Week #14
Sunday, Dec.16, at 3COM Park, 1:05pm PDT
vs
21
 
0

San Francisco 49ers running back Kevan Barlow rushes in front of Miami Dolphins safety Terry Cousin, right, and linebacker Zach Thomas in the first quarter, Sunday, Dec 16, 2001 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The San Francisco 49ers are headed toward the playoffs on the shoulders of their surprisingly dominant defense.

Kevan Barlow rushed for two touchdowns to end lengthy scoring drives, and Zack Bronson made two of San Francisco's three interceptions as the 49ers recorded their second straight home shutout, beating the Miami Dolphins 21-0 on Sunday.

The 49ers (10-3) were never spectacular in the most impressive victory of their resurgent season, in which they've matched their win total from the last two seasons.

The Niners were simply overwhelming, with several clock-eating drives and an afternoon of suffocating defensive play that took them to the verge of a playoff berth with their sixth win in seven games.

Jeff Garcia shook off bruised ribs to pass for 133 yards and a touchdown to rookie Eric Johnson, while Garrison Hearst rushed for 103 yards, giving him 1,042 yards in his amazing comeback season.

San Francisco, which shut out Buffalo 35-0 two weeks ago, was just as dominant against the Dolphins. Six defensive starters have fewer than two years of NFL experience, but the 49ers' young unit has grown up quickly.

The Dolphins (9-4), midway through a tough stretch of three games in 13 days, followed their best performance of the season with one of their worst.

Instead of moving close to the playoffs with a victory in its first trip to San Francisco since 1992, Miami got a sobering prognosis of its inconsistent offense's true abilities in its second shutout loss in five games. The Dolphins finished with 174 total yards - just 78 in the first three quarters.

They couldn't get inside San Francisco's 40 until the fourth quarter, when Jay Fiedler was intercepted by Jason Webster with 4:31 to play. The Dolphins made another late drive, but Bronson picked off a long pass in the end zone with 19 seconds left.

Fiedler and the Dolphins' offense appeared revitalized in last Monday's 41-6 rout of Indianapolis, but they couldn't mount any significant drives against the 49ers.

Fiedler, wildly overthrowing several receivers, was intercepted by Bronson on Miami's first drive. Fiedler finished 16-of-28 for 149 yards. Dana Stubblefield and Ronnie Heard put savage hits on Fiedler to stop drives in the second quarter, with Heard forcing a fumble in 49ers territory.

Meanwhile, Miami's defense spent most of the game on the field, where it was gradually worn down by the 49ers' tremendously patient mix of running and passing.

After opening the scoring on a 56-yard drive following Fiedler's first interception, San Francisco made a 64-yard drive of nearly seven minutes in the first half, ending with Johnson's 12-yard scoring catch 2 seconds before halftime on a pinpoint pass from Garcia.

The 49ers essentially put away the game on their first drive of the third quarter. San Francisco converted two long third downs during the 17-play, 98-yard drive over 11 exhausting minutes, capped by Barlow's second short TD run.



   
    
FINAL
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
Miami
0
0
0
0
0
San Francisco
14
0
7
0
21

 
SCORING SUMMARY MIA SFO
1st Quarter
SFO TD  Kevan Barlow (SFO) rushed left side for a 2 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
0
7
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) pass across the middle complete to Eric Johnson (SFO) for a 12 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
0
14
2nd Quarter
    No Scoring Plays.
0
14
3rd Quarter
SFO TD Kevan Barlow (SFO) rushed up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
0
21
4th Quarter
    No Scoring Plays.
0
21
   
    
    
TEAM STATISTICS
MIA
SFO
First Downs 12 21
Third Down Efficiency 4-12 7-14
TOTAL NET YARDS 132 276
Total Plays 43 69
Average Gain Per Play 3.1 4.0
NET YARDS RUSHING 67 161
Rushes 15 49
Average Per Rush 4.5 3.3
NET YARDS PASSING 65 115
Pass Completion 16-28 14-20
Yards Per Pass 3.8 6.2
Times Sacked 6 1
Yards Lost To Sacks 42 9
Had Intercepted 3 0
PUNTS 6 4
Average Punt 32.8 38.5
PENALTIES 4 2
Penalty Yards 27 10
FUMBLES 1 0
Fumbles Lost 0 0
Time Of Possesion 20:48 39:12
    
