First of all you have to consider the bigger pictures in both scenarios.
Exhibit #1: Kyle Williams
He's only been in the league for two years. This year he had a TOTAL of 6 punt and kickoff returns combined. Not exactly Devin Hester but slightly above Jacob Hester (he had 3 total returns). What I'm trying to say is this guy was not the right candidate to carry a 49ers special teams unit that was the best in football this year. That was Ted Ginn Jr.'s job until he injured his knee. The very person who prompted this reaction from Dolphins fans when he was drafted. But I digress, where was I again?...oh right trying to explain why it was not entirely Kyle Williams's fault the 49ers lost.
Alex Smith started to look like the Alex Smith we have all come to question for 7 years. Big shocker there. I'm sorry but you just cannot change 7 years of history thanks to a new coach, a freak-of-nature tight end that decides he wants to play, and a naked bootleg and game-winning touchdown drive against one of the worst defenses in football the week before. That's like Nicolas Cage winning an Oscar and people forgetting he put out recent movies as Ghost Rider, Bankok Dangerous, Knowing, Season of the Witch, and the new Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (how this new movie is allowed to be made will remain as confusing as quantum mechanics). It just doesn't work like that. Smith started overthrowing receivers, throwing into double coverage, and channeling his inner Bill Murray by trying to kill the gopher in the ground he thought he saw all day.
San Francisco going 1-13 on third downs will never win a playoff game. Being outscored 90 plays run to 57 will never win a playoff game. Losing time of possession by 11 minutes will never win a playoff game. Just the fact the 49ers were even remotely close to winning this game is a remarkable accomplishment in of itself. This just shows how good their defense is. Eli Manning threw the ball 58 times and only had 316 yards (sorry no John 3:16 connections here) averaging a measly 5.4 yards a completion with what I firmly believe is the best wide receiver trio in the entire league with Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks, and Mario Manningham. Eli also would have had at least 2 interceptions if the 49ers defense did not try and incapacitate each other while going for the same ball.
So yes Kyle Williams gave the Giants some easy points and the ball grazing his knee was no one else's doing but his own (I learned in freshman football that when someone yelled "Peter" to get as far away from the ball as possible to avoid such a situation...still a mystery as to what "Peter" referred to), but I would point more to the offenses inability to do anything except find Vernon Davis wide open twice for touchdowns. Their wide receivers had a combined 1 catch for 9 feet. Case closed.
On to exhibit two.
Exhibit #2: Billy Cundiff
This was a little bit harder of a pill to swallow for Ravens fans. 49ers fans were thankful for just being in the position they were in; Ravens fans had just about booked their tickets to Indianapolis. Baltimore was better on first downs, Joe "I Still Think Handlebar Moustaches Look Good" Flacco threw for more yards than Tom Brady, rushed for more yards, won the time of possession battle, and had less turnovers. So what was the problem you ask? The fact the Ravens were 1 for 4 for scoring a touchdown while in the redzone.
On top of the list of things never to do in a playoff game on the road is to take a field goal when it's 4th and 1 at your opponent's 3 yard line. Your telling me the 6' 6" 245 pound mustachioed menace couldn't get a single yard? Not even a chance for the tree-trunk legged Ray Rice? Nope didn't happen. The offense didn't even come on the field to try and draw the defense offsides or just get a delay of game. There is no difference between a 20 and 25 yard field goal. There is a big difference between 3 points and 7 points and the confidence that you show by putting your offense out there. Worst case scenario: the Ravens don't get the first down and the Patriots have 97 yards of field to go with a shaky Tom Brady and grab bag of running backs. (Tidbit of advice to Cam Cameron because Lord knows he needs all he can get...Julian Edelman was covering Anquan Boldin man-to-man for most of the fourth quarter. Does Cam realize that Edelman is actually a wide receiver and Boldin is WR #1 on almost any teams' depth chart? Absolutely boggles the mind this man's job is to find mismatches in coverage)
Back to the field goal itself.
