Familiarity breeds content for Mora

Dan Dompei

His former star pupils from the 49ers' defense--Julian Peterson, Jamie Winborn, Bryant Young, Tony Parrish and others--gathered around Falcons coach Jim Mora at the 30-yard line after Atlanta's 21-19 victory last Sunday.

Cheeeeeze!

The photographs will recall the many times they went to battle together and the first time they went to battle against one another. When a first-year head coach such as Mora faces his former team in the season opener, familiarity becomes a double-edged sword.

At the Falcons' team meeting the night before the game, Mora, who came to Atlanta after seven years with the 49ers, told his defenders 49ers running back Kevan Barlow would fumble if they hit him hard and often. The goal, then, was to force Barlow to turn the bail over early and throw him off his game. On the 49ers' first offensive play, cornerback Jason Webster--a former 49er himself--forced a Barlow fumble that didn't affect the score as much as it did the tone of the game.

Many of the Falcons' defenders ran up to Mora after the play yelling, "You told us so, you told us so! You were right?"

"When things like that happen, the team gains confidence in a coach," Mora says. "They say, 'He knows what he was talking about.' Those can be telling moments in our careers, quite honestly."

Even though the Falcons were without cornerback DeAngelo Hall, their first-round draft pick, Mora had felt pretty good about the matchup of Webster and Kevin Mathis covering the inexperienced San Francisco receivers. He and Falcons offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, who held the same position with the 49ers last year, also knew immobile 49ers quarterback Tim Rattay would be susceptible to pressure up the middle.

The result was a defensive game plan heavy with blitzing.

"I told them we can get in Tim's face a little bit early because he's not a tall guy and he can't see down the field," Mora says. "I felt like we matched up well on the outside. I've watched Jason Webster cover these guys for years. I knew he could cover them, and I knew Kevin Mathis was a real pit bull."

Two of the Falcons' three sacks came on blitzes, one time breaking up a critical pass attempt on a third down to force a field-goal attempt.

The blitzing wasn't a surprise to the 49ers. "I knew Jim was going to come after us,' 49ers coach Dennis Erickson says, "because that's how he is."

Early on, the Falcons' offense planned on using "dummy" audibles at the line of scrimmage so the 49ers wouldn't be able to differentiate between those and real audibles. Mora was particularly concerned that inside linebackers Jeff Ulbrich and Derek Smith would figure out what was coming offensively because they frequently did it during 49ers practices while Mora was their coach. As it turned out, the Falcons' offense wasn't far enough along to do much play changing at the line of scrimmage, according to Mora.

Erickson says the Falcons might have picked up on some of the San Francisco offense's calls at the line, however. "They knew when we checked," he says. "They know some of the terminology."

Going into the game, the Falcons were concerned that the 49ers would show some new looks with their 3-4 defense, which they were playing in a regular-season game for the first time. Mora anticipated the 49ers would shift from a 3-4 to a 4-3, with Peterson moving to defensive end, and shift from a 4-3 to a 3-4, with Andre Carter moving to outside linebacker. As it turned out, the 49ers played little 3-4 after having mixed results with it in the preseason.

Complicating matters somewhat for the 49ers was that Peterson was a contract holdout and did not report to the 49ers until 19 days before the start of the season. He played 15 downs in the team's final preseason game, his only game exposure to defensive coordinator Willy Robinson's new scheme.

"We screwed around with some 30 (3-4) stuff during the preseason and we have 4-3 people, obviously," Erickson says. "That (4-3) was our best defense. We kept it pretty simple for our whole defense."

Mora was endeared in the 49ers' locker room to the point that defensive players considered him a brother, according to Peterson. Ulbrich, Peterson, Smith and Winborn phoned him the week before the game, and it was the 49ers players who suggested the postgame photograph.

In the weeks preceding the game, Mora admitted he expected to be very emotional in his debut as a head coach. But be took steps to ensure no one saw the emotion, mentally going through the steps of how be would react to a victory or a loss. He called Lions coach Steve Mariucci and asked him how he handled his return to San Francisco after being fired. Mariucci told him he barely mentioned it to the team, and Mora decided to take the same approach.

