The 44-year-old grandfather looked like he was throwing the football without a thumb. He had been retired for five years, presumably spending his Sundays arguing with a lawnmower or organizing a crowded minivan, before unretiring two weeks ago.
And yet, there he was, carving up the San Francisco 49ers’ defense on national television like a Whoville roast beast.
It was some truly woeful stuff for a Niners squad that was in the driver’s seat for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
Snap after snap on Monday night, Robert Saleh’s defense lined up in the same static looks. And snap after snap, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers — hiding his dad-bod pot belly under a flak jacket that looked two sizes too small — would shift a player, gauge the Niners’ defensive response, and bark out a new play.
The right play.
He didn’t need a manifesto. Just needed a word or three.
“Insert.” “Rat.” “Flipper.” “Maestro Right.”
It was masterful orchestration from a legendary signal-caller who spent his retirement running his old Chargers and Colts playbook as a high school coach in Alabama.
He was literally beating an NFL defense with varsity prep tactics.
But 49ers linebacker Dee Winters proved that it pays to be a good student.
Early in the fourth quarter, with the Colts trailing 34-20 but in Niners territory, Rivers audibled at the line. He checked to “53 Orlando Left” — a play explicitly designed to isolate No. 53, Winters, against tight end Tyler Warren. It worked, picking up a nice 8-yard gain.
The Colts scored three plays later.
But then Rivers, operating on pure wits and gall all game, tried to go back to the well. Down two scores with under four minutes to play, inside the Niners’ 30-yard line, he saw the look he wanted from San Francisco.
“Orlando Right,” Rivers yelled.
Winters heard him.
And then Rivers threw it right to him.
“I heard the check, and I said, ‘I’m going to trust my instincts here and make a play,’” Winters said postgame. “It came up huge for us.”
Did it ever.
Winters jumped the spot route and rumbled 74 yards the other way for a game-sealing touchdown.
“It felt like a movie,” Winters said. “When I caught the ball, all I heard was my heart beating.”
“It was my first career pick… It kind of felt fake, honestly.”
If the Niners’ defense performance were a movie on Monday, it would have been a horror flick. Sure, they held the Colts’ running back, Jonathan Taylor, to 46 yards rushing, but Rivers outsmarted Saleh at almost every turn.
The man would have lost a footrace to the chain gang, yet he was a step ahead all night.
And yet, the Niners left with a win.
We’ve spilled a lot of ink wondering if this defense is elite enough to carry a Lombardi Trophy. We’ve fretted over the bend-but-don’t-break mantra, looking more like “shatter-into-a-million-pieces-and-pray-it-works-out.” But Monday night offered a different, perhaps more realistic perspective:
This defense doesn’t need to be the 1985 Bears. It doesn’t need to be a brick wall.
With this offense backing them, the Niners don’t need a defense that shuts the door for 60 minutes. You just need one that leaves it open a crack, waits for the opponent to get comfortable, and then finds a way to slam it shut on their fingers.
The formula for San Francisco has been simple: four touchdowns on offense and one turnover on defense.
They more than did that Monday. Brock Purdy threw five touchdown passes against a single interception, and the Niners picked up a turnover on “Orlando Right” and a forced fumble on a kickoff.
It was a long way to go for a plus-one in the turnover column, but luckily, style points serve no purpose in the NFL.
Winters’ interception provided more than a silver lining, too. Not only did the play show his growth as a player — a clear manifestation of pairing the physical with the mental — but it also highlighted the growth of the Niners’ defense as a whole.
The Niners are down their three most important defensive players for the season, and were missing No. 1 cornerback Renardo Green on Monday. They played a fifth-string middle linebacker for a stretch. As a team, they have four fewer sacks than Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.
They’re young, inexperienced, and were taken to school by the old, wise quarterback for long stretches Monday. But perhaps this defense is so young, it’s incapable of being embarrassed.
The follies of youth can go both ways.
When Saleh finally started throwing caution to the wind and brought pressure at Rivers on third downs, it started to get home, with rookie defensive tackles CJ West and Alfred Collins proving huge in the second half. Rookie nickelback Upton Stout gave up some tough catches but never broke from his frenetic pace.
And Winters, a first-year starter, decided that instead of just playing safe and holding Warren to a short gain, he’d slide in front and go for the jugular.
On Monday, the young Niners defense listened, adjusted and outlasted its opponent. The 49ers’ youth worked against them, and then for them.
Perhaps bend-but-don’t-break has been a mental mantra all along.
The Niners’ defense wasn’t good, but it was plucky and opportunistic on Monday. That’s all this offense needs them to be.
And they survived another week.
Sometimes, that’s all a championship team needs to do.
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