At first I just thought that he simply shanked a chip shot. A Pro Bowl kicker last year should basically never miss a field goal from that close of a distance if all of the basic conditions were met. The problem was that one of the most important conditions of all was missing: time. Watch this video a you will see the multiple problems that are happening.
#1: Cundiff is running onto the field from what seems to be a considerable distance. Not a good start.
#2: He reaches the holder with about 10 seconds remaining on the play clock and it's running. Still not going well for Billy.
#3: He gets no time to take a breath (remember he just ran 30+ yards to get there 5 seconds earlier), take a practice kick if he wants to, line himself up nicely, etc. Just the situation you want your kicker to be in to put a conference championship game into overtime.
#4: The Ravens still had a time out left.
That last one is the killer.
Assuming that John Harbaugh saw the play clock was winding down as his kicker was racing for the holder what would be the detriment of calling a time out? You are not going to run a play after this. A timeout is not a college meal plan; the meals that you don't use rollover to the next semester, the timeouts you don't use vanish like LeBron in the fourth quarter. The seemingly logical thing to do was to call a timeout, let Billy do his usually warmup routine, and at least give him a fighter's chance.
Kyle Williams and Billy Cundiff became the easy scapegoats to blame entire losses on. But remember, all 11 teammates of theirs on the field during the course of the game and their respective coaches was not named Kyle Williams or Billy Cundiff. Those people should be getting more blame then they are.
On top of the list of things never to do in a playoff game on the road is to take a field goal when it's 4th and 1 at your opponent's 3 yard line. Your telling me the 6' 6" 245 pound mustachioed menace couldn't get a single yard? Not even a chance for the tree-trunk legged Ray Rice? Nope didn't happen. The offense didn't even come on the field to try and draw the defense offsides or just get a delay of game. There is no difference between a 20 and 25 yard field goal. There is a big difference between 3 points and 7 points and the confidence that you show by putting your offense out there. Worst case scenario: the Ravens don't get the first down and the Patriots have 97 yards of field to go with a shaky Tom Brady and grab bag of running backs. (Tidbit of advice to Cam Cameron because Lord knows he needs all he can get...Julian Edelman was covering Anquan Boldin man-to-man for most of the fourth quarter. Does Cam realize that Edelman is actually a wide receiver and Boldin is WR #1 on almost any teams' depth chart? Absolutely boggles the mind this man's job is to find mismatches in coverage)
Back to the field goal itself.
At first I just thought that he simply shanked a chip shot. A Pro Bowl kicker last year should basically never miss a field goal from that close of a distance if all of the basic conditions were met. The problem was that one of the most important conditions of all was missing: time. Watch this video a you will see the multiple problems that are happening.
#1: Cundiff is running onto the field from what seems to be a considerable distance. Not a good start.
#2: He reaches the holder with about 10 seconds remaining on the play clock and it's running. Still not going well for Billy.
#3: He gets no time to take a breath (remember he just ran 30+ yards to get there 5 seconds earlier), take a practice kick if he wants to, line himself up nicely, etc. Just the situation you want your kicker to be in to put a conference championship game into overtime.
#4: The Ravens still had a time out left.
That last one is the killer.
Assuming that John Harbaugh saw the play clock was winding down as his kicker was racing for the holder what would be the detriment of calling a time out? You are not going to run a play after this. A timeout is not a college meal plan; the meals that you don't use rollover to the next semester, the timeouts you don't use vanish like LeBron in the fourth quarter. The seemingly logical thing to do was to call a timeout, let Billy do his usually warmup routine, and at least give him a fighter's chance.
Kyle Williams and Billy Cundiff became the easy scapegoats to blame entire losses on. But remember, all 11 teammates of theirs on the field during the course of the game and their respective coaches was not named Kyle Williams or Billy Cundiff. Those people should be getting more blame then they are.
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