What A Game
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by Falcon02520
I live on the East Coast. And yes, on a school night I stayed up to watch and write about the Arizona Cardinals vs San Francisco 49ers. I am darn glad that I did. Both teams played each other very evenly. They showed heart and determination. There weren't 40 points on the scoreboard or a 100 yd game by a reciever or half back. There was no huge defensive performance by an individual (even though some played exceptionally well). But Ladies and Gentlemen, that was a football game!
Down 17-13 with 2:58 remaining, Alex Smith showed leadership and poise while marching his offense down the field for a last minute score. San Fran struggled to move the ball through the air all game long, but, with the game on the line, Alex marches down field into the end zone. After a beautiful 25 yd scramble by Smith (made possible by an amazing block downfield by Arnaz Battle) the niners were only 23 yds out. Smith hits Battle on an amazing pass and catch down the middle to the one yard line, but he fumbles...
Luckily for the team from the Bay, Eric Green was unable to fall on the loose ball, giving time to Darell Jackson to get over and pick up the fumble. Now, this wasn't a touchdown because of a rule that at the end of a game: "If a football is fumbled forward it can only be advanced by the player who fumbled the ball. If another offensive player recovers the ball, it is spotted where the fumble occurred." Since the fumble occured on the 1 yd line, Smith and the Niners were looking good.
A risky play call with about a half of minute remaining put the niners over top. Battle (again) scored on an end-around with 0:26 seconds left and no timeouts. This left vertually no time for Lienart to make a comeback of his own. San Franscisco pulls a 20-17 win out of a game where it didn't look like they had much chance at the end.
Alex Smith looked very good on the final drive. He has now shown that he can lead a comeback and he can be the leader for this football team. Although it is a disappointing loss for the Cardinals, 49ers fans should be excited about this year as well as the future of the franchise.
