SoMFootball.com - SOMIFA SPRING: San Francisco Edges Houston 24-17

San Francisco lead by Ed Berro edges Houston lead by Paul Mankiewicz

***The following is copied from Dan's Strat-o-matic Fan Forum***

By Ed Berro

HOU had beaten SF in the SOMIFA championship game as Larry Johnson had only 28 yards on 16 carries but this game in the spring would be different.

Starting at the 20 SF drove for a TD including a 28 yard run by Larry Johnson on his card, a 3rd and 2 conversion with a 6 roll against Julius Peppers 5 rating which wouldn’t have been a first down if Peppers got the 6 he deserved, and a short Carson Palmer TD pass on his card. SF 7 HOU 0.

On their 3rd play HOU converted a 3rd and 5 doubleteamed flat pass on Brees’ card and a 3rd and 9 short pass on Brees’ card followed by a 3rd and 8 doubleteamed short pass completed on Brees’ short pass card but HOU gave it all away with a guessed wrong short pass interception on the defensive card.

SF went 3 and out as they couldn’t convert a 3rd and 3 on a guessed right flat pass against 2 men in zone.

With a few first downs mostly by Tomlinson HOU drove past midfield again but on a 3rd and 2 OLB David Thornton stopped a short gain with a 5 roll against his 5 rating (I’ve never been convinced that the difference between a 4 LB and a 5 LB is less now than it used to be) forcing a punt. However, SF was offsides on the punt giving HOU a first down. Two plays later, though, HOU again gave away their good fortune by throwing a guessed wrong long pass interception on the defensive card.

Palmer completed two 11 yard guessed right short passes and then hit a 43 yard play on the open zone long pass column (long gain on either the average or the good card) and then Todd Heap went for 13 yards on a flat pass on his card. SF 14 HOU 0.

After gaining a first down HOU was called for holding on 2nd and 3 and then had to punt. SF gained 6 first downs but then on 2nd and 1 from the 4 was called for a false start and settled for a 2-10 field goal attempt – which was no good on a roll of 11.

On the next play Brees threw a guessed right long pass interception on his card but SF was sacked on a flat pass and had to punt.

Starting with just over 1 minute to go in the half HOU went 3 and out gaining 6 yards on a 3rd and 7 dumpoff on Lee Evans’ card and that was the end of the half.

HOU gained a first down and then on 3rd and 10 threw a short pass interception on the defensive card but just as the return was clicked for the game disconnected. Even though a manual save was made the game would not synch at the right spot. Paul was very gracious and understanding of the situation, we tried to re-load and re-create the interception but after a few tries that would just take too long so we agreed to take a 9 yard gain on the play and then Paul ran a QB linebuck keyed, this gave SF the ball at the HOU 43 yard line instead of what should have been an interception at the SF 49 yard line plus a return.

SF drove to the HOU 22 yard line and after failing to convert a 3rd and 12 made a field goal (with dice roll of 7 which would have been good from the next further distance). SF 17 HOU 0.

After another two runs by LT to gain a first down LT hit his 2nd 5-roll-guessed-wrong of the game and HOU couldn’t convert the 3rd and 10.

SF went 3 and out gaining only 1 yard.

HOU gained 13 yards on a 3rd and 8 dumpoff and then on 3rd and 10 Steve Smith caught a 17 yard pass on his short pass receiving card. 2nd and 5 at the SF 13 David Thornton made his second short-gain-saving play with a 5 roll against his 5 rating and HOU settled for a field goal. SF 17 HOU 3 with 1:30 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

After SF gained a first down Larry Johnson ran for 21 on his card and SF moved into 2-7 field goal territory but Janikowski missed again this time with an 8 roll.

LT was already having a good game but he revved it up when it was needed running for 34 yards on his card followed by a 29 yard run on his card followed by a 4 yard TD run. SF 17 HOU 10 with 10:48 remaining in the 4th quarter.

SF moved the ball just into HOU territory but a false start and then a sack set up 3rd and 21 and they had to punt.

Starting at their own 20 down by 7 HOU ran LT for 4, LT caught a flat pass on his guessed wrong card for 13, Manumaleuna caught a flat pass on his guessed right card for 10, LT ran for 15 on his card, LT ran for 29 on his card but then at the 1st down at the SF 9 yard line LT was stopped for 0 and 2nd down went for -1 on a key. 3rd and goal at the 10 LT from a 3 WR formation LT ran an inside draw which went for a TD on his card. SF 17 HOU 17 with 5:24 remaining in the 4th quarter.

So the defeatist mentality was that SF would probably not get into field goal territory, have to punt, and then HOU would win on a game-ending drive. Starting at their 20 Carson Palmer hit a 7 yard gain on his guessed right flat card and Larry Johnson went for 8 yard on his card for a first down. Johnson went for 0 on his card guessed right, on 2nd and 10 Heap caught a 7 yard pass on his card guessed right. On 3rd and 3 SF completed a guessed right flat pass for 10 yards as 5-rated Quarles was unable to make a stop on a 6 roll. At the HOU 48 Carson Palmer hit a guessed wrong flat for 10 yards on his card. At the HOU 38 SF was able to beat 0-rated LB S.Phillips with a 6 roll on a short pass for 13 yards to get the ball to the 25 with 2:00 remaining. SF then found an open zone with a flat pass which came up on Ashley Lelie’s receiving card, a 4 was rolled which resulted in a quick TD. SF 24 HOU 17 with 1:45 remaining in the 4th quarter.

Janikowski’s poor KR column gave HOU the ball at the 37. HOU used a 4 WR formation, I don’t know if that was only due to the time in the game (they had all of their timeouts remaining) or perhaps since LT had only 1 non-fatigued carry remaining. HOU gained 10 yards on a 6 roll on a flat pass followed by 7 yards on Brees’ flat pass column and LT gained 3 on an inside run draw on his card. At the SF 43 yard line with 1:00 to go (2 timeouts remaining) HOU was sacked on a doubleteamed short pass by Aaron Schobel even though he was against 7-rated Chad Clifton. 2nd and 17 incomplete on Brees’ short pass card. 3rd and 17 HOU completed for 10 on Brees’ flat card finding an open zone. 4th and 7 with 0:37 remaining at the SF 40 HOU beat 4-rated CB Carlos Rogers with a 5 roll for 17 yards and then spiked the ball. 2nd and 10 at the SF 23 with 22 seconds to go and 1 timeout the next play was a big deciding factor as on his short pass card Brees rolled his only must run chance on a roll of 4 and gained 5 yards on a roll of 6 – this not only forced HOU to use their last timeout but moved the ball to the 18 so that a long pass would have automatically been 2 men in zone.

3rd and 5 at the SF 18 yard line with 15 seconds to go and no timeouts DeAngelo Hall batted down a short pass with a 4 roll against his 6 rating and 4th and 5 with 8 seconds to go HOU tried a flat pass left but 6-rated MLB Brooking was there and the gain was only 1 yard.

SF escaped with a win 24-17.

Even on probably LT’s worst card he rips me bigtime, in this game he had 199 yards on 30 carries. Brees had a terrible game 22-40 for 194 yards and 4 interceptions. Carson Palmer has had great games in each of his 9 games in spring with the exception of the earlier game against HOU) and finished the regular season with a 112.4 QB rating; in this game he was 24-35 for 282 yards with 3 TD’s and 0 ints. Larry Johnson showed up to play this time with 118 yards on 20 carries. Janikowski must have been out drinking the night before (or maybe he wasn’t out drinking and that was his problem?) but the 4 turnover advantage gave SF the edge they needed.