Niners Monday: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

So the perfect season is gone. I guess it was bound to happen, but I'm still a little disappointed. Let's go through the good, the bad and the ugly from yesterday:

The Good:

• Nate Clements. He has sold his soul to the devil. Or maybe he's just pounding red bulls on the sideline. Either way, he was FLYING all over the field. The play he made to drop Cedric Wilson on the reverse was incredible. If he doesn't make that tackle, Steelers have a huge gain, possibly a TD. Clements has been everything advertised and more.
• Patrick Willis. I've already professed my love for the rookie, and he did nothing to dissuade me yesterday. If he keeps making plays at this pace he'll be the best ILB in the division before long. Lofa Tatupu, lookout.
• Jim Hostler / Mike Nolan. We begged. We pleaded. We wrote you fake notes from your players. You listened. The game plan was varied, and there were a lot of wrinkles thrown in to give #11 a chance to succeed (i.e. play-action, bootlegs, etc). I still thought there were too many runs right into Casey Hampton's gut, and we were a little predictable on 2nd and long, but all in all, a huge improvement for the offense. There were averaging 180 and put up almost 280 against one of the NFL's toughest defensive units.
• Vernon Davis. You ran your mouth during the week. You delivered with some huge plays (one of which was negated by the refs, but we'll get to that). Key drop late in the game on 3rd down, though. Have you considered Stickum?
  
• Andy Lee. You keep this up and you'll find yourself in the pro-bowl, young man.
  

The Bad:

• The WRs. Combined, the top 3 had 8 catches for 122 yards. That should be the type of day that our #1 has by himself. The announcers got on Ashley Lelie for bad route running, and there were some dropped balls. All in all, the Niners need more from this unit. They're supposed to be upgraded. They need to prove it.
• Kick Coverage Unit. The Niners had a good amount of momentum coming off the opening drive. The return was killer. The Niners never led again on the day. It's tough enough to win on the road against a top-notch opponent. Spotting them an early lead makes it nigh impossible.
• Hannibal Navies. Despite a great start forcing a fumble, Navies was picked on all day by Pittsburgh. It seemed like every time I looked, they were running right at him, and with a lot of success. Add in his difficulty in covering Heath Miller, and it made it apparent that we will sorely miss Manny.
  
• The running game. Ultimately I'm not too concerned about this. The Pittsburgh defense did a great job. They're DL and linebackers are excellent, not to mention Palumalu back there. I thought, though, that Hostler could have gone for more plays off tackle to avoid the big boy in the middle, Mr. Hampton.
  

The Ugly:

• The Referees. They are the one and only ugly I have. The holding call on Nate Clements. The non-call when Roethlisberger intentionally grounded the ball. And the biggest mis-call of the day, Vernon's catch that was ruled incomplete. Just utter incompetence on the part of the officials. I would have been upset if they had called that an interception, but at least it would have made sense. The call was simply wrong. There was no possible way that ball was incomplete. It didn't hit the ground. And what was with "barely" got his feet down. Either he did or didn't. Barely doesn't mean shit. Ultimately, I can't say they cost the Niners the game. The Steelers played better than the Niners. But the refs did rob the Niners of a chance to be in the game late. Given their late-game heroics the last 2 weeks, I would have loved a chance to watch them duke it out in the 4th quarter yesterday.
  

Conclusions:

• Personally, I thought the 49ers played their best game of the year yesterday. The final score certainly doesn't indicate how close this game actually was. The key plays were the interception return and the kick-off return. To win on the road against a very opponent, you cannot spot them 14 points. The defense played great and would have put us right in the thick of things if the Steelers hadn't generated those points on defense/special teams. Though a victory would have been great, I'm coming out of this loss maybe even more upbeat than I was after the win last week. Seattle comes to town this week. This will give everyone a much better idea of how the division is going to shake out.
  

- Andy Fucking Lee