Did missed kicks matter for Niners in a game that didn’t?

You say the Niners game Sunday didn’t matter, unless you bet the Rams, who were 2½ point underdogs (and won).

Or if you’re a 49ers rookie placekicker who suddenly couldn’t get the ball through the uprights. Perhaps. But it at least was somewhat unnerving, even with the top seed in the playoffs previously clinched.

True, it did matter for the Rams, who moved up a notch in the postseason seedings and after the comeback 21-20 victory at Levi’s Stadium, could face the Niners once more in two weeks. 

This time? No Christian McCaffrey, no Brock Purdy, and no Deebo Samuel for San Francisco, those guys taking a rest as the 49ers took no chances getting them hurt in the regular season finale. That was expected. Unexpected was Jake Moody missing an extra point for the first time after going 60 for 60 and also missing on a 38-yard field goal attempt.

“He never missed one all year,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said, defending Moody’s failure after the Niners’ second touchdown. “He’s done a hell of a job.”

That is correct, but so is the comment by former Niner Donte Whitner on Sunday’s post-game TV show, that the pressure builds in the playoffs, and a miss now very well could lead to a miss then—and elimination.

Not that Shanahan was likely to dwell on Moody’s fall from perfection, even though in the end it was the reason the Niners ended regular play with a defeat and a 12-5 record. 

Sam Darnold was the Niners quarterback and was effective enough to provide new hope that if something happened again to Purdy, knocked out of the playoffs last year by that elbow injury, Darnold would keep things going.

The irony, of course, is Darnold was a first-round selection by the Jets, who eventually traded him to Carolina, while Purdy was a final-round pick—last overall, “Mr. Irrelevant”—by the 49ers.

Purdy was on the scene Sunday, just not in uniform, although he did work out with his teammates before kickoff.

The best part of having the top seed in the conference and the bye in the first round of the playoffs is the opportunity to rest players who have been pounded and battered from September. The worst part, some say, is getting out of the weekly pattern.

The Niners, with Shanahan and numerous veterans, should be able to stay the course. They’ve been through the grind, dropped three straight games, then followed with five straight wins.

“Our goal was to get the No.1 seed,” Shanahan said “We did, and it was weird this past week, but I like how our guys handled it. A number of guys got better through the year. We still feel our best football is forward.”

A Tale of Two Rose Bowl streaks

PASADENA — Reynolds Crutchfield is his name, and on Monday, New Year’s Day 2024, he attended the Rose Bowl game here in his hometown for an 80th straight year.

Which is remarkable and admirable and puts me 10 behind the 93-year-old Mr. Crutchfield, who was a high school teacher and basketball coach. 

Behind in games, not years. 

And while I wouldn’t mind catching up in age (I’m more than 10 back of him in that statistic), I’m sure I’ll never equal his number of Rose Bowls.   

Then again, all he’d do was show up, enter the stadium and watch.

My resume is a little more complex and includes the selling of programs, working as a press box usher and writing stories and columns for publications as varied as the late Santa Monica Evening Outlook, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune and of late my very own non-profit (but semi-rewarding) web site, artspander.com.

Those courageous and you could say magnificent men who climbed Everest and other great mountains had a ready answer when asked why: “Because they’re there.”

So to my connection to the Rose Bowl. This was before the majors came west. Before the NBA expanded. For a kid growing up in southern California virtually the only sporting event of importance was, yes, the Rose Bowl Game.

My first was Jan. 1954, Michigan State-UCLA in beautiful weather. My father, who had a mom-and-pop grocery store in the Highland Park district of L.A ., near Pasadena, dropped me off. I wore a white shirt and signed up to peddle programs. I made $10.

I even went to the end zone and picked up a small piece of the goalpost, which in those days was wood and traditionally brought down by celebrating fans.

No cell phones, no ESPN. For a kid in high school, this was nirvana.

As opposed to the next year, 1955. Of course I returned, but alas, for the first time since Stanford-Columbia in 1934 (no I wasn’t there, I wasn’t even in high school), it rained—a steady downpour.

People literally were giving away $20 tickets but the tickets went unclaimed. Hundreds of seats remained empty. It was Ohio State against USC, and even though the Buckeyes won, 20-7, their demanding coach, Woody Hayes, was in a snit because the USC band performed on the soggy field at halftime.

I’m emphasizing that the references here are only the Rose Bowl games that actually were played in the Rose Bowl. I conveniently skipped the one in 2021 that shifted to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, because of Covid restrictions in California.

Not sure if Crutchfield was there or not, and if he smartly avoided traveling to deep in the heart of what we know as Jerry‘s (Jones) World, whether he now really has gone to 80 in a row or 79?  

Or whether in the great scheme of things it counts?

What counted for me on Jan. 2, 1978, was getting from Denver to Los Angeles.

I was the Oakland Raiders beat writer for the Chronicle, and the paper’s sports editor was only concerned with me covering the game against the Broncos that day.

Not with my string of Rose Bowls.

The Broncos defeated the Raiders that New Year’s afternoon, in part on the controversial call on the Ron Lytle non-fumble for a score.

I met my deadline and dashed to the airport, somehow arriving in time for the Monday, Jan. 2 Rose Bowl. I was relieved and elated. Until the sports editor found out and threatened dismissal.

Hey, you have to take chances when you’re on a streak.

Michigan’s D made the stop that matters

PASADENA — You try against Michigan, you run into trouble. And you are also run out of the College Football Championship.  

In one of those games that had too many timeouts and not enough action, everything turned on the final play of only the second Rose Bowl ever to go overtime.

They now are 14-0 and it is because of their defense.                                                                    

They stopped Alabama quarterback, Jalen Milroe, around the two on a fourth and goal carry.

So the Wolverines, ranked No. 1 the past few months, defeated the Crimson Tide, 27-20, dealing another blow to the school that for so long dominated the college game. 

“We obviously were disappointed in the outcome of this game,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who for a third straight year will be kept from the place his team occupied for so long.

“The clock was running down,” said Saban about the way things ended, “and a couple of times we mis-executed.” 

That probably was because of the D, the part of a Michigan team that survived every opponent, and even the controversy created by coach Jim Harbaugh where he was accused of spying.

He was suspended for three weeks, but as you can see from his record it had as little effect on Michigan as everything else.

It wasn’t exactly three yards and a cloud of dust as was the situation with Ohio State under Woody Hayes, but Michigan played tough physical football on both sides of the ball.

What proved to be the difference was that Blake Corum ran 17 yards for the score that would win, contributing to him being selected as the offensive player of the game.

This has been a spectacular time for the Harbaugh family, who once lived on the San Francisco peninsula when father Jack was a coach at Stanford. A few days back, John Harbaugh coached the Baltimore Ravens over the 49ers, and now Jim leads his alma mater into the College title game.

“Happy New Year,” was the way a properly thrilled Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan coach, greeted the media. “A great way to start the New Year. That was glorious.”

Perfection so often is.

“Alabama had a great game plan for us,” said Harbaugh when told that until the final drive of regulation, the Wolverines had only 41 yards of offense in the second half.

A great game plan that wasn’t quite enough.