Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice couldn't wait six more days for his weekly interview on 95.7 The Game. The San Francisco 49ers great made an impromptu call into the "Joe, Lo, and Dibs" show on Tuesday morning to discuss his former team's performance against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.
"I'm burning up right now, I'm serious," Rice said. "Oh my God, we gave them that game last night."
Rice, of course, is referring to the 49ers' heartbreaking meltdown at Lambeau Field after leading late in the game. The Niners offense failed to keep Aaron Rodgers off the field late in the game, and the defense was unable to keep the quarterback from getting the Packers into position for a game-winning field goal.
Rice was impressed overall with 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard and his ability to get the football to his playmakers. One play by the quarterback, however, had the former NFL star irked. Rice felt that even though Rodgers engineered a game-tying scoring drive, the 49ers had an excellent opportunity at the end to get into position for a game-winning field goal or touchdown themselves.
Instead, a pass play was called, and Beathard threw an interception in the face of a Packers blitz, which gave the football back to Rodgers.
"I think C.J. threw the ball a little short and when he really needed to be accurate and stuff like that," Rice said. "Put the ball out just a little bit further, let (Marquise) Goodwin run under the ball. They did it earlier during the football game. Everything was fine so on a play like that, that's man-to-man, you've got to put that ball out there. You know this guy is a sprinter. He's got world-class speed. Throw it deep and let him go make the play."
Rice didn't really have a problem with the play call itself. Just the players' — particularly Beathard's — execution of it.
"I don't think he really just put enough velocity on the ball," Rice explained. "It looked like he just threw it up [...] I'm not going to say it was a bad decision to make that call and throw the ball deep like that. You've got one-on-one coverage. This is an opportunity to win this football game right now, and I think Kyle Shanahan, he went for it and it just ended up backfiring."
You can listen to the entire interview with Rice below.