"Joe's Bar" was eerily silent, not a ripple in the air. Even the cursing seemed to have completely vanished.
When their favorite team plays well, fans will cheer, celebrating in all sorts of ways. When they play poorly, fans will curse without hesitation. Passionate fans are always the most eager and emotional, and it's their deep love that makes them so intense. This passionate display is one of the most striking scenes in competitive sports.
But at this moment, the entire bar was silent. Only Chris and his group were excited, agitated, angry, and passionate.
The feelings of the fans in the bar were complicated. It wasn't that they were against Lu Ke; they just weren't fully behind him.
Maybe it was because they had been disappointed for so long, and they were afraid that after building up hope again, it would all come crashing down once more. This created a sense of anxiety. Maybe it was because deep down, they couldn't trust an undrafted rookie and had more expectations for Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick.
Maybe it was because this rookie quarterback had emerged from nowhere and lacked a connection with the fans, unlike other rookies who had been discussed for months—their college careers, stats, and scouting reports. This rookie had none of that.
There were many reasons, and they were all mixed up. Even the fans themselves were a mix of emotions at this moment, unable to express them accurately. As a result, they couldn't even vent their anger and could only remain silent and bewildered, as if they were strangers.
No one could refute Chris Wilson's reprimand.
In the entire bar, only Chris's group of young people were standing up, frustrated and angry, roaring at the TV screen, venting their anger, cursing, and expressing their opinions. They were extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the offensive line, wanting to get in there and slap them a few times to wake them up.
The impassioned voices echoed, and the other fans in the bar awkwardly looked away, feeling helpless.
Jonathan Baldwin stared blankly at the TV screen, his mind drifting. As a die-hard fan, every victory for the San Francisco 49ers was enough to make him ecstatic, wanting to run into the streets, scream and cheer, and hug every stranger he saw to share his joy. But...
But Jonathan had been suppressing his emotions. The three-game winning streak felt too good to be true, as if the moment he cheered, the bubble of the dream would burst, and he would return to reality. As long as he remained silent, this wonderful feeling would continue.
Now, Jonathan couldn't help but question himself. Had he made a mistake?
Even if it was a dream, the dream would end when day broke. But before the dream ended, he should have enjoyed it and celebrated it to the fullest, becoming a part of it. Just as Chris said, this was their team, and that undrafted rookie was shouldering the entire team on his own.
"Crap! Crap! Crap!" Michael Crabtree's curses echoed through the locker room, non-stop and furious.
He wasn't arguing with a teammate; he was just getting angry with himself, kicking the lockers one by one, making a loud, irritating clanging noise. He wasn't the only one. Not far away, in a corner, outside linebacker Patrick Willis was also cursing angrily, each word more aggressive and foul than the last.
"Crap! Can't you guys be quiet?" Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman finally couldn't take it anymore and cursed harshly. "Don't act like a bunch of crazy kids. We're only down by one touchdown. We can make that up anytime in the second half. What's with you guys getting angry at yourselves in here?"
"Make it up? Who's gonna make it up? You?" Parys Harrelson interjected through gritted teeth, glancing at Lu Ke from the corner of his eye and saying menacingly, "With a performance like the first half, we're just gonna collapse in the second."
Although it wasn't explicitly stated, the insinuation was almost a direct accusation. Anyone could see that Parys was still upset for Alex Smith and had a problem with Lu Ke's starting position. All three backup quarterbacks had traveled with the team to Philadelphia and were in the locker room.
The moment Parys's words fell, all eyes turned to Alex. But Alex didn't say anything or show any reaction, as if he hadn't even noticed Parys's comment.
"What did you say? As the defense, what the hell were you guys doing in the first half?" Logan Newman couldn't hold back and jumped up, confronting him loudly. "Besides passing the buck, what do you know?"
Just as the atmosphere in the locker room was getting tense again, a sudden shout, like a thunderclap, rang out. "Stop it! Damn it, all of you, stop!" Everyone's eyes shot toward the source of the voice.
It was Lu Ke.
Before this, Lu Ke had a towel draped over his head, trying to calm down and rethink the first half of the game.
In the second week of the regular season, at home against the Dallas Cowboys, they had faced a similar predicament but had managed to make a comeback in the second half. Today, the Philadelphia Eagles' performance was actually not as good as the Cowboys' was then, but why couldn't they see any hope of a comeback?
Lu Ke kept replaying the first half of the game in his mind, but he couldn't find a solution on a tactical level. It wasn't that the Philadelphia Eagles' defense was playing too well; it was that the San Francisco 49ers' offense was playing too poorly. So, what was the root cause? Was it all because they were playing on the road?
It was true that some teams played terribly on the road, but that wasn't the whole story.
The constant arguing in his ears interrupted Lu Ke's thoughts but also gave him a flash of inspiration. He pulled off the towel and shouted. The word he used wasn't "shut up," but "stop." The word was relatively gentler and more neutral. It wasn't meant to scold the players but to stop the argument.
Today, for the first time, Lu Ke truly took on the responsibility of a starting quarterback. There was no hesitation or fear.
"Look at yourselves. If you can't see it, go to the bathroom and take a look," Lu Ke walked to the center of the locker room and stood confidently under everyone's gaze. He said loudly, "Everyone is so restless. The offense is like this, and the defense is like this. Haven't you guys thought about it? Our tactics are correct, our strength is better than our opponents, and we have the advantage on the field. So why are we behind?"
"If you're trying to act like a life coach or something, just get lost..." Parys didn't give him any respect and rudely interrupted Lu Ke.
But Lu Ke responded with an even stronger retort. "Shut up! Either focus on the field, or keep your mouth shut off the field!"
The sharp look in his eyes and the fierce tone left Parys stunned, and his words were stuck in his throat. This was a side of Lu Ke they had never seen in the past three weeks. The aggressive words and powerful presence had completely silenced Parys.
"Each of us took it for granted that this game was firmly in our hands, right? We have a three-game winning streak, we've played well on both offense and defense, we're unstoppable, we're powerful! God damn it, even if all of that is true, victory won't just come to us. We have to fight for it ourselves! Otherwise, all we'll get is a loss!"
Pride and underestimating the opponent.
Lu Ke had figured out the core of the problem. Winning always brings confidence. But for such a young team, a team that lacked chemistry, and more importantly, a team that lacked a core leader, confidence could easily turn into arrogance and carelessness, making them think that victory was a given.
Even though the coaches had officially confirmed Lu Ke as the starting quarterback this week, the team still hadn't rallied around him. They were relying on the reckless confidence and spirit from the first regular season game, blindly confident and blindly fighting. But at crucial moments, they had no idea what they were doing. The small differences in details led to mistakes and repeated failures.
It wasn't just the offense and defense; Lu Ke himself was also a little complacent. He thought that with three consecutive weeks of successful skill points, he had truly been reborn. But he forