Minutes after San Francisco’s 26-23 overtime victory over the Broncos on Sunday, 49ers coach Mike Nolan was asked if his team had been told before the game that it had an opportunity to knock Denver out of the playoffs.
Nolan’s smile suggested that it might have been brought up once or twice.
“I’ll say this. That was something our players knew coming out on the field,” said Nolan, an assistant in Denver in the early 1990s under Dan Reeves. “It was something to fuel their fire a little bit.”
San Francisco place-kicker Joe Nedney certainly thought about it. Nedney played in three games for the Broncos in 2000, when he booted 8-of-10 field goals filling in for the injured Jason Elam.
Nedney had four field goals Sunday, including a 36-yard game-winner in overtime.
“Playing for something, whether it’s a playoff or to be a spoiler, is fun,” Nedney said afterward.
The motivation of knocking out the Broncos wasn’t as important as setting the tone for next season, Nolan said. The 49ers finished 7-9, a big improvement over the 4-12 mark in 2005, Nolan’s first year as an NFL head coach.
“Everything about this game, I couldn’t have painted a better picture,” Nolan said. “To win it here, in overtime, that says a lot about the character of this team. (A record of) 7-9 is not our ultimate goal. But we all say character is revealed in adverse situations and difficult times.”
San Francisco entered the game having allowed the most points (389) in the league but kept the Broncos from scoring an offensive touchdown until Jay Cutler hit tight end Tony Scheffler for a game-tying, 9-yard touchdown pass with 1:30 remaining in regulation.
San Francisco safety Mark Roman said the success of the defense could be attributed to two factors.
“It was pressure and coverage,” he said. “When it was all said and done, those two aspects won us the game.”
Broncos quarterbacks were hit far more often than the three sacks would suggest. And they were hit hard, as evidenced by Cutler sitting out for a spell in the first half after a sack by defensive lineman Anthony Adams.
“Every quarterback we play, our objective is to knock the other quarterback down,” Nolan said. “Not to hurt him, but to knock him down. You want to get in the quarterback’s head as much as you can and make him think that maybe the cornerback is going to come again.”
Although San Francisco is a young team, the defensive ringleader on Sunday was a wily veteran. Cornerback Walt Harris, in his 11th season, intercepted two passes Sunday, giving him eight for the season. That’s a career best, bettering his previous best of five interceptions in 1997 with Chicago.
Harris put San Francisco up for the first time with 6:25 remaining in the third quarter when he returned an interception 28 yards for a touchdown to give the 49ers a 17-13 lead after the conversion kick. Harris read Cutler’s pass in the left flat and ran untouched into the end zone.
“It didn’t surprise me he had such as good game,” Roman said. “Walt is the hardest worker on the team.”
And Harris, like the other 49ers, had an extra bit of motivation. San Francisco isn’t going to the playoffs. But neither is Denver.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
