Patriots-49ers

Since the Patriots only visit the 49ers once every eight years, you know I had to go to this game. Wacky Chinawife and I had seats in the upper deck, right on the 5 yard line. Fortunately, the stadium is small enough that we could see the field pretty well.

On the way in, we got heckled pretty good for wearing our Brady and Bruschi jerseys. Several local fans holding up their "CHEATERS!" signs and waving them in our face as we walked by. We walked by one 49ers fan drinking a beer who was clearly struggling with something clever to say. He eventually went with a soft "Ehhhh....you guys suck." Overall, it was pretty tame, probably because about 1 out of every 10 people had on Patriots gear.

It was a pretty good game to watch. Patriots ended up winning 30-21 and held the ball almost twice as long as the 49ers. Of course, this led to the wife and I constantly expecting the worst every time Matt Cassel dropped back to throw a pass. The best play was the 66-yard bomb to Moss. Seeing it in person was pretty amazing. I saw Cassel step back and heave it up in the air, and I immediately snapped my head to look for Randy Moss. I located him pretty quickly and just seeing his body language, I could tell he was going to catch it easily, which he did. He is ridiculously fast when he is running at full speed.

I'd say the only bad part of the game was that all the TDs were scored in the end zone furthest away from us. Would have been nice to have been closer for those.

At halftime, the 49ers retired Steve Young's number. That was a pretty neat thing to be present for. They ran a bunch of his career highlights and the locals went nuts.

Some brief thoughts on the game itself:

-Pats got a lot of pressure on the 49ers QB, but couldn't bring him down to the ground very often. Fortunately, he was not an effective scrambler and made few plays while on the run.

-On the flip side, it seems pretty easy to sack Cassel. As soon as he feels pressure, he tucks the ball under his arm and gets real jittery. His attempts to run away from the pressure usually fail.

-Flipping through a recording of the game later, I was amazed at the Rodney Harrison interception. Not because of the play itself, but because Steve Young was in the announcing booth at the time, and even though he was in the middle of telling a story he stopped in midsentence an instant BEFORE the QB threw the ball. He apologized for stopping but said it was because he "saw trouble coming." Pretty amazing that he was able to see the play happen before it actually occurred. I guess that's why he's in the Hall of Fame.

I'll post some pics of the game later.