SAN FRANCISCO – This was a test.
It was one the 49ers could have, no, should have passed with flying colors and had smiley faces scrawled on their helmets if they wanted to be taken seriously going forward after a somewhat impressive first quarter of the season.
The New England Patriots, the big, bad, sacks-lies-and-videotaping New England Patriots, were ripe for the picking, what with all-world quarterback Tom Brady lost for the season because of a scrambled left knee that not even Paul Pierce's magic wheelchair could fix.
The 49ers, instead, flunked out in a 30-21 loss.
They made lifelong backup Matt Cassel, whose previous meaningful game experience before Tom Terrific became Tom Torn ACL was at Chatsworth High School in Southern California in 1999, look like, well, Brady. Even as Cassel's first few passes wobbled so much you could hear "Aflac" coming from the ball.
They made Randy Moss look like, well, Randy Moss, as he ran harder and faster in one day at Candlestick Park than he did in two seasons with the Raiders.
No, these weren't the woeful Detroit Lions that the 49ers beat up on two weeks earlier.
On a nostalgic day that had Steve Young in the creaky old stadium to have his jersey No. 8 retired, the 49ers showed they were, quite simply, pretenders.
And at 2-3 with games against the Philadelphia Eagles and defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants up next, the 49ers are in danger of fading fast. How does a final record of 5-11 grab you?
"I saw it as a statement game that we can come out and compete with the best," said 49ers linebacker Tully Banta-Cain, who won two Super Bowl rings with the Patriots before coming to San Francisco last season. "All this talk that we're the best (and improving), that's got to stop, and we've got to show it."
Good luck with that.
Especially when you're on the wrong end of the time of possession battle – 32:14-12:46 – through three quarters, your offense can't convert on third down, you give up the life-giving big play and Patriots coach Bill Beli-cheat, um, Belichick, has a bye week to game plan for you.
In their first eight offensive plays, the Patriots gained just 17 yards, and Cassel was intercepted by Takeo Spikes on one of his wounded duck throws.
Yes, it was early. And sure, you could call it fool's gold being panned by Sourdough Sam's favorite team. But things were going swimmingly for the 49ers.
"They had nothing going," said 49ers coach Mike Nolan, "until they had the explosive play … you don't need an opponent to take a breath and say, OK, we can get this going."
If ever in the history of football such an early play that only tied the score 7-7 sealed the game's result, this was it.
And 49ers and Raiders fans alike had to grin and bear it when they saw the breathtaking playmaking ability of Moss, who simply sped by cornerbacks Nate Clements and Walt Harris and caught a 66-yard bomb on third-and-eight.
"That's just what we've been waiting on," said Moss, who burned the 49ers' secondary for 111 yards on five catches. "Being able to connect on that deep ball was good. It's something that's been missing from our repertoire."
Call The Bee's Paul Gutierrez, (916) 326-5556.
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