Missed opportunities for 49ers, despite 7-3 lead

AP

On a day full of blowouts, the 49ers and Patriots are playing a tight, if not sharply executed game.

Of course, the 49ers could be ahead by more than their current 7-3 margin, if quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his teammates could hang onto the ball.

The 49ers have fumbled four times, the most recent on a fourth-and-inches attempt they chose over a 43-yard field goal attempt. Then again, David Akers had already missed one on the night, and has struggled this year (7-of-15 from 40 yards or longer this year).

There was also a near-miss touchdown on an overthrown-dropped ball to Vernon Davis, touchdown-saving tackle by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after an interception.

It’s been that kind of night, and after a day of bad finishes, what we needed.

Super Bowl week was only the fourth week for PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, and it was by far the best yet. In fact, it could be the best we’ll ever have, until next year at this time.  At the earliest.

Producers Rob “Stats” Guerrera and Kristen Coleman put together — and held together — a guest list that was second to none in sports radio this week.

From Friday working backward to Monday, with links to the video of the interviews, were segments with Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks, Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas, Bears defensive end Jared Allen, Hall of Fame tackle Jackie Slater, Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr., Ravens running back Justin Forsett, Dolphins executive V.P. of football operations (as of Monday) Mike Tannenbaum, Vikings receiver Greg Jennings, Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, Bengals receiver A.J. Green, Bills coach Rex Ryan, Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant, Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, former Eagles, Rams, and Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, former Raiders receiver Tim Brown, Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, former Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, Bills running back Fred Jackson, Packers legend Jerry Kramer, Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, former Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson, former NFL defensive player of the year Jason Taylor, Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis, Browns cornerback Joe Haden, and Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel.

Media guests included Peter King of TheMMQB.com, Tom Curran of CSN New England (twice), Paul Burmeister of NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk, Darin Gantt of PFT, MDS of PFT (twice), Greg Cosell of NFL Films, Ross Tucker of NBCSN and others, and Bob Glauber of Newsday.

That’s 42 total guests. In five days.

You can listen to the audio from all five shows by clicking the show logo in the upper right corner of the page.

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The Patriots’ starting center looks on track to play in Super Bowl XLIX.

Rookie Bryan Stork (knee) is now officially probable for Sunday’s game vs. Seattle, the Patriots announced Saturday.

Stork had been listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report.

According to the NFL, a “probable” designation means a player has a 75 percent chance of playing, whereas “questionable” infers a player is 50-50 to take part in the game.

Stork (6-4, 311) did not play in the AFC Championship vs. Indianapolis because of his injury. A fourth-round pick from Florida State, Stork has started 12-of-14 games in which he’s played this season, including the Patriots’ divisional-round win vs. Baltimore.

Stork was the lone player on either club designated as questionable on Friday’s injury report. Both teams now list seven players apiece as probable, with none designated as doubtful or out.

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One day after appearing on the injury report with a knee injury, Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor looked no worse for wear at Saturday’s walk-through, according to the media pool practice report.

According to pool reporter D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chancellor “did not appear to be favoring either leg” one day before Seattle plays New England in Super Bowl XLIX.

“He looked pretty good today,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told Ledbetter on Saturday. “We will make sure we test him in pregame, but he remarkably looked great today, and so that’s all we have to go on.”

Chancellor sustained the knee injury in a tumble near the end of practice on Friday. Per Will Carroll of Bleacher Report, Chancellor suffered a bruised knee.

A three-time Pro Bowler, the 26-year-old Chancellor had a major impact in Seattle’s 43-8 romp vs. Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII, notching 10 tackles.

All Seahawks players took part in the walk-through, which was held indoors and lasted less than an hour, according to the pool report.

AP

At the conclusion of the 49ers’ regular-season finale vs. Arizona, the club announced it would be parting ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh by mutual agreement.

However, a published report Saturday indicates Harbaugh had been previously told he would not be returning.

