Favorite: St. Louis Rams
As I sat through an awful 1st quarter filled with a turnover, offensive ineptitude, and an opposing rusher averaging 5 yards a carry I thought that things were going about how I expected them to. The pathetic losers were going to lose once again, and in spectacularly bad fashion too it appeared.
But somehow the Niners defense kept the Rams out of the endzone on two consecutive time consuming drives, making the score merely 0 – 6.
The defining play occurred when the score was 0 – 3. The Rams were on the 11 yard line, preparing to score a touchdown it appeared, preparing to start pulling away so it seemed.
Marc Bulger threw a perfect pass to Kevin Curtis in the endzone, but Tony Parrish hit him just as he caught the ball, jarring the ball loose and forcing the Rams to kick another field goal.
The 49ers then marched down the field, using several trick plays. Capped by a beautiful 35-yard touchdown toss to Brandon Lloyd from Tim Rattay. The ball flew past the outstretched hands of two defenders and fell gently into the hands of Lloyd. The extra point was good and the 49ers took the lead 7 – 6!
The 49ers defense then forced a three and out and the Rams had to punt the ball. Otis Amey, a rookie, received the punt and raced 75 yards to paydirt! Scoring a touchdown the first time you touch the ball in your pro career seems a pretty nice way to begin.
Otis Amey waves goodbye to the Rams on his punt returnScore 14 – 6.
The 49ers then attempted an onsides kick and recovered. While they weren’t able to advance the ball into field goal range the punt pinned the Rams back and they were clearly off balance and made no headway against the 49ers suddenly stout defense and were forced to punt again from deep in their own territory.
The offense of the 49ers now had a short field to work with and they capitalized. Marching down the field and ending with a great 6-yard touchdown catch by Arnaz Battle. He caught the ball in the endzone and took a wicked shot from the Rams safety, but unlike Kevin Curtis, he held on to the ball. The 49ers had just scored 21 unanswered points and led their biggest rival 21 - 6. The Rams would score another field goal before halftime to make the score 21 – 9 as the 49ers walked off the field to a standing ovation from their faithful fans. If Wife #1 hadn’t been there I might have been applauding as well.
I knew the score wouldn’t hold up though. The 49ers just weren’t good enough to actually win this game…were they? I didn’t want to hope, I would not believe that they could actually win this game until triple zeros showed on the clock.
The first drive of the second half was a thing of beauty with Kevan Barlow capping it off with a 9-yard touchdown run. 28 – 9.
Then the Rams came alive, as I knew they would. Another field goal made the score 28 – 12, merely a two score game.
The 49ers offense suddenly became unable to move the ball, the defense was on the field constantly, a Rams touchdown and failed two point conversion made the score 28 – 18. I felt a little hope, they still needed two scores and the game had reached the fourth quarter. The Rams scored again, another touchdown, the game tightened, the score was 28 – 25. The 49ers inability to run the ball gave the Rams the ball on the 49ers 33 with one minute left in the game, field goal will tie, a touchdown will win it. I awaited another loss.
Marc Bulger’s 56th pass of the day bounced off of Isaac Bruce and was taken away by Mike Adams and the game was won.
I sat down shocked and elated. The 49ers had won. The pathetic 2 – 14 team of 2004 was gone, replaced by a 2005 team of hope.
Now I fully expect them to lose every single other game this year, but for one glorious week my team is at the top of the division, is undefeated, and had beaten the hated Rams. I love this time of year.
Fritz
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