S.F. Examiner: Big night for Eddie D, Stabler, Boldin

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was the stranger from Youngstown, the little guy who had to earn his spurs and, more importantly after some missteps owning the 49ers — “This team is not a toy,” he grumbled at the media so critical of his mismanagement — earn the cheers. They were there at Super Bowls in past years. And they were there Saturday night, when Eddie DeBartolo was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So timely. So appropriate that DeBartolo, now 69 and far away in time and distance, having moved to Tampa, Fla., would be one of the chosen few when the Super Bowl, the Half-Century Super Bowl, No. 50, would be played in the area where he built a champion in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Read the ful story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

49ers win 'by any means necessary’

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By Art Spander

SANTA CLARA — The people who play and coach the game understand what it’s about: Success. How you achieve it is inconsequential.

They don’t judge on style points, only on final scores. Al Davis told us exactly what matters in the NFL with his mantra, “Just win baby.”

This 49er season hasn’t been what some thought it might be. The team has struggled at times, mystified at other times. It lost to the Chicago Bears at home — the Chicago Bears, for heaven’s sake — and couldn’t even be competitive against the Denver Broncos.

And yet a few days before Thanksgiving, here are the Niners, perplexing, confusing — at least to the fan base — but still hanging in there. On Sunday, San Francisco, albeit unimpressively, defeated the Washington Redskins, 17-13. Then, Thursday, again here at Levi’s Stadium, they play the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, who at 7-4 have the same record as the Niners.

The Niners needed a touchdown with only 2 minutes 59 seconds remaining to overtake a Redskins team that now has a 3-8 record, a quarterback (Robert Griffin III) who knocks his teammates and a coach (Jay Gruden) who knocks his quarterback.

The important thing is they got that touchdown, the first one all season in the fourth quarter with Colin Kaepernick at quarterback.     

The important thing is when the time came, on fourth and one from their own 34 with only some five minutes remaining, they got a three-yard run from Frank Gore.

The important thing is the next play Kaepernick connected with Anquan Boldin for 29 yards, and when Redskins safety Ryan Clark was called for unnecessary roughness for his hit on Boldin the ball was on the Washington 19.

“We’ve got to make plays when they’re there,” said Bruce Miller, the Niner fullback. “Today, especially late in the game, we made them.”

That’s what winners do, of course. Even when they turn the ball over three times. Even when they give up 136 net yards rushing.

“That’s one thing about this team, and I applaud them for their efforts to keep going when it gets tough,” said tight end Vernon Davis. “We fought. We stayed in there, and we pulled it off.”  

Up north, the Seahawks were beating the division-leading Cardinals, 19-3. Then Thursday they’ll be in Santa Clara. If the Niners are going to the postseason it’s a game they have to win, because later they play up in Seattle where they never win.

Yet what might happen concerned the Niners less than what did happen, the victory over the Skins. 

“We win these kind of games by any means necessary,” said Niners coach Jim Harbaugh. “When you (turn the ball over), it’s about the team sticking together.

“We turned the ball over, and some teams will hang their heads when that happens. But that’s not what this team’s about. This team’s about each other. They’re about the team, the team, the team. Not into criticizing each other. We’re not into badmouthing each other, talking about each other. We’re into lifting each other up. Guys just kept playing and fighting. That’s what good teams do.” 

If by implication that was a zinger against the Redskins and their apparent dissension, Harbaugh made no effort to make anyone believe anything else. He read and heard what Griffin said about his teammates, that they needed to play better, and what Gruden said about Griffin, that he needed to worry about himself and not the others.

The unity of a football team is essential if unpredictable. A week ago, Niner linebacker Ahmad Brooks whined about coming out of a game. Just as the issue seemed about to enter crisis stage, Brooks gave his apology and Harbaugh wisely was in complete acceptance. He’s ready with a quick show of support. His guys are his guys.

One of those guys is Boldin, whom the Niners acquired from Baltimore before the 2013 season. Although 34 and in his 12th season, the ability has not ebbed.

“He’s a shining star,” Harbaugh insisted of Boldin, “a stalwart. Still making the big plays.”

Which is what Boldin hopes to make. His touchdown for Baltimore in the Super Bowl XLVII two seasons ago helped defeat the Niners. Now he helping the Niners beat others.

