Daily Madden: 49ers Never Dominated When They Were Winning
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — It was the Super Bowl trip that wasn't meant to be for the San Francisco 49ers after the NFC Championship 23-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. John Madden told the KCBS morning crew he was glad the 49ers were able to handle the deafening crowd levels, but he saw trouble early on.
"I thought they were winning the game and dominating but when you looked at the score, they were winning the game but not dominating and they never got enough spread," Madden said.
"When they were beating Seattle, they didn't pile on enough points to get a separation and Seattle, when they weren't playing well, was always close and hanging in there. So when that happened, you knew that it was going to go down to the end and be a play here or a play there and whoever got that play here or play there was going to be the team that won."
Madden said the the 49ers did better with clock management; they didn't have the constant problem of getting the play called, taking penalties and burning time outs. But on that last drive, should they have perhaps thought about stopping the clock and setting up a couple of plays before the fateful play in the final drive?
"Well, if he catches that play, then everyone is throwing confetti on each other, or even if it's incomplete—and that's how I think it should have been," he said.
"You don't get a possible knockdown, that shouldn't have been possibility and obviously an interception shouldn't have been a possibility. You throw it where your guy catches it or no one catches it, so that was a mistake."
And what about Richard Sherman running 30 yards across the field just to taunt Michael Crabtree?
"That was embarrassing and I thought his interview with Erin Andrews was embarrassing. And then we excuse it and pass it off that he's a passionate and emotional player. That wasn't passion nor was it emotion; it was something that I thought was embarrassing," Madden said.
Daily Madden: 49ers Never Dominated When They Were Winning
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 am Mondays and Fridays on KCBS during the NFL season.
