Westbrook has big game as 49ers slam Cards
GLENDALE, Ariz. — If San Francisco is able to pick up the pieces of its shattered early season and win the NFC West, it probably will have to do it without star running back Frank Gore.
Brian Westbrook’s performance in relief of the injured Gore in the 49ers’ 27-6 victory over free-falling Arizona on Monday night makes that prospect a bit easier to take.
“When our unquestioned leader goes down, you definitely feel some type of sorrow about what’s going on,” quarterback Troy Smith said of Gore, who broke his right hip, “but we had to keep pressing on. In his words, the only thing that matters is a win.”
While the 49ers (4-7) climbed to within one game of co-leaders St. Louis and Seattle in football’s worst division, Arizona (3-8) lost its sixth in a row, then quarterback Derek Anderson lost his temper when a reporter repeatedly asked why he was laughing on the sidelines with his team down by 18.
“It wasn’t funny. I wasn’t laughing about anything,” Anderson said.
But, the reporter persisted, the television camera showed him laughing with offensive guard Deuce Lutui.
“I’m just telling you right now what I do every single week. Every single week I put my freaking heart and soul into this,” Anderson shouted. “... I don’t go out there and laugh. It’s not funny. Nothing’s funny to me. I don’t want to go out there and get embarrassed on ‘Monday Night Football.’”
While Arizona’s offense was bad, the defense — especially up front — was worse.
Westbrook, who had 9 yards on five carries all season, carried 29 times for 136 yards and a touchdown in his 21st career 100-yard game, but first since Dec. 7, 2008, for Philadelphia against the New York Giants.
He was happy for the chance to show what he still can do.
“I think we have a lot of young guys, some of them have seen some of the things I’ve been able to do over the course of my career, some of them just don’t know,” he said.