Citing multiple unnamed sources, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News reported the 49ers told Harbaugh after the December 14 loss at Seattle that he would not coach the team in 2015.

The 17-7 loss to the Seahawks dropped the 49ers to 7-7 and eliminated San Francisco from playoff contention.

The report of Harbaugh being told in-season that he would not be back is reminiscent of the 49ers dismissing Mike Singletary with one game left in 2010, right after the club was knocked out of postseason contention. However, in that case, the 49ers tabbed an interim coach, with Jim Tomsula replacing Singletary for Week 17.

Tomsula was hired as Harbaugh’s full-time replacement in January. By then, Harbaugh had become head coach at Michigan.

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The Browns have tabbed a coach who’s worked with Johnny Manziel as their new quarterbacks coach.

Cleveland has hired Kevin O’Connell to oversee the club’s quarterbacks, Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com reported Saturday.

The 29-year-old O’Connell was a third-round pick of the Patriots in 2008 and also played for the Lions, Jets, Dolphins and Chargers. He worked with Manziel leading up to the 2014 NFL Draft.

O’Connell replaces Dowell Loggains, who was not retained after one season in Cleveland.

The Browns are unsettled at quarterback entering the offseason. Veteran Brian Hoyer, who was the starter for the most of 2014, will be an unrestricted free agent. Manziel, meanwhile, did not stake a strong claim to the job before suffering a season-ending hamstring injury.

The Browns are also hiring Kurt Roper as a senior offensive assistant, Marvez reported. Roper was most recently offensive coordinator at Florida.

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The entire #DeflateGate controversy sprang from the provision in Rule 2 of the official NFL rule book regarding the mandate that the football be filled with enough air to create 12.5 to 13.5 PSI of internal pressure.

That’s been the standard for a very long time, according to NFL V.P. of officiating Dean Blandino.

“I have rule books going back to 1940 in my office, and that was in the 1940 rule book,” Blandino told reporters this week during a Super Bowl football operations press conference. “[NFL Senior Vice President of Player Personnel and Football Operations] Joel Bussert, who many of you know in the league office who’s kind of a historian, he’s got rule books that go back prior to that. It’s been in there even before 1940.”

So where does the range come from?

“[W]e really rely on the experts in the football world, [football manufacturer] Wilson, to give us that number,” Blandino said. “That’s where that spectrum comes from. I feel like we will review that with Wilson and the Competition Committee to look at if we need to have a range or what will that acceptable range be.”

On one hand, it’s surprising that a rule with so much current importance to the game carries an it-was-like-that-when-I-got-here vibe. But there’s never been a question regarding whether teams were tampering with footballs to take them beyond the long-accepted range.

If some quarterbacks like the air pressure lower than 12.5 PSI, it’s fair to ask whether all quarterbacks should have that discretion. Despite the importance of respecting the integrity of the game by demanding that teams not deviate from the accepted limits, this situation naturally leads to the question of whether changing the accepted limits would in any way undermine the integrity of the game.

Many believe that footballs should have as much or as little air in them as the quarterbacks want. In a league without enough good quarterbacks to go around, maybe all quarterbacks should be given the option to put whatever amount of air in the balls they desire.

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The worst-kept secret in the NFL will no longer be a secret in a few days.

Per multiple sources, the Falcons currently plan to name Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn the new head coach in Atlanta.

Quinn, 44, succeeded Gus Bradley in 2013. He came from the University of Florida, where he’d spent two seasons after two with the Seahawks.

The Salisbury State graduate began his coaching career in 1994, at William & Mary. He spent seven years at the college level before joining the 49ers in 2001. Four seasons in San Francisco were followed by two with the Dolphins (the Nick Saban years) and two with the Jets, under former head coach Eric Mangini.

League rules prevent the Falcons from offering the job to Quinn until his current team’s season ends. It became clear in recent weeks that the Falcons were waiting for Quinn. The first tangible evidence came when the Falcons hired offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan before hiring their head coach.

