Questionable

Questionable
#83 - J.J. Stokes
MCL sprain
#58 - Frank Strong
Shoulder

Saleem Rasheed is doubtful with a quad strain.The injury list just keeps getting longer and longer for Steve Mariucci and his San Francisco team. As of Monday the list includes 10 players, including four starters, all of whom have a variety of ailments.
The latest additions to the list are starters Garrison Hearst and Terrell Owens. Hearst pulled his hamstring in the second-half yesterday, effectively ending what had been a solid day. Owens showed up with a sore heel Monday morning and was placed in a protective boot.
"We'll just rest those guys and try and get them ready to play Sunday," said Mariucci. "We all know that G is a tough guy; he's played hurt and will play hurt. We think T.O. will be fine. We'll just aggressively rest that heel."
Both players will be listed as probable for Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals, which has suddenly become a very big game for the 49ers. With yesterday's win over Dallas, the Cardinals share the NFC West lead with San Francisco.
"Surprise. Another big game this week for the 49ers," said Mariucci on Monday. "This team knows we are going to have big game after big game. We have to be ready to handle that."
One area the 49ers have not handled the past few games is getting the opponent off the field on third downs. Over the past two games, Seattle and New Orleans, opponents are an impressive 20-of-29 (.690) on third down conversions.
"We have to take a closer look at our schemes and our personnel," Mariucci said. "I did that this morning with our entire defensive staff. Now, we're a little limited with our options because of injury, but we won't make excuses...We simply have to find a way to make teams punt."
D & Eacute;J & Agrave; VU?
If the current situation feels familiar to 49ers fans, there just might be a reason why. Last year the 49ers were 4-1 when they went on the road to face one of the NFC's better teams, the Chicago Bears.
Much like Sundays loss to the Saints, the 49ers squandered a big lead and committed two turnovers that lead to Chicago scores. Ultimately the red and gold lost a game they should have won.
But it's not always as bad as it seems.
"Sometimes a tough loss against a good opponent can bring your team together," said Mariucci.
It certainly did last year as the 49ers went on to win eight of their final 10 regular season games to finish the year 12-4. What happens this year remains to be seen.
INJURY REPORT
To view the entire 49ers injury report, click here.
The 49ers scored on three of their four first-half possessions.
With just one timeout left and not wanting to waste any more time, Mariucci declined the penalty and turned to his high-powered offense.
Mariucci said he'd never done it before or even seen it done, but San Francisco quarterback Jeff Garcia said it made sense.
The ploy failed when the Saints capped a sensational fourth quarter in which the offense scored 22 points, by holding San Francisco at the 49ers 39.
The Saints opened the fourth quarter with a 10-yard touchdown reception by Joe Horn. New Orleans' 2-point conversion attempt failed and the Saints trailed to 24-19 with 12:39 left in the game.
Saints defensive end Darren Howard stripped Kevan Barlow of the football and Sammy Knight recovered it on the San Francisco 22. Two plays later, Brooks hit Horn for a 20-yard touchdown to give New Orleans its first lead of the game.
The 2-point attempt again failed and the Saints were up 25-24 with 11:20 left.
A 41-yard field goal by Cortez put San Francisco ahead again 27-25. But New Orleans came back with a 22-yard field goal, giving them a 28-27 lead with 3:17 left.
Ken Irvin stepped in front of Tai Streets and grabbed Garcia's pass, setting up New Orleans' final drive.
The Saints opened the fourth quarter with a 10-yard touchdown reception by Joe Horn. New Orleans' 2-point conversion attempt failed and the Saints trailed to 24-19 with 12:39 left in the game.
Saints defensive end Darren Howard stripped Kevan Barlow of the football and Sammy Knight recovered it on the San Francisco 22. Two plays later, Brooks hit Horn for a 20-yard touchdown to give New Orleans its first lead of the game.
The 2-point attempt again failed and the Saints were up 25-24 with 11:20 left.
A 41-yard field goal by Cortez put San Francisco ahead again 27-25. But New Orleans came back with a 22-yard field goal, giving them a 28-27 lead with 3:17 left.
Ken Irvin stepped in front of Tai Streets and grabbed Garcia's pass, setting up New Orleans' final drive.
Deuce McAllister, who rushed for a career-high 139 yards, promptly ripped off a 25-yard run to the 49ers' 12, setting the stage for Brooks' 1-yard touchdown run.
"We turned the ball over a couple times in the second half, which is really uncharacteristic of us. They climbed back into it and made a heckuva game out of it.
It was even closer when Mariucci elected not to accept a penalty for the Saints having 12 men on the field, allowing Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks to score on a quarterback sneak with 1:56 left.
"We talked about it, the play before," Mariucci said. "I've never done that before. Has anybody seen that one? It doesn't happen very often, but it made sense. It's hard to (let the Saints score), but otherwise, we're not getting the ball back."
A football coach has to make tough calls during the course of a game and today was no exception for Steve Mariucci. The 49ers field boss was forced to make a call or no call if you will, on the Saints final touchdown of the day.
Aaron Brooks scored from one-yard out, putting the Saints up by seven points. However they were flagged for illegal substitution. Mariucci had the choice of accepting the penalty and moving the Saints back five yards or declining the penalty and therefore allowing the score to stand.
Mariucci chose to decline the penalty and get the ball back with just extra time on the clock.
"Coaches make tough decisions all the time and our coach made the right decision" said Terry Donahue.
