NFL icon Jerry Rice joined 95.7 The Game on Monday morning, as he does every week, and discussed the San Francisco 49ers' Week 1 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. He was in attendance at Levi's Stadium on Sunday and got to witness the defeat firsthand. Rice shared some of the things he saw that infuriated him about the Niners' performance.
"I was hot yesterday," Rice said on The Morning Show. "I wanted to run down on that field. … Yesterday, to me, I really wanted a statement game. I didn't get that statement game. I'm sure the Niners felt like they didn't play like they wanted to, and they left a lot on that football field.
"But now, the true test is what are they going to do this week? Are they going to make the corrections? … If I was in there looking at the film today, I would be disgusted with myself, and I would feel like I really let the fans of the Bay Area, the fans watching it from home, I let them down."
One thing that irked Rice was watching the 49ers receivers. Only four passes between two San Francisco receivers — Kendrick Bourne and Trent Taylor — were caught during the entire game. But it wasn't just the receivers' poor statistical performances or failure to create separation that irritated the Hall of Famer.
"Something that really, really got me heated yesterday — and I'm not going to call any names or anything like that — during the break, they were playing music," Rice explained, "and we had certain guys dancing that hadn't done anything on the football field; that didn't have a reception or anything. That's not the standard of the San Francisco 49ers.
"If you want to dance, you want to be a dancer or do whatever, you shouldn't be wearing that uniform. You've got to be productive. You've got to contribute to the team. And if you can't do that, go do something else. That really just pissed me off. The Niners are not about that.
"Now, you score a touchdown, you can do whatever you want. You can dance, you can breakdance. I don't care. But if you are dancing and you haven't made a catch, or you haven't done anything on the football field, I have a problem with that."
Then, of course, you had the defense's inability to stop Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. Rice noticed something about the 49ers players that might explain why the athletic quarterback was able to do so much damage with both his arms and his legs.
"I think it was conditioning," Rice said. "I saw a shot of (Nick) Bosa walking off the field. He looked like he was about to collapse. I think it has a lot to do with those preseason games, not having any. These guys are not where they need to be right now.
"… Murray is very elusive. He's running all over the field. You've got defensive players trying to chase him, guys trying to tackle him and all that stuff. So it had a lot to do with that too. And that's something that's really tough the first game of the season because we get better as we go."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Rice below.