“At some point,” said Boldin, “we were going to have to make a play, win a game on offense. Defense played their butts off. I think (the offense) played well in spurts, but we shot ourselves in the foot at times. Three turnovers definitely were detrimental. Tough games, but guys are making plays when called upon at the right times.”

Boldin made them. Kaepernick made them. The defense made them.

“A good team doing what it has to do,” said Harbaugh, “to win a football game.”

How good? We’ll know in a matter of days.

49ers Were ‘Terrible’

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By Art Spander

SANTA CLARA — This one is summed up perfectly by Colin Kaepernick, who as most everyone on the 49ers was perfectly imperfect. “Terrible,” said Kaepernick.

Indeed. And maybe worse than that.

Another opening, another show. Another stunning letdown.

The first NFL game at billion-dollar-plus Levi’s Stadium, the jewel of Silicon Valley. A 17-0 lead over the Chicago Bears. And then?  

Well, 16 penalties by the Niners. Four turnovers by Kaepernick. Ineptitude at the highest level, and finally, painfully, Sunday night a 28-20 loss.

“It stings,” said Niner coach Jim Harbaugh. Yes, and it stinks, in a figurative way. The new place, 70,799 fans paying some very high prices. A beautiful beginning, and then clunk.

This one belonged at Kezar Stadium, where in 1946, their inaugural season, the Niners lost their first game ever played. Or at Candlestick Park, where in 1971 the Niners lost their first game after the shift from Kezar.

Who even thought the script would be the same? Start like a klutz.

This is a Niner team headed for the Super Bowl? Please! Sixteen penalties for 118 yards. Absurd. Disgraceful. Impossible to overcome.

Harbaugh stood in the post-game interview room like a deer in headlights, giving the briefest answers in the softest voice. Either he was bewildered by what took place or appalled. Probably both.

Earlier in the day, at San Diego, the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, the team the Niners must overtake, lost to the Chargers. The score went up on those huge video boards. The fans cheered. The Niners would be ahead of the Seahawks.

Not on your life. They would be wallowing in their own despair. They would be flagellating themselves. They would be ruing what could have been, what should have been — but was not to be.

“When you’re up, and like you said, new stadium, with the fans, great fans,” agreed Frank Gore, the Niners running back and spiritual leader, “when you’re up like that, you’ve got to go for the kill. We let them back in the game. We didn’t finish, and they beat us.”

More accurately, the Niners beat themselves. They got called for defensive holding. They got called for illegal procedure. They got called for illegal use of hands. They got called for false starts. And most of all, at the end of the first half, still in front, 17-0, they got called for roughing the passer, with only a bit more than a minute to go in the half.

That moved the ball to the San Francisco 25, and in three plays quarterback Jay Cutler moved it into the end zone on the first of three touchdown passes to Brandon Marshall.

“He’s a tough guy,” Niners linebacker Patrick Willis said of Marshall. “He’s tough to cover by anyone on the field. It’s just him getting in the red zone. He’s a big body (6-foot-4, 230 pounds).

“The youngster (Jimmie Ward) was fighting his tail off and doing all we ask him to do. The plays just went their way on those.”

They didn’t go Kaepernick’s way. Three interceptions and a fumble. Arguably Kaepernick’s worst game since he became a starter two years ago in a game against, yes, the Bears.

“I think he was seeing things good,” Harbaugh said in support of his quarterback. “He threw some pretty darn good balls. The defense made some great plays.”

Kaepernick made plays that, to be kind, were very much less than great. He seemed flummoxed by a Bears defense that literally had him on the run.

“I saw the coverages,” said Kaepernick. “I didn’t make the plays.”

What we he made were mistakes, joining teammates in a universal effort.

The funny thing is the Levi’s Stadium field was for the third time in six weeks replanted. The grass had been coming apart. It didn’t on Sunday night. It was the Niners who disintegrated.

“Turnovers and penalties,” said  fullback Bruce Miller, in what was becoming litany, “especially at the point in the game when they were made, that’s losing football.”

It was for the Dallas Cowboys a week ago against the Niners.

It was for the Niners on Sunday night against the Bears.

“Wins are tough to come by,” said Anquan Boldin, the Niners wide receiver. “When you have a team down, you definitely have to put your foot on their throat because nobody’s going to quit in this league.”

The Bears lost three key defensive players through injuries, including cornerback Charles Tillman. Yet it was the Niners who lost the game.

“It stings to lose,” Harbaugh said once again. “And we all have fingerprints on it.”

Do they ever. Someone get the furniture polish.