49ers still talking about Monday meltdown

<p>SANTA CLARA -- Michael Robinson has been the topic of a lot of local and national conversation since the 49ers' last-minute meltdown Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals.</p><p>"Yeah, I wish people would've been talking about my game-winning touchdown," Robinson said Wednesday, "instead of asking, 'Why did they give the ball to Michael Robinson?' "</p><p>Robinson has seven rushing attempts all season. And when the 49ers were faced with a win-or-lose play on Monday, offensive coordinator Mike Martz decided to give the ball to Robinson.</p><p>He was stopped a full yard shy of the end zone on a fullback dive, and the Cardinals held on for a 29-24 victory.</p><p>There was chaos on the sideline and the field in the final minute of the game. When Robinson took his position for the final play, he thought the ball would be at the Arizona 1. In fact, the ball was moved to the 2½ after a replay review showed that is where Frank Gore went down on the previous play.</p><p>Robinson said nobody on the field could hear referee Tony Corrente's explanation that the line of scrimmage had changed.</p><p>"I think we all misjudged where the spot was going to be," Robinson said. "When I lined up, I thought, 'Wow.' Usually, you see the linebackers' feet in the end zone. Theirs was into the field, and I thought, 'This is going to be pretty tough.'</p><p>"If you look at it, we got a really good surge. The line did a great job. I had to kind of jump a little bit, and I got down to the half-yard line."</p><p>But even Robinson will admit that expecting that straight-ahead power play to gain more than 2 yards is not realistic.</p><p>"I thought it was (going to be) a little inside the 1, to be honest with you," he said. "If you look at the history of a fullback type of inside play, it's designed for very, very short yardage."</p><p>Quarterback Shaun Hill said he was surprised with the spot of the ball, too. But he had already relayed the third-down play to his teammates in the huddle. There were four seconds remaining in the game.</p><p>When asked if it crossed his mind to spike the ball instead of running the play that was designed, Hill answered, "They came back and told us right before that they were going to wind the clock after they had the ball set for play, so that kind of eliminates all of your possibilities."</p><p>Interim coach Mike Singletary and Martz both expressed their displeasure that Corrente's crew did not inform the sideline of the situation.</p><p>Martz said he did not learn the ball was moved back until he spoke with former 49ers coach Mike Nolan on Tuesday morning. Nolan had a better grasp of the situation from watching the game on television.</p><p>The NFL said Corrente handled the situation properly.</p><p>A league spokesman said Corrente "followed normal procedures by announcing on his microphone where the ball would be spotted and that the clock would start on his signal. . . . Corrente reminded the quarterback that the clock would begin on his signal. He then made sure the quarterback had time to get under center before signaling for play to resume."</p><p>Singletary said he placed a call to the league office. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not yet gotten a call back.</p><p>"I addressed it again with the team this morning about what happened on Monday night, the different series of events that took place, and we put it behind us," Singletary said. "And we're going to move forward and learn from it.</p><p>"We'll move forward."</p><h3>NOTES</h3> <p>Receiver Josh Morgan will miss Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams with a groin strain, the team announced.</p><p>Receiver Arnaz Battle (foot) and safety Dashon Goldson (knee) have also been ruled out of action.</p><p>First-year player Dominique Zeigler will line up behind starter Bryant Johnson at split end. Zeigler will also be on the field when the 49ers go with four wideouts.</p><p>Gore did not practice due to a neck strain, but the 49ers expect him to be ready to play Sunday. Tight end Delanie Walker (shoulder) and tackle Barry Sims (ankle) also did not practice, but they should be available for action on Sunday.</p><p>The 49ers added former Stanford receiver Mark Bradford to the practice squad. He was originally signed by the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent.</p><p>For more on the 49ers, go to Instant 49ers at http://blog.pressdemocrat.com/49ers. You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at 521-5492 or matt.maiocco@press</p><p>democrat.com.</p>