1st Place!

Clockwise from top left:

Coach Jim Harbaugh, Stanford players coming out of the tunnel, no need for another Singletary tirade in the Seahawks game again and Gore busting off a big TD run

9/21/09

Weekend football recap:

This was a great weekend in terms of football for myself. The Menlo JV football team got its first win of the season and varsity also won. JV won 6-0 over Justin Siena on a trick play running back pass. Congratulations to them.

I also attended the home openers for both the Stanford Cardinal and the San Francisco 49ers with some friends. Stanford won a blowout over San Jose State University 42-17 and the 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 23-10.

Alas, not all can be well as my fantasy football team continued its ineptitude through week 2 and I managed only 77 points.

49ers vs. Stanford:

Both games were a lot of fun and both teams offer their personal pros and cons in terms of game experience. The 9ers are, first and foremost, a professional NFL team and the level of play is the highest. There's also something fun about making the commute up to the City and the energy at 9ers games is much higher than at Stanford games. My friends and I were being obnoxious and yelling "9ers! 9ers!" the whole time, just like all the other drunk college fellows. Good stuff. And lastly, my favorite sports players are professional, so I can root just a little harder for those guys at 49ers games. That means my boy Patrick Willis and Frank Gore get a lot of love.

In a way though, going to a Cardinal football game is just as fun for me as going to a 49ers game. The tickets are way cheaper, you can get great tickets for $45 to a Stanford game while average tickets are $100 to a 49ers game. Add in $20 parking passes and Stanford games are much for reasonable. Another big factor is location. I live in Palo Alto and it takes me only 15 minutes to ride my bike to the football stadium. It can also be nice going to a more low key game if you don't want to have to stand up every 3rd down and kill your lungs shouting.

Stanford game:

Chris Owusu set the tone with a TD return on the opening kickoff and the Cardinal never looked back while rolling to a 42-17 victory over now 0-3 SJSU. Gerhart continued his solid season with typical Toby style smash mouth running and scored 2 TDs to complement his 113 rushing yards. Stanford also scored TDs on an INT return for a TD by Corey Gatewood and CB/punt returner Richard Sherman also contributed a punt return TD.

Stanford's easy victory helped take some pressure off of redshirt freshman Andrew Luck, who threw a TD pass to Owusu and only had to attempt 12 passes.

The defensive line got a lot of pressure on the SJSU QBs and combined for 6 sacks, 3 coming from DE Will Powers. The Stanford D also held the Spartans to 24 rushing yards on the night.

The only downside to the performance was 4 turnovers, which led to all 17 Spartan points.

Gerhart's 1 yard TD run put the game out of reach by making it 21-7 in the 2nd quarter and sparked a 23-8 Cardinal scoring run.

The Cardinal face the Washington Huskies at home next week at 6. The Huskies took down #3 ranked USC 16-13.

49ers game:

After a disappointing week 1 rushing performance where the 49ers averaged under a yard per carry, Frank Gore rippped off TD runs of 78 and 80 yards to lead the 9ers to past the division rival Seahakws in a 23-10 victory.

The 49ers are now in sole possession of 1st place in the NFC West with a 2-0 record.

Gore's first run gave the 9ers a 10-0 lead in the 1st quarter. His 80 yard run was the first play of the 2nd half and secured the game for the 9ers, giving them a 20-10 lead.

Frank now joins elite company with Barry Sanders as 1 of 2 players to have 2 TD runs of at least 75 yards in a game.

Nedney kicked 3 field goals and the defense was stout, only allowing a 1 yard TD pass to Julius Jones.

Shaun Hill was solid, but not spectacular and passed 26 times for 144 yards.

The defense could have gotten more pressure on the QB, getting only 1 sack. But you could say it got to Matt Hasselbeck because Patrick Willis's hard hit caused Hasselbeck to miss the 2nd half.

Frank Gore will have a tougher run defense as the 49ers travel to Minnesota next week and play the Vikings at 10 AM pacific time.

Photo citations:

http://www.stanfordphoto.com/albums.php?albumId=51754

http://www.49ers.com/news-and-events/article-1/Gore-Runs-Away-From-Seattle/43c03717-d3e3-479a-973c-8d734349ab65

http://www.49ers.com/media-gallery/photo-gallery/Week-2-Seattle-Seahawks/cde13bec-81b2-4984-8703-7e702a02a44c