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No names, but plenty of game
A few slip-ups and two unfamiliar 49er faces prove a costly combination to the NFL's No. 1 defense.
By JOANNE KORTH
Published October 31, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - Kevan Barlow and Cody Pickett.
These are not names that typically strike fear into the hearts of top-ranked NFL defenses, but the little-known 49ers shucked obscurity Sunday to embarrass the Bucs.
On just a few plays.
"Very, very frustrating," Bucs linebacker Ryan Nece said.
Tampa Bay, which entered the game as the league's top-ranked defense, dominated San Francisco's overmatched offense for most of the game. It held the 49ers to 108 net yards and nine first downs. It did not give up a touchdown.
But it had costly lapses.
With 11 seconds left in the first half, on what looked like a play designed to run out the clock, Barlow ripped off a 29-yard run that set up Joe Nedney's 47-yard field goal as time expired. The kick gave San Francisco a 6-3 halftime lead.
Even worse, according to Nece, the 49ers had only 10 players on the field when Barlow bounced an inside run outside to his left, slipping tackles along the way.
"Basically, we didn't react to it and that's what happens," Nece said. "It was supposed to be an inside play and the ball went outside. They were just going to run out the clock and we just didn't react to it right and they got the long run out of it."
Barlow finished with 101 yards, the first 100-yard rusher against the Bucs this season, a big chunk of it coming on that play.
"Yeah, that's ... you know ... that can't happen," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "I don't have words for that. That's just a bad play that is not indicative of this defense. I realize we're not going to be perfect, but that should never happen."
Neither should Pickett.
The Bucs offense, which struggled most of the game, had just struck with a 78-yard touchdown pass from Chris Simms to Joey Galloway to cut the 49ers' lead to 12-10 with 10:33 left in the game. San Francisco starting quarterback Ken Dorsey was on the sideline with an ice pack wrapped around his lower left leg.
Pickett, a second-year player who does a bit of everything for the 49ers, had just made a special teams tackle when he was pressed into action as the team's only option at quarterback. But rather than expose Pickett, the Bucs allowed him to lead a 42-yard, clock-killing scoring drive that all but sealed the 49ers' victory.
"The guys play hard for him because he is a tough guy, he's one of them," 49ers coach Mike Nolan said. "He can run the ball extremely well and he threw it well a couple times."
With 6:58 to play, Pickett converted on third and 8 with a 10-yard pass to Brandon Lloyd - the 49ers' only passing first down of the game - and ran for eight yards on second and 5 from the Bucs 25.
A false start stalled the drive, but Nedney's 28-yard field goal made it 15-10 with 1:56 left.
Barlow and rookie Frank Gore out of Miami combined for 29 rushing yards on the drive.
"Our offense was just gaining its momentum and we just didn't get off the field," Nece said. "That was very frustrating."
[Last modified October 31, 2005, 03:00:27]
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