The expected announcement will fill the final 2015 NFL coaching vacancy. Unless there’s still another change or two coming in the next week or so.

I haven’t heard of any brewing, but in this business who knows?

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On the Patriots’ last practice day of the season, cornerback Darrelle Revis did something he hadn’t officially done all year, according to the injury report.

He rested.

Revis “watched the bulk of team drills from the sideline” on Friday, according to the media practice report filed by Jarrett Bell of USA Today.

Revis was listed as having been a limited practice participant on Friday, and he is probable on the Patriots’ final injury report with a designation of “not injury related/rest.” It’s the 29-year-old Revis’s first appearance on the final injury report all season.

Revis is not hurt, Patriots coach Bill Belichick told Bell Friday.

“We backed a lot of guys off,” Belichick said, according to the pool report. “He took a lot of reps yesterday and Wednesday.”

No other Patriots player was listed as having rested on Friday, per the injury report. In fact, according to the club’s online records, Revis is the first Patriots player this season to have been listed on the final injury report for “rest” reasons.

Revis has started every regular-season and playoff game in 2014, playing 1,154-of-1,234 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus data.

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The knee injury that landed Pro Bowl strong safety Kam Chancellor on the Seahawks’ final injury report of the week does not appear to be anything of great concern.

According to Bleacher Report’s Will Carroll, Chancellor suffered a bruised left knee when he took a tumble late in practice on Friday and landed “directly on it.”

Carroll, who reports on sports medicine, indicated that Chancellor “will play” Sunday.

The fall was documented in the Seahawks’ media pool report from Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King. According to the report, Chancellor had his left knee wrapped after practice but walked “without a limp.”

Chancellor was officially listed as probable on Seattle’s final injury report. Per NFL guidelines, “probable” indicates a player has a 75 percent chance of playing.

AP

Circumstantial evidence can be very good evidence. As long as the circumstances can be properly determined.

When it comes to #DeflateGate, the NFL has no record of the air pressure of the footballs measured before the AFC title game began. Which makes it very difficult to determine with precision the amount of air lost, either through Mother Nature or foul play. Which makes it much harder for the NFL to satisfy the expectations of Patriots owner Robert Kraft that any wrongdoing be proven with hard evidence and not circumstantial proof.

It’s now clear that there are plenty of things not readily known about the process, including the question of whether the NFL has a history of testing footballs at halftime of games, in order to check whether air pressure has been lost during the first two quarters.

Asked at the Friday press conference by Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com regarding whether halftime testing has occurred in the past, Commissioner Roger Goodell provided a surprising response.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Goodell said. “That would be something, I presume, that Ted Wells would look into and will provide that information.”

It’s good that the NFL has involved an independent investigator in this process, but there are certain things that don’t require an independent investigation. Through the normal, reasonable exercise of human curiosity, the Commissioner could have learned in the past two weeks whether footballs have been spot-checked at halftime in the past to assess the impact of external conditions on the internal air pressure. Instead of punting to Wells (whose report likely won’t be released for several weeks), Goodell could have said something like, “I don’t have that information immediately available, but I will obtain it from our football operations department and provide it by the end of the day.”

Either way, it doesn’t require Ted Wells, Robert Mueller, or Inspector Clouseau to answer a simple question about whether the NFL has checked air pressure at halftime in the past. It’s a question that already should have been raised — and resolved — within the walls of 345 Park Avenue, and the man who runs the sport already should know the answer.

Some would suggest that he already does, that the answer is “no,” and that this will make it much harder to prove that the Patriots tampered with the footballs.

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The city Danny Ocean called “America’s Playground” has never had an NFL club.

That doesn’t look like it’s changing any time soon.

Asked Friday whether Las Vegas could support a professional sports team, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he hadn’t talked to the city about the prospect of a pro football team.

“I can’t speak to other sports, for sure,” Goodell said, according to a league-issued transcript of his remarks. “I certainly can’t speak even to the NFL because I haven’t had any dialogue with officials in Las Vegas about how that could happen successfully for Las Vegas and for the NFL.

