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49ers are sinking fast
Posted: Monday November 22, 1999 03:22 PM
Week 11 Awards | Top 10 Teams | 10 Things I Think I Think Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. SAN FRANCISCO -- I didn't think it would be this bad. I was wrong. It's worse. The 49ers are screwed up in every way imaginable. They can't get anything done on the field, obviously, as their six-game losing streak attests. They don't play any great teams the rest of the way, but I'd be shocked if they won one of their final six games. And that includes a game at 1-10 Cincinnati in two weeks. If it was just what was happening on the field, that would be one thing. But after seeing the team and organization in action over the weekend, I'm convinced the problems are systemic. Epidemic, really. Some examples: The whole "Pride of the 49ers" is dead. Last week Jerry Rice had to pull a Tasmanian Devil act in the locker room after the embarrassing 18-point loss to the Saints. He told me that the young players just don't care. They're happy to be in the NFL and getting the big paychecks, but are they workers? No. Do they follow the worker-bee lead of Rice and Steve Young and Ken Norton? No. In fact, I left the Niners' locker room Friday afternoon about 3 p.m., walking through the weight room on the way out, and Young was the last guy in there, punishing himself. The front office is in shambles. Coach Steve Mariucci doesn't know what GM Bill Walsh is doing. Mariucci doesn't communicate with Walsh well at all, and vice versa. I think that, until I told him, Mariucci didn't have any idea Walsh and director of player personnel Terry Donahue met furtively with Marvin Demoff , the agent for Jeff Hostetler , an hour before Sunday's loss to the Rams. While Young has told Mariucci he wants to play in 2000 and is proceeding as if he will, Walsh is out chasing Hostetler, who will be 39 next season. I'm not saying Young should determine who will play quarterback for the team next year -- they certainly can't count on him -- but why the flirtation with such a short-term guy such as Hoss? The organization needs to stop plugging holes on a horrible team and start thinking: Where are we going long-term? It would help, by the way, if Donahue would get committed to the program. He hasn't even bought a house in the Bay Area and moved his life up from L.A. There is no sense of any plan. First of all, the 49ers are in such a long-haul mess with the salary cap that they can't be good -- and I mean it will be impossible for them to be respectable in the next three years -- until the organization admits and addresses the depths of the problems. Last season Walsh had to clean up Carmen Policy's mess, slashing $25-million-plus from the cap to even field a team. This cost them good, contributing players like Marc Edwards, Irv Smith, Roy Barker, Ty Detmer -- and that's only the chunk of the roster that was ransomed off to Cleveland. Guess what? It's just as bad next year. I have the 2000 NFL salary cap sheet in my hands, and it shows how much money each team has committed to players next season. The Niners are currently $24 million over the cap. No matter how they finagle and restructure and re-sign, they will be a bad team over the next two years, minimum. What they need to do, simply, is swallow the poison pill in the next two years, load the roster with minimum-salary players, get all of the future salary obligations off the payroll, and be cap-clean in 2001 or 2002, ready to rebuild the team. The worst thing San Francisco could do -- whoever is running the team -- is think: Hey, the NFC's so bad, maybe we could scotch-tape a playoff team together. Dumb idea. Take your medicine, and take it now. Most important, Denise DeBartolo York and her husband John York, who manages the franchise because she has no interest, need to sell the team to an owner who will rebuild the Niners and give them the direction they now sorely lack. I put that too nicely. This once-proud team is a rudderless ship, and every day it sinks a little deeper into the Pacific Ocean. Week 11 Awards OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Miami QB Damon Huard, who made one of the plays of the season in the Dolphins' 27-17 win over New England yesterday. With the imminent return of Dan Marino (who should play Thursday at Dallas if, when he works out Monday with the first unit at the Dolphins' practice facility, he feels O.K.) looming over him, Huard threw a touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden a millisecond before three Patriots turned Huard into a club sandwich. What a hit. In the third quarter, he threw a gorgeous touch pass to Gadsden over all-pro cornerback Ty Law for his second TD. For the game, Huard was 18 of 30 for 131 yards (with the two touchdowns) and no interceptions. One other thing: The Patriots broke his nose on a brutal hit, and Scott Zolak had to finish the game for Miami. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis LB London Fletcher, whose four tackles, one sack and amazing quickness as a rusher destroyed the 49ers' offensive consistency and keyed the Rams' 23-7 win. This guy has Junior Seau quickness. Give an assist to the Rams scouts who found this guy at John Carroll University in 1998, and kudos to Dick Vermeil for taking the risk of playing this bargain-basement player instead of some high-priced (and since-jettisoned) Rams peer. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Tampa Bay K Automatica Gramatica , whose 53-yard field goal, his career-long and fourth of the game, bailed out the horrid Tampa Bay offense and beat Atlanta, 19-10. Gramatica (his name is Martin, by the way) also kicked a 50-yarder. One more thing: After this year's NFL Draft, the only Argentine ever to be drafted into pro football was on a sports talk show aired back in the home country. And Diego Maradona, the soccer superstar, told Gramatica what a thrill it was to talk to him. Just thought you'd want to know. COACH OF THE WEEK: Indianapolis coach Jim Mora. You know the lifetime achievement award some organizations give out? Mora gets that this week. First, he had the guts Sunday morning to suspend two defensive contributors, Tito Wooten and Shawn King , for missing curfew . And he's survived the consistent heartbreak of last year's 3-13 campaign to lead a good team into a great era. GOAT OF THE WEEK: New England QB Drew Bledsoe. I understand a couple of picks against a good defensive team like Miami's. But a crucial throw right to Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor? With the game in the balance? Terrible throw. For good measure, Bledsoe threw his fifth interception of the day on a desperate final drive of the Patriots' loss. The Top 10 1. Jacksonville (9-1). Now that's more like it. Mark Brunell's 351-yard, escape-filled night against the Saints proved there's life in that Jags offense. 2. Indianapolis (8-2). For a while there Sunday -- until the Jags pasted poor New Orleans -- I had more faith in the Colts' 22 starters than Jacksonville's. 3. Miami (8-2). With Scott Zolak getting the save. Wow. 4. Seattle (8-2). Just think if the 'Hawks had merely played lousy Oct. 17 at San Diego. Instead, they played their worst game in years and lost. Without that game, they'd be 9-1. 5. Buffalo (7-4). Still think the Bills are dangerous. 6. Tennessee (8-2). I'd like to like the Titans more. But the more I see of the AFC Central, the more I think it is worse than the NFC Central of the mid- to late-'80s. At home yesterday, the Titans scored zero offensive points (and two overall) in the last 45 minutes. T7. St. Louis (8-2). Is it just me, or do they look mortal these days? T7. Minnesota (6-4). I thought ecstasy belonged to Minnesota fans, not Leroy Hoard. 9. Tampa Bay (6-4). But not because of that offense, obviously. 10. New England (6-4). Stop the bleeding, Pats. The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think that catch by Green Bay wideout Corey Bradford in the corner of the end zone yesterday against Detroit -- the one you've seen 63 times on the highlight shows by now -- is one of the 10 greatest catches in NFL history. 2. I think I've seen the worst officiating of the year, and I saw it all on one play in the Green Bay-Detroit game. Packers ball, third-and-goal at the Lions' 4, Brett Favre rolling right, spies wideout Bill Schroeder in the end zone. Detroit corner Bryant Westbrook is holding Schroeder's jersey, beyond the five-yard contact zone. No call. Schroeder changes direction to flow with Favre, and Westbrook bearhugs him. No call. Favre throws to Schroeder, and Westbrook -- and I am not kidding you -- tackles Schroeder with the ball still in the air. No call. Horrendous, horrendous non-call by the Men of Seeman, who, in this case, were back judge Bob Lawing and side judge Neely Dunn. 3. I think the Colts' defense might be good enough. Just a guess, though, because I'm judging by what happened in Philadelphia yesterday, and that's never a very accurate measuring stick. But by the time Indy had a 27-0 first-half lead, the Eagles had run 16 plays. For one yard. 4. I think, and I don't watch an inordinate amount of college football, that Peter Warrick alligator-arms the ball a little too often for me. 5a. I think my quote of NFL Week 11 comes from ESPN radio analyst Marty "Sigmund'' Schottenheimer: "We are all a part of our past -- our history, if you will.'' 5b. Or Marty "Don Criqui'' Schottenheimer, on Drew Bledsoe's nice day: "You can't throw five interceptions and expect to win.'' 5c. Or Marty "They Pay Me a Lot of Money So I Love Everybody in the Building'' Schottenheimer, on fellow ESPNer Dick Vitale: "Dick's one of the best guys of all-time.'' 5d. Or Marty "Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned Trip to the Confessional'' Schottenheimer, on his personality as a coach: "I was rather dull and bland.'' 6. I think Washington's got a playoff spot pretty well locked up, which says all you need to know about the quality of the NFC this year. The 'Skins have six games left, including Philly and Arizona at home and the 49ers on the road. If they don't go 3-0 in those games, mark this down: Daniel Snyder will be getting out his sharpest ax. 7. I think only Damon Huard's parents ever thought he'd relieve Dan Marino and go 5-1. 8. I think one of the great streaks in the NFL -- Peyton Manning playing every snap since he entered the NFL, 1,590 of them, or 25 and three-quarters games worth -- ended yesterday. 9. I think Jim Miller just might have won a job in Chicago. Seven hundred and seventy-nine passing yards in eight days tends to make quarterback coaches happy. 10. I think there's nothing like the mocha crème brulée at the Fog City Diner in San Francisco.
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