49ers Take Unusual Route to Victory

Decisions, decisions.

San Francisco running back Kevan Barlow had plenty of choices Monday night against the New York Jets. Should he run through that huge hole on the right? Or should he cut left, toward that gaping patch of acreage? “Man, I was running and I didn’t know which way to run, the holes were so big,” he said. “Either running right or running left.”

In the end, the 49ers ran away with a 19-17 victory at Giants Stadium and revealed an effective ground attack. This, after slogging through the first two games with quarterback Jeff Garcia as the leading rusher. Coming into the game, the longest run by a back was 12 yards by fullback Terry Jackson, his only carry. The 49ers rushed 43 times for 233 yards against a respectable Jet defense. And San Francisco spent much of the time without starting center Jeremy Newberry, who suffered an ankle injury in the first half.

Garrison Hearst gained 95 yards in 20 carries, and Barlow had 83 yards in nine. Through the first two games, the two backs had identical, ho-hum numbers: 58 yards in 18 carries. “We needed to find a running game,” Coach Steve Mariucci said.

He added, “Our offensive line, in some ways, controlled the line of scrimmage.” The suddenly ground-bound 49ers ran more than twice as much as they passed. Garcia completed 16 of 20 passes for 141 yards with his team’s only touchdown, a six-yard pass to Terrell Owens in the second quarter.

Not that Garcia was complaining about the grind-it-out approach, but

“We handed the ball off on every down,” he said. “As a quarterback, I want to make throws down the field. I want to be more involved in the game. It’s great if you can win games like that, because there are going to be some times when we’re going to need to rely on the run, it’s great to see our offensive line play as well as they did ... [but] it’s just frustrating for our receivers. I don’t think they’re necessarily enjoying this.

“You’ve got to enjoy the win. You’ve got to find positives out of it. But I know they want to contribute more. They want to be a bigger part of the offense. Tonight, it just wasn’t happening.”

Maybe it’s a sign the 49ers are improving as a team. Now, it’s not just enough to fly cross country and win on “Monday Night Football.” They want to do it a certain way.

Of course, Jet Coach Herman Edwards has bigger worries.

“Obviously, it was embarrassing to let a team run for over 200 yards on you,” he said. “It’s ugly football. The 49ers did a good job, and we couldn’t stop it. We have to find 11 guys who want to tackle.”

The Jets can take heart in the fact they got tougher when the 49ers neared the end zone. But San Francisco made them pay, anyway, thanks to kicker Jose Cortez, who made field goals of 19, 49, 35 and 29 yards. Cortez, who played at Van Nuys High and Valley College before finishing his career at Oregon State, is a veteran of four NFL training camps. But, aside from a one-game stint kicking off for the New York Giants, this is his first real chance. He has made the most of it, starting the season nine for nine. “The last time I was at this stadium, I went three for four,” he said. Keep in mind, he’s talking about his career in the now-defunct XFL with the Los Angeles Xtreme. And leave it to an XFLer to draw an unnecessary-roughness penalty, as Cortez did when he nailed Jet receiver Laveranues Coles long after both were out of bounds.

Cortez’s teammates, however, had no problem with taking the 15-yard penalty. After all, they reasoned, he was only trying to make a play.

“He realizes that he’s one of the 11 guys out there who are going to make a play,” guard Dave Fiore said. An offense that looks off the pass and grinds it out on the ground? A kicker who doubles as an enforcer? Yes, these are different 49ers indeed.