| | Something is wrong with these 49ers
By Mark Kreidler
ESPN.com
Maybe it's the 2-4 record against teams that finished above .500 this season. Maybe it's the increasingly apparent disconnect between the head coach and the people who occupy the offices with the nice furniture, personal assistants and team checkbooks.
It could be, and we're just guessing here, the fact that when opposing defenses scan the field, the only person they're making sure they track is Terrell Owens.
|  | | Terrell Owens has been the one consistent threat for the 49ers' offense this season. |
And then there is the default notion, which is that when the San Francisco 49ers made their unexpected playoff breakthrough in 2001, they were not merely arriving a year ahead of schedule -- they were overachieving at a rate that heightened their long-term prospects beyond what was reasonable to expect.
No matter how you figure it, this much is true: The 49ers play host to the New York Giants in an NFC wild-card game on Sunday as the least imposing of the four division winners. And what is at least mildly curious is that so many people associated with the franchise think they should be standing so much taller.
Monday night's 31-20 defeat by the Rams was notable for its lack of front-line San Francisco players, and on that basis we'll dilute by at least half the effects of yielding a 28-point fourth quarter in the last game of the regular season. But look: It's still not your best pre-playoff sign.
And that is the 49ers in 2002, a team alternately interesting and pancake-flat. If there has been an overestimation of talent here (and there may well have been), it was by a front office that was all too willing to take credit for the team's inspiring run of last season -- and content to let any blame for this year's up-and-down 10-6 finish fall at the feet of coach Steve Mariucci.
Mariucci was hired by Carmen Policy and Eddie DeBartolo, both of whom are now a part of the franchise's distant and glorious past; and that, in part, explains the persistent chatter that Mariucci needs a deep playoff run this season to save his job. You know the 49ers: They're always one good Mike Holmgren rumor away from a full-blown coaching controversy. And those close to the team have spoken often of the chasm separating Mariucci from executive Terry Donahue, resident Yoda Bill Walsh and putative ship captain John York.
But a closer look at the roster gives at least some weight to an argument that Mariucci is doing pretty well with what he's got. The Giants on Sunday will face a San Francisco offense that just doesn't scare anybody, the team's 23-point scoring average notwithstanding. Outside the redoubtable Owens, there isn't a receiver on the field who is going to command fulltime concern -- you can practically feel Jeff Garcia trying not to constantly force throws to Owens -- and running back Garrison Hearst reached 95 rushing yards in a game only three times all season.
The defense has been beset by injuries, particularly to the secondary, and when people go looking for reasons why the 49ers were able to get to 10-5 before that meaningless loss to the Rams, the saving work of several defenders (Tony Parrish, Bryant Young, Julian Peterson) and coordinator Jim Mora rises quickly to the top. But it's not a defense that inspires ultimate confidence; the 49ers' notable second-half wilt against Green Bay a couple of weeks ago, when they yielded 17 second-half points in a 20-14 loss at home, was more illustrative of this than the Rams game, because San Francisco desperately wanted to beat the Packers.
It is an uneven team in a league filled with uneven teams, and perhaps that all fits together just fine. On the other hand, the 49ers have consistently been about chasing championships, not mere playoff invitations. It's a rough road to reality.
Only a fool would look at the parity-afflicted NFL and conclude that any single playoff team has no shot at the Super Bowl; with full respect to Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Green Bay, there isn't a sure thing to be found in the NFC. Still, these aren't your father's 49ers. Those teams had stacked decks of talent, with salary cap concerns either nonexistent or manipulated beyond anyone's wildest imagination.
Those teams, the teams of Montana and Rice and John Taylor and Ronnie Lott and, later, of Steve Young and Brent Jones and Tim McDonald and even Deion Sanders, hit every postseason full in the belief that they had Super stuff; and they reserved the right to be bitterly disappointed -- violently angry, even -- if it didn't play out to a regal end.
Boy, was that then. The 49ers of today will be well pleased simply to find themselves moving on to a second-round playoff game. It's certainly no crime, not at a time in which the franchise had to be rebuilt from chaotic scratch in a three-year stretch. But it sure ain't the same.
Mark Kreidler is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee and a regular contributor to ESPN.com
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A Long Time Coming