     
     
Passing
DOLPHINS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Jay Fiedler 16 28 149 57.1 5.32 6 42 0 3
49ERS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Jeff Garcia 14 20 133 70.0 6.65 1 9 1 0

Rushing
DOLPHINS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Jay Fiedler 4 33 8.2 21 0 0
Lamar Smith 9 22 2.4 6 0 0
Travis Minor 2 12 6.0 7 0 0
49ERS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Garrison Hearst 26 103 4.0 23 0 0
Kevan Barlow 14 39 2.8 11 2 0
Terry Jackson 2 17 8.5 9 0 0
Fred Beasley 3 1 0.3 2 0 0
Jeff Garcia 2 1 0.5 2 0 0
Tim Rattay 2 0 0.0 1 0 0

Receiving
DOLPHINS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
James McKnight 2 40 20.0 27 0 0
Travis Minor 4 27 6.8 20 0 0
Chris Chambers 2 27 13.5 18 0 0
Jeff Ogden 2 24 12.0 13 0 0
Dedric Ward 2 18 9.0 9 0 0
Oronde Gadsden 3 16 5.3 11 0 0
Lamar Smith 1 -3 -3.0 -3 0 0
49ERS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Terrell Owens 4 43 10.8 28 0 0
Garrison Hearst 3 20 6.7 11 0 0
J.J. Stokes 2 20 10.0 14 0 0
Kevan Barlow 1 14 14.0 14 0 0
Terry Jackson 1 13 13.0 13 0 0
Eric Johnson 1 12 12.0 12 1 0
Fred Beasley 1 9 9.0 9 0 0
Tai Streets 1 2 2.0 2 0 0

Kicking
DOLPHINS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
No Data Available.
49ERS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
Jose Cortez 1 0 0.0 -- 3 3 100.0 3

Punting
DOLPHINS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TB
Matt Turk 6 32.8 -- -- -- --
49ERS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TB
Jason Baker 4 38.5 -- -- -- --

Kick/Punt Returns
DOLPHINS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Chris Chambers 4 87 21.8 -- -- 0 0 0.0 -- --
Jeff Ogden 0 0 0.0 -- -- 2 3 1.5 -- --
Terry Cousin 0 0 0.0 -- -- 1 0 0.0 -- --
49ERS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Paul Smith 1 15 15.0 -- -- 0 0 0.0 -- --
Vinny Sutherland 0 0 0.0 -- -- 2 4 2.0 -- --

Defense
DOLPHINS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS FF INT YDS INT/TD
Zach Thomas 13 12 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Brock Marion 12 11 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Brian Walker 9 7 2 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Jason Taylor 6 4 2 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Derrick Rodgers 6 4 2 1.0 9 0 0 -- --
Tim Bowens 5 5 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Kenny Mixon 5 3 2 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Patrick Surtain 4 3 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Ernest Grant 3 2 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Sam Madison 2 1 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Lorenzo Bromell 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Jermaine Haley 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Scott Galyon 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
David Bowens 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Morlon Greenwood 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
49ERS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS FF INT YDS INT/TD
Jamie Winborn 9 7 2 0.5 4 0 0 -- --
Derek Smith 7 4 3 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Bryant Young 6 5 1 1.0 6 0 0 -- --
Ronnie Heard 6 5 1 1.0 9 1 0 -- --
Jason Webster 5 4 1 0.0 0 0 1 -- --
Zack Bronson 4 4 0 0.0 0 0 2 -- --
Chike Okeafor 4 3 1 2.0 8 0 0 -- --
Ahmed Plummer 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Andre Carter 2 1 1 0.5 4 0 0 -- --
Dana Stubblefield 1 1 0 1.0 10 0 0 -- --
Lance Schulters 1 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Julian Peterson 1 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Rashad Holman 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --

....