"People will be looking to see how I react," Mora said a few weeks before the game. "I'm not a program guy at all, but that day I have to have a plan for how I'm going to react. My players can't see me be an emotional wreck, no matter what is going on inside me."

Mora ended up surprising himself with his composure. He spent much of the pregame and postgame exchanging probably hundreds of hugs with everyone from 49ers players to secretaries.

Ultimately, what was more important to Mora than beating his former team was winning a game for his current team for the first time in the last 11 games in San Francisco. He won the game, and some mind games as well.

SPEED READS

* Nice move by the Dolphins picking up Lamar Gordon, who has the potential to develop into a running back who is as effective as Ricky Williams. Given the problems the Dolphins endured with Williams, receiver David Boston and defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, they ended up with three decent replacements in Gordon, Many Booker and Bryan Robinson.

* Making opening night a celebration with musical acts, fireworks, pageantry and a special matchup such as the Patriots-Colts is smart because it helps bring in fans who might normally not be as interested. There would be even more benefits from expanding the concept by playing two or three games on opening night.

* The NFC North could be the strongest division in the NFL--in 2005. When the Lions and Bears grow up one year from now, it will be difficult to find a weak link in the division--assuming Packers quarterback Brett Favre doesn't decide to retire. The division has some of the best young talent.

INSIDE DISH

It appears as if Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck and RB Shaun Alexander will play the 2004 season without contracts beyond this year. Representatives for both players had contract discussions with the team before the season, but the Seahawks don't like to negotiate between September and February. The team also has demonstrated it won't hesitate to allow a contract of a valued player to expire--as OTs Walter Jones and Chris Terry, LB Anthony Simmons and WR Darrell Jackson can attest. The problem: The Seahawks have only one franchise tag and three potential free agents worthy of it in Hasselbeck, Alexander and Jones.... One of the reasons RB Corey Dillon looked younger and fresher in the opener for the Patriots last week than he did for the Bengals last year is his playing weight is considerably less. Dillon is believed to have weighed as much as 240 last season. After being traded to the Patriots, he joined the team's offseason conditioning program and got his weight down to around 225.... QB Tim Cough, the first overall pick in the 1999 draft, might be complaining that the Packers cut him because he wasn't 100 percent healthy, but the real issue with Couch was the lack of arm strength that has been evident throughout his pro career.

One of the knocks on him going back to Cleveland is he can't throw outside the numbers on the field. When Couch reported to Green Bay in June and started throwing, it was the first time he had thrown regularly since last year. That didn't help matters, and his lack of leadership skills didn't endear himself to the team, either.... Though negotiations on a contract extension between the Eagles and coach Andy Reid were described in numerous press accounts as a "24-hour process," the truth is the deal was closer to one year in the making. Once both sides were faced with the urgency of trying to get a deal done before the season, the Eagles made a generous offer and the contract got done quickly. Reid now is under contract for seven seasons, the longest coaching deal in the NFL.... Vikings insiders attribute QB Daunte Culpepper's continued growth in part to his partnership with coordinator Scott Linehan. The two relate to each other well, and Linehan has shown a knack for finding what Culpepper does best.... The Chiefs did not want to lose RT John Tait, but they are pleased with his replacement, John Welbourn. In fact, they believe Welbourn could be better than Tait eventually. Already, the Chiefs say Welbourn is a more powerful run blocker. The former Eagles guard still is learning the nuances of pass protection without two teammates next to him, however.... The Texans' grand plan for second-year LT Seth Wand was to use him as a backup who could break into the lineup slowly, but they had to accelerate his acclimation as a result of need. Because Wand played against a lower level of competition at Northwest Missouri State, the Texans figured it would take him two years to become an NFL starter. Wand did start two games as a rookie. This year, the decision was made to see how much he could handle, with the expectation that he might struggle against elite pass rushers.

DAN POMPEI dpompei@sportingnews.com

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