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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 12, 2002
The 49ers shut down the Chiefs' high-powered offense like no team has this season, holding the league's highest-scoring unit to 13 points. And Chiefs quarterback Trent Green might be partly responsible.
Apparently last week, Green said something to reporters about how facing the 49ers defense wasn't going to be all that daunting because the Chiefs already had faced, in Green's opinion, better defenses against Miami and Denver.
Word got back to the 49ers defense, which took the comments personally.
"He said something to the effect that, 'Look what we did to (Miami and Denver),' " 49ers linebacker Jeff Ulbrich recalled. "We definitely took that as a challenge. The front seven really came together. The whole defense did. We rose to the challenge."
DID YOU KNOW?: The Bears held opponents to a league-low 203 points last season. In nine games this season, they've surrendered 232.
JUST A THOUGHT: As badly as quarterbacks Chris Chandler and Jim Miller have played this season (that is, when they haven't been hurt), the Bears ought to consider giving receiver Marty Booker a shot at the job.
Did you see the perfect 44-yard touchdown strike he threw to Marcus Robinson? Granted, Booker, a quarterback in high school, probably wouldn't do any better than Miller or Chandler, but it would be cool to see.
THE LAUGH IS ON US: After the Colts upset the Eagles in Philadelphia on Sunday, Colts coach Tony Dungy reportedly opened his postgame news conference with a laugh.
He apparently wasn't laughing at critics who questioned whether his defense-oriented coaching style was hurting the offense-minded Colts, but he should have been. He might not have the Colts playing at their best, but it seems silly to question his abilities when he has been one of the winningest coaches in recent years.
"That was embarrassing," Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas said of his team's 35-13 loss. "We got our butt kicked on our own front porch."
Now that's funny.
ANY MORE QUESTIONS? In light of their 13-10 loss to the Jets, the Dolphins still are shaking their heads over Chris Chambers' apparent tying touchdown that was overturned by replay officials.
Officials ruled Chambers made the catch and had both feet in bounds but lost control of the ball upon hitting the ground, referencing the controversial Bert Emanuel play in the 1999 NFC Championship Game between the Bucs and Rams that many Bucs fans still disagree with.
"When you are going to the ground, even though two feet hit and an elbow hits, when you hit the ground, you have to maintain control of the ball," league officiating director Mike Pereira said. "It's the same at the 50-yard line as it is in the end zone. It's the same inbounds as it is out of bounds. Even though the feet come down first, if the ball comes loose, which it did here, if you don't maintain control of the ball, then it's an incomplete pass."
STAT OF THE WEEK: The Panthers held Saints running back Deuce McAllister to 71 yards, snapping a streak of four 100-yard games for the second-year player.
ARE YOU EXPECTING HIM TO SAY SOMETHING ELSE?: The 49ers, with TV analysts backing them up, have been lauding the performance of linebacker Julian Peterson, who was primarily responsible for holding Chiefs Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez to one catch for 6 yards.
Though Gonzalez praised Peterson's coverage skills, he said the real reason he didn't catch more passes was that Peterson was constantly holding him.
"I was telling (the refs) all day he was holding me," Gonzalez said. "He said, 'Yeah, he's holding you, but Trent is not throwing the ball to you. He's throwing to the other side of the field, so we can't call it.'
"Then I'd say the reason he's not throwing me the ball is because they're holding me and I'm not getting open."
-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.