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49ers win finale for Tomsula and themselves
By Morris Phillips January 2, 2011 |
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Alex Smith, looking like a field general, fired a pair of touchdown passes. Brian Westbrook, the wily veteran, ran for a pair of scores, including a heads-up end zone crawl. Manny Lawson blew up plays at the line of scrimmage. And Coach Jim Tomsula smiled throughout while his 49ers played loose and productively for him. Oh well, so much for the recent past. 49ers’ fans looking to the future aren’t likely to relive any of those highlights experienced in the 38-7 season ending win over Arizona. Instead, change is ahead and Smith, Lawson, Westbrook and others may have played their last game in red and gold, while Tomsula retreats to his preferred position as an assistant. Nice finish, but 6-10 foreshadows an off-season of uncertainty. Of course, the process got its start last week with the firing of Mike Singletary. But wait. First, we must play what-could-have been. What if Nate Clements had taken a knee against Atlanta? What if the 49ers hadn’t been derailed by the 2-14 Carolina Panthers? And while we’re on that subplot, what if David Carr had given us anything at all? And what if wasn’t so windy when the World Champion Saints visited? Yup, the 49ers could be distributing playoff tickets. Instead, the Yorks are distributing pink slips. But on Sunday, none of that mattered. The 49ers rallied behind interim coach Tomsula, and routed the Cardinals behind Smith, Westbrook, Ted Ginn and Vernon Davis, in an offensive performance that in most games this year was completely absent. Smith, who rode the rollercoaster the most and the longest, played loose and confidently. His line: 15 of 29 for 276 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, spoke of a guy who played with no baggage. “I think for me and this whole team--when you’ve been through so much—you honestly almost get numb to some of it, if that makes sense. As crazy as this year’s been, we’ve been through a lot. I’ve been through a lot. Some of it stops phasing you, I guess,” Smith said. The 49ers broke the game open with three touchdowns in the third quarter. They led just 10-7 at the half, and a depressing finish was a possibility. But the Cardinals—with young quarterbacks John Skelton and Richard Bartel at the controls—played gracious visitors, moving the ball on offense, but gathering little to show for it. Arizona ran 25 more plays than the 49ers, but were stuck in mud, punting eight times and Skelton and Bartel each contributed a pick to the San Francisco cause. “We didn’t execute on as many third downs as we would have liked to,” Larry Fitzgerald, who led the Cardinals with 11 catches, said. “That has been a problem for us all season. We are playing against a team that is familiar with us, and familiar with our personnel.” “We understood this was the last game. We had solid, efficient practice. The one thing the coaches mentioned was to go out there, have fun and put in some good work on film, because when they first got here, they looked at the last week of practice before the last game,” Nate Clements said of the 49ers seamless week of preparation. Tomsula’s short stint as head coach played well. First, he thanked Mike Singletary for his efforts, promised a focused week of preparation, and delivered. Throughout, the team kept loose, and played well on game day. Should Tomsula get a look as a permanent head coach? “I just finished. There’s a search,” Tomsula said, laughing. |
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