Who turned back the clock for the 49ers?

By Anthony Carroll  |   Monday, September 26, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

San Francisco 49ers
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For a while there, I thought I was watching the 49ers from the 80's. Relentless, quick strike offense. Flashy, big play defense. Only the names have been changed to protect the Hall of Famers.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Dallas cast out the demons of last week's heartbreaking last-minute loss to archrival Washington with a gut-checking last minute victory over nearly archrival San Francisco.

Tim Rattay was impressive, but mainly in the first half. He finished 21 of 34 for 269 yards with three TDs and 2 interceptions. On the other side of the ball, Drew Bledsoe went 24 for 38, for 363 yards with 2 pickoffs - both by safety Tony Parrish - one returned for a TD. Bledsoe passed Joe Montana for eighth place on the career yards passing list. This was also his first 300-yard game since September of 2003. Now, nobody's going to mistake Bledsoe for Michael Vick, but he did score his seventh TD rushing in 13 NFL seasons.

Brandon Lloyd, the 3rd year wideout from Illinois had a busy day, catching two scoring passes for San Francisco, including an 89-yarder (the second longest against them in Cowboy history). Dallas had two lengthy first half scoring drives of 84 and 92 yards, the latter an impressive 14-play drive that chewed up 7:21. But the first half belonged to the 49ers.

Those who feared that the San Francisco defense was a bit suspect, had their suspicions validated as Dallas' standouts Bledsoe, RB Julius Jones, and WR Keyshawn Johnson went to work. Jones ended the day with 85 yards rushing with 2 TDs, plus 4 receptions. Johnson hauled in a 14 yard pass for the go-ahead TD with 1:51 remaining to give the Cowboys their only lead of the game. He followed that up with a 2 point conversion pass. Dallas outscored SF 15 0 in the fourth quarter.

Dallas is now 2 1 but they've had to endure three nail biters to get there. Expect Bill Parcells to point that out to his team this week in no uncertain terms. They travel to Oakland next week. The San Francisco 49ers are already halfway to their win total from last year, but what this game proved is that they have a lot longer way to go to be a consistent, playoff bound team.
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About Anthony Carroll

Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal...
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