for 49ers. Disappointed? Sure. But guys sound determined to come back strong from difficult loss.

I had to make Singletary’s quote my signature quote. But anyone else feel free to do the same.

If there’s one story that at least the bay area news media can take from this game, it should be that the Niners now want Vikings’ blood.

You have a helluva team. I posted this over on Daily Norseman, but I’ll say the same thing here. It would have been easy for your team to fold tents after the rough start and the Gore injury, but they didn’t and the Vikes needed a miracle to win.

I love the attitude Mike Singletary has brought to your team, and it is evident he is the right man in the right place at the right time. After today, the 49ers have to be considered the favorite to win the division, and I hope to Hell the Vikings don’t meet your team in the playoffs, if they’re both fortunate to make it to the post season.

Niners vs Vikings NFC Championship

Time to renew the old Viking and Niner rivalry

Okay. There are definitely some points to this lost. No team will go undefeated this year. So I do believe that this will be the game that sets the tone for our entire year. This bad taste will be what the team need to be a playoff caliber team. The saying goes “its not how you start, its how you finish” I am going to give 100% in cheering and rooting for this team even harder now. So this game is behind me I will watch the highlights and I know the next time we play them. IT WILL BE IN OUR BACKYARD NOT THEIRS.

LOLindo Mare makes me happy

some guy at the daily norseman keeps on saying that we got dominated and that Mike Singletary is a horrible coach and he will be fired this year

funny stuff

Simple fact – we were lucky to win. You played a solid game and I hope we both meet again in the playoffs.

What could make this loss just a little bit more tolerable?
Answer: A Cardinal and Cowgirl loss!

I know, I just can’t get that loss in the playoffs out of my head 20 something years ago.

We almost sacked Favre with a 4 man rush. Easy for me to say now, but I still think we should have sent 7. That 40 year old would have been buried. No time for their receivers to even reach the end zone. Man to man would have sufficed in my humble Hawaiian opinion. Aloha!

Kudos to our boys…this will hurt a while, but the effort shown today, especially from VD and the defense, will go a long way towards future success this year. Only thing I’d like to see more of is trusting Hill and the wideouts a little more during the course of the game. Let’s straighten up and fly right…..right over the Rams next week.

Seattle just took the lead again.

Gore will be out at least two weeks. This shouldn’t be much of an issue against the Rams, but you can never overlook an NFL team, it would be dangerous to do that. The Falcon game is one that we can win, it’s just going to be put more on Shaun Hill. It’s now his time to step up and be a reason we win the game, not just a game manager. To some extent he did that today but wasn’t given the chance on the final two drives.

Can’t stop thinking about it. I blame not getting a first down in the final two possessions. Whatever causes that, is the problem. It also feels amazing to go in there and dominate as much as we did. The Vikings won a prayer, not in their superior play. I give them the win; I’d take it too. But a message has been sent.

NFC West So Far this week

San Francisco – 2-1
Arizona – ?-?
Seattle – 1-2
St. Louis – 0-3

Time for Sunday Night Football!

I love how Coach Sing motivates his players, but he still has a long long long way to go as a game coach..At this point, the players have done a better job of buying into and playing the Singletary system, than the coaches have of coaching it..

The coaching by Singletary, Jimmy Raye, and Greg Manusky in the last six minutes of the game today was as bad as any coaching could ever be..Neither coach trusted our QB(who was 10 for 11 in the second half), enough to let him try to make a first down in the last two drives..Then on top of it, our defensive coordinator decided to run the defense that only loses you games, the good ole prevent defense, that does just what it says, prevent you from winning..

All the congratulations to the players for their effort..The coaches, you should be ashamed of yourselves for not having the confidence enough in your team, to let them to try to win it, instead of playing not to lose it..

Singletary and Raye, this loss is on you and you two better get better at your game day duties, or its going to be a long year again..

