Saturday Worthy Talent Playing on Sunday

Touchdown 49ers! A 10-yard completion from Montana to Taylor gave San Francisco a 20-16 lead over Cincinnati with only 39 seconds remaining in Super Bowl XXIII. This clinched the 49ers’ fourth Super bowl in the last eight years and was one of the more memorable games these two teams have played.

Fast-forward 22 years though, to the third week of the 2011 NFL season, it was a vastly different story to say the least when they played Sunday, September 25^th.

The Cincinnati Bengals (1-1) hosted the San Francisco 49ers (1-1) in a matchup of the AFC North versus NFC West.

There was not much anticipation and hype about the game, when compared to other marquee and established teams playing in games like the Eagles/Giants or Steelers/Colts. This would be understandable seeing as though the Bengals have been a bottom feeder in their division the past few years and the 49ers being a part of arguably the least competitive.

The smallest home-opener crowd ever at Paul Brown Stadium (43,363) witnessed this debacle of a game; a number of them perhaps knew of the low-grade performance that would ensue on the field. So at 10:05 a.m. the teams took the field and started one of the most ugly and unbearably hard to watch games that have every graced an NFL field. San Francisco won (I guess someone had to technically) by a joke of a score, which was 13-8.

Simply as a fan watching on television, I feel as though I was entitled to some sort of reimbursement for the three hours I invested. You would feel that way too if you watched two offenses taking turns punting for the better part of three quarters. And even all the points scored up until the 56^th minute of the game (there are in fact only 60) were because of kicking the ball, with a whopping three field goals in total; now that’s no fun to watch. 

Watching the 49ers and Bengals trying to move the ball on offense was similar to knowing the ending of a really awful and anticlimactic movie, a la The Happening. Predictable and conservative play calls would be consistent and continue drive after drive with minimal progress being made at all for either team. To elaborate further, San Francisco didn’t even make it to Cincinnati’s territory  (the other side of the 50-yard line) until their eighth drive of the game that came in the third quarter.

I imagine that in the interest of not losing viewers and making the game sound remotely entertaining, the FOX announcers Ron Pitt and Jim Mora kept reverting back to how well these two defenses were playing, instead of focusing on the lack of offense, which was apparent. To be fair though, there was nothing else to discuss when such a pedestrian play like a seven yard run up to middle on second down was a rarity.

It just wasn’t all about a lack of offensive statistics and scoring that made this game horrible to watch though, oh no. Four turnovers, 16 penalties, and six sacks combined, aided that notion as well.

And to top it off, there was no heart or competitive vibe you got from watching. It was as if neither team really wanted to earn the victory, but just not lose. A play that perfectly encompassed that belief was the 2^nd to last of the game. Here the 49ers voluntarily gave the Bengals two points with a safety, just so they wouldn’t have to punt with a bit more time on the clock to not give up any chance of a good return. Wow!

If I were to sum up all of the errors, miscues, mistakes, anemic statistics, unproductiveness, and eyesores this game presented it would be an immense task, and frankly quite boring to the reader. Just take my word for it that it was, well, simply put, BAD all around. If you find yourself in a similar predicament on a future Sunday, turn to a different game or just simply back away from the television.