Mariucci was also hoping to get a call from the officials at the end of the game. Kevan Barlow ran out of bounds as time expired and Mariucci was hoping that there was still one second on the clock.
"I said to the back judge, 'Hey we still have a second', said Mariucci. "I had no idea if we did or not. I was reaching, but what am I going to do? I was just hoping the guy upstairs hadn't gone home early."
Donahue also had supportive words for following the loss. Barlow's fumble led to a Saints score in the fourth quarter.
"I just told him that one play did not decide the outcome of the game," Donahue said. "That fumble didn't cost us that game. Was that fumble any more costly than the interception? Was it more costly than the 60-yard kickoff return we gave up? My answer is no. And he's a young kid and young players often take these things harder than they should."
While Donahue say's one play didn't make or break the game, Jeff Garcia felt it was the teams two turnovers were a big factor in the outcome.
"We didn't take care of the football which is unusual for us," said Garcia. "I think we had two turnovers in our final four possessions. That's just not acceptable. But you have to give credit to them. They kept battling, made some big third down conversions; they made enough plays to win the game."
THE ONE THAT DIDN'T GET AWAY
While the 49ers will consider this game the one that got away, there was one Saints fan who didn't get away. During the 49ers final drive, an obviously drunk fan wandered untouched into the 49ers huddle where he was met by Jeremy Newberry.
"I though he was someone checking my jersey at first. I didn't see who it was," said Newberry after the game. "He had a ballpoint pen and I think he was trying to sign my jersey."
While the majority of the Superdome found the incident somewhat amusing, that humor was lost on Newberry.
"What's alarming to me is that a guy like that can make his way out of the stands, untouched and into the huddle," added Newberry. "He did have a pen. Suppose he wanted to stab me? He could have got me in the face or the back of my neck - I wouldn't have seen it coming. That's not what you expect on the field."
That was the first of the security breakdowns on the field for the Superdome staff. After the game, a member of the Saints security crew was spotted making obscene gestures and shouting profanity at 49er players as they left the field.
The guard was confronted by 49ers staff and stadium supervisors and was apparently fired on the spot.
THIS AND THAT
*Garrison Hearst had his first multi-touchdown game of the year and finished with 87 yards rushing on 14 carries.
*Tai Streets paced the 49ers receivers with six receptions for 80 yards.
*The 49ers allowed a 100-yard rusher and receiver.
*The Saints were 10-of-14 (71%) on third down conversions.
The 49ers will want this one back. After leading for much of the game the offense was rolling smoothly, two second-half turnovers and the inability to stop Deuce McAllister lead to the Saints posting a 35-27 victory in the Superdome.
San Francisco opened the scoring on the game's opening possession. Jamal Robertson returned the opening kickoff to the 23-yard line where the offense took over. Jeff Garcia coolly lead the team downfield on a 12-play, 77-yard scoring drive that was capped with a four-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens.
Garcia was an impressive 5-of-8 on the drive for 70 yards and Owens caught two balls for 35 yards. The 49ers were also a perfect 3-of-3 on third down conversions on the drive.
The Saints answered immediately thanks to a solid kick return by Michael Lewis who riddled the 49ers return team for a 38-yard return. Despite the short field, the 49ers defense made the Saints work for their score.
Aaron Brooks connected with Deuce McAllister on a four-yard touchdown pass that capped the 11-play, six-minute drive.
The 49ers answered on their next possession. Taking over at the 17-yard line, Garcia again directed an impressive drive completing 3-of-3 passes and rushing for 12 yards to put the 49ers within scoring position. A 12-yard pass to Kevan Barlow put the team on the two and Hearst punched in from there.
San Francisco's defense then came up with a fumble by Lewis that was recovered by Andre Carter. 11 plays and 63 yards later, Cortez gave the 49ers a 10-point lead with his 24-yard field goal.
The 49ers special teams unit again left the defense with a short-field. Lewis returned the ball 51-yards to the 49ers 47-yard line. The 49ers defense held and forced the Saints into a 46-yard field goal by John Carney to make the score, 17-10, San Francisco at half-time.
The second-half opened with the Saints scoring on a Carney field goal. The 49ers responded with Garrison Hearst's eight-yard touchdown run on the team's first possession of the second-half, extending the 49ers lead, to 24-13, over the Saints. The drive was the third scoring drive of 11 plays or longer for the 49ers.
And that was about as good as it would get for the 49ers who struggled to finish the game. Joe Horn caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Brooks to make the score 24-19 in favor of the 49ers with 12:35 left in the game. The Saints attempted the two-point conversion, but McAllister was denied short of the goalline by Jeff Ulbrich.
On the 49ers next possession Kevan Barlow's fumble lead to a 20-yard touchdown pass from Brooks to Horn, their second connection of the day. The score and subsequent missed two-point conversion gives the Saints a, 25-24, lead.
The teams then traded field goals to make the score 28-27 in favor of New Orleans with over three minutes remaining. The 49ers offense took over but the drive was short-lived as Garcia was intercepted by Ken Irvin at the 49ers 37-yard line.
The interception led to a one-yard touchdown run by Brooks that put the Saints up by seven. There was a penalty called on New Orleans for illegal substitution, but it was declined by the 49ers who instead chose to get the ball back with two-minutes left and trailing by eight.
The 49ers launched a last ditch effort down to the New Orleans 39-yard line, but Barlow was unable to get out of bounds in time and the game ended.