What did we expect on our last drive, a pass on 3rd down? Let’s get serious, that game was blown by the defense, Singletary has strsseed he wanted a OC that could call plays with the defense and special teams in mind. So we pass on that third down Favre has a TO and the same amont of time to get down the field. That woldn’t be a situation we’d prefer to be in. I am tired of the same formation and run as well as anyone else, but he at least went to the endzone from 20 yards out this week. Our safety play allowed two td’s today. Goldson is NOT the answer and we are all aware of ROman sucking like crazy. Corey Sheets should have been on the roster anyway, forget that stupid taser formation. Personnel is an issue and we are a few players away from a VERY STRONG and YOUNG team, period. This is where your talent becomes an issue, in the close ones

about this being one of the hardest niner losses i’ve ever had to stomach. it’s like what packer fans must have felt on the TO catch. with that said, i want to offer my two cents about what’s been discussed on the threads so far :

1) calling a run play on 3rd down up 4 with 1:40 left and the opposing team having 1 TO is not a bad call. it’s certainly not the #1 reason they lost. it seems like people who are ripping raye think it was too conservative/passive/whatever of a play-call. the argument that the 49ers played “not to lose” on that drive seems to me a laughable one, or at least a hypocritical one, when all of us can agree that singletary is a winner, plays/coaches only to win, does whatever’s necessary to win, etc. do you honestly think that singletary didn’t give the OK for that passivity on 3rd down? do you think singetary, who we all accept as a bona fide “winner,” was on the sidelines wanting to be aggressive and pass the ball there, but “career mr. anonymous” jimmy raye overrode singletary’s wishes? if you think calling a run at the end there was “playing not to lose” then you need to start entertaining the idea that singletary is a coach who “coaches not to lose.” he has the final say over play-calling strategy there, so if you hate the run-run-run strategy, blame our bona fide winner head coach, and jump off the “singletary is god” bandwagon. on the other hand, if, as fooch states in this thread’s title, you trust in singletary, get off raye’s back for that 3rd down play call. rip him for the overall play-calling philosophy he has, but not for that one specific call. c’mon people, singletary is not nolan. if he thought passing the ball on 3rd down was the best chance for them to win, he would have told raye, “call a (site decorum) pass here jimmy, or else your ass is mine.”

2) i think a lot of people on here are confusing two different types of causes when it comes to what “caused” the niner loss today: proximal causes and distal causes. a proximal cause is one that directly and immediately leads to the outcome. a distal cause is one that indirectly and with a time lag leads to the outcome. all of this stuff we’re kvetching about on here (raye’s play-calling, the refs, lee’s punt for a touchback at the end, gore getting hurt, bruce’s drop, coffee’s drop, the prevent defense played before the final play, etc.) are distal causes. they contributed to the loss, but didn’t directly and immediately cause it. all of these things could have been, and, before the last play, were overcome. all of these things couldn’t be the proximal cause of the niners loss because, after all of them happened, the niners had the lead with 15 seconds left. so, the proximal cause, the thing that directly and immediately caused the loss was sorry-ass mark roman’s horrid last play.

i guess you could say that it was bad luck to have the worst pass defender on your DB roster, the one who has zero ball skills, the one who plays the ball and his man with staggering passivity, the one who lost his job in the preseason, the one who hadn’t had an INT or FF the past 2 years as SF’s starting FS…to have THAT guy be the player who is responsible for preserving the W in the final seconds. that’s a pretty unfortunate event. however, all roman had to do is just mediocrely execute the most basic pass defense play in the book (deep zone against an opponent who only has one play to score a winning TD from 35 yards out), and the 49ers win. instead, he jumped the WR coming across the back of the endzone before the WR cleared goldson’s zone, thus getting caught flat-footed when the ball arrived. being flat-footed prevented him from being able to play the ball whatsoever — a nolan defense trademark — despite the fact it was in the air for an eternity (probably could have called a fair catch on the INT); and prevented him from being able to make any attempt at dislodging the ball from the WR or forcing him out of bounds before he got both feet down. it boggles the mind how a DB can play that easy of a situation that poorly, but, as the last 3 years have shown us, roman is no ordinary DB.

so my point here is that roman’s ineptitude (and the niners misfortune that the game came down to roman’s play) is the proximal cause of the loss. all those other things are distal causes. after they all happened, the niners still had the lead with 15 seconds left despite them. we can sit here all week saying, “if the refs didn’t suck, if lee pins them inside the 10, if raye let hill chuck the ball around the field like dan fouts, etc., then the niners would have won. so all this stuff was the reason they lost.” but we don’t know any of that for certain. what we do know for certain is that the niners win if roman executes tha last defensive play at even a JV level. the score was 24-20 SF before roman’s epic fail. it was a 27-24 MIN final after his epic fail. i’d say that’s pretty solid evidence that roman’s epic fail caused the 49ers to end up with fewer points than MIN, which is kind of the definition of “loss” in the football dictionary.