“A stadium would be a big component to that. I’m not sure that exists right now. I do understand the passion of the fans in Las Vegas and their interest in football.”

Even if Las Vegas had an NFL-caliber stadium, the league might have qualms about playing in America’s capital of legalized sports betting. And a stadium — which would likely be a billion-dollar project — wouldn’t get built without a tenant.

Ultimately, it’s possible the NFL might not see much upside in the Las Vegas area, which would rank among the smallest TV markets in the league.

With multiple new arenas well-suited for basketball or hockey planned in Las Vegas, an NHL or NBA club landing in the city seems far more likely than an NFL team taking up residence.

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NFL controversies, particularly the botched handling of the Ray Rice case, have led to calls in some quarters for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to resign. He says that will never happen.

Asked at his “State of the League” press conference whether there’s any set of circumstances that would result in his resignation, Goodell said he can’t imagine that happening.

“No, I can’t. Does that surprise you?” Goodell said.

Goodell did acknowledge that even though the NFL’s popularity has never been greater, he hasn’t had the best of years.

“It’s been a tough year on me personally,” Goodell said. “It’s been a year of what I would say is humility and learning. We, obviously as an organization, have gone through adversity. More importantly, it’s been adversity for me. We take that seriously. It’s an opportunity for us to get better. It’s an opportunity for us, for our organization, to get better. We’ve all done a lot of soul searching, starting with yours truly.”

That soul searching has apparently not included ever asking himself whether he’s the right person for the job. In Goodell’s mind, he absolutely is — and that won’t change.

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Before the Pro Bowl, Saints tight end Jimmy Graham said his participation in the annual all-star game will help determine whether he needs surgery on the shoulder he injured early in the regular season.

After the Pro Bowl, Graham told PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio that the current plan is to continue to rest and rehab the shoulder without surgery.

Graham said plenty more during his slot as the final guest in a week full of excellent conversations, from his aggressive approach to pick-up basketball to his love of flying to how the movie Top Gun sparked his passion for flying and provided the template for his first kiss.

The six-foot, seven-inch Graham also said he was first able to dunk a basketball when he was merely five feet, eight inches tall.

In all, Graham was loose, relaxed, funny — something that doesn’t come through very much while he’s bringing the same intensity to football that he does to basketball.

AP

Saying the Patriots were “as ready as we’re going to be” from a practice standpoint, coach Bill Belichick indicated Friday the club would cancel its Saturday walk-through practice, according to the media pool report of the workout.

The Pats also scrapped their Saturday walk-through before Super Bowl XLVI.

According to media pool reporter Jarrett Bell of USA Today, Belichick believes his club has a good mindset entering Sunday.

“These guys have worked hard,” Belichick said. “I think they’re ready to go. We’re playing a good team, so we’re going to have to play well.”

The Patriots practiced as some rain fell Friday at the Cardinals’ practice facilities in Tempe, but the club did its work outside. The club did retreat inside, however, to take a break of about 30 minutes to simulate the longer-than-usual Super Bowl halftime.

Finally, Belichick noted that the club was in good shape health-wise as the Super Bowl nears.

“We’re all good to go,” Belichick said.

AP

As a postseason in which officials were a focal point comes to a close, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says some improvements to officiating may be on the way.

Goodell said at his “State of the League” press conference that the NFL will examine ways to make officiating better for the 2015 season.

“We are looking at other ways to enhance replay and officiating,” Goodell said. “That includes potentially expanding replay to penalties if it can be done without more disruption to the pace of the game. And we are discussing rotating members of the officiating crews during the season as a way to improve consistency throughout our regular season and benefit our crews in the postseason. In officiating, consistency is our number-one objective.”

Achieving consistency is easier said than done, because consistency has been lacking in NFL officiating for a long, long time. But it’s good to know that the NFL realizes that officiating is something that needs to be improved.