Your New Niners

It was sloppy at the end, but it appeared more so due to the hooooorible officiating crew who decided early in the second half to throw a flag on every play regardless of whether or not a penalty had been committed. Jesus, did you see the tipped pass/pass interference call? There was no p.i. because the ball was tipped - even though the ball wasn't within three feet of a defender's hand - and when the play was to be reviewed, they decided that there hadn't been any interference anyway. W. T. F.?

Okay though, I liked the way they played. Shaun Hill is not awesome, but he's not a constant panic-attack like J.T. O'Sullivan - the poor man's Jeff Garcia, who is the poor man's quarterback. The play calling at the end was abysmal, but whatever. At least they were in a position to fuck up the game in the last two minutes rather than having pissed the whole thing away in the first two. They looked ready to run through a brick wall, which hasn't been the case with a Niner team since Tom Rathman was knocking the shit out of guys.

Almost universally around the sports world this morning, Arizona looked bad against a team they should have destroyed. Douchebaggery and thoughtlessness, I say. Warner was a stud. Both teams were flying all over the field. Aside from the officials attempts to turn the last three minutes into an NBA game, it was as exciting a finish as any this season.

If ever there were reason for fans to celebrate a moral victory, it's this one. I'd rather watch this version of the 2008 Niners lay it on the line playing last night's brand of football and lose every game close than watch the Nolan-lead version do what they were doing and fall into one or two wins. Plus those losses mean a better draft pick...to blow on another system QB.