Just watching highlights on NFL network, Deion Sanders said (paraphrasing) give credit to the 49ers. Even though they lost the game, “they are for real.” Finally some says it other than us!! Albeit, from the most unlikely person and we all have bad feelings about him lately. But its good to hear someone acknowledge us for something other than losing to Favre.

What a great, entertaining football game..I just wish the coaches, Singletary, Raye, and Manusky, would have trusted the team enough to let them stay aggressive in the last six minutes and win the game..But no, the conservative coaches decided to stop being aggressive and try to win being passive..The perfect formula for losing a close game, late..They learned this terrible coaching from Nolan..

This coaching staff needs maybe more work on doing their jobs on gameday than the players..I love the way Coach Sing motivates his players, but this kind of game coaching will get this team nowhere..

We both should’ve been 3-0 and 2-1 respectively.

- I mostly agree with the post except I thought the Fox commentators actually spent more time complimenting Hill than Favre.
 Other thoughts:
- Niner play calling on both sides of the ball was just a little too conservative late.
- I love this defense: a couple good linemen and It would be starting to resemble one of the Niner defenses of yore.
- refs sucked. worst maybe since the Seahawks got the Superbowl stolen.

I can’t help but think if we would have won today would crabtree have finally caved and signed with us?

Cardinals loss to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl
Patriots loss to New York in the previous Super Bowl

Today sucked, but it could’ve been way worse. So that’s my positivity for today. Back to hating Favre

Just awesome, a Favre commercial, now a Peterson commercial… at least that Peterson commercial is pretty tight

I don’t care about “any given sunday” next week. I want our team to go out and make an NFC West statement. We Own It!! They way we played today, there is no way we lose to St. Louis. Take all of this anger and just completely smash them!

…"Don’t be looking down at the floor for anybody. You didn’t steal anything. You didn’t do anything wrong. I want you to hold your heads up high. We’ll see them again – in the playoffs.

Hold your heads up. Put your shoulders back and let’s rock."

Lord help me, I love that man…

That trio is really entertaining to listen to

I thought that the Niners positioned themselves well for a win, but why they didn’t put more of a rush on Favre at the end is perplexing, especially after he had enough time to get started picking them apart; maybe one single blitz could have ended it before that winning score.

I will agree with clair chan – if the Niners can bounce this loss away, work their frustrations off all week, then come out and murder the Spams come Sunday, then this boat hasn’t sunk. Not by a long shot: this should be a lesson to the team of how nasty defeat can taste (and this one tasted especially bad), and that losses can happen-nothing more. We are not a star-studded squad with glitz and arrogance that’s going to casually go out and beat opponents with our tongues out. We’re the 49ers-we never fold and we keep fighting. We scared the heck out of a lot of people today thinking that Favre and AP would blow us out – after seeing that Favre had to pull an absolute miracle out of his butt to win, some people will comment that either the Vikings are getting worse cause they narrowly beat the “hapless Niners” (highly unlikely), or that the Niners are becoming a reckoning team, and that they almost pulled an upset over a team expected to even make and take the Super Bowl for some. 3-0? Yes, it would have been nice, but we’re 2-1 instead. There’s no danger of too much wind in our sails now obviously, and maybe that would have been the case if we did win. And I don’t think we’re in the duldrums either – lets ready the ship for combat again next Sunday.

And to the Rams, who we intend to clean up: “YOU REBEL SCUM!”

Did anyone see T.O.’s press conference. Literally almost cried when asked about his consecutive reception streak come to screeeeching halt. Still only concerned about his stats instead of the team. btw Colts 14 Cardinals 3 (so far) :)

hope we do see the minnesota mofos in the playoffs…

bring on the rams..!

good teams beat the teams they’re supposed to beat and if the 49ers are good which I believe they are they should be able to handle their business next sunday

if you saw their interviews on the postgame show you can tell they want Sunday to come quick so they can take out their anger on any team so I feel sorry for the same old sorry Rams
and BTW cardinals are getting stomped on by the colts like I thought
can you say super bowl hangover?

Well at least Arizona is losing.

maybe the coaches weren’t comfortable having a rookie run a toss sweep?

the 3 consecutive runs up the middle on that last drive was so difficult to watch. we wanted to run the ball. everyone knew we wanted to run the ball. we weren’t able to run the ball. it was obvious that jimmy raye didn’t expect coffee to be on the field for the whole game.

for deciding NOT to sign with us
all niner fans appreciate it

whoever replies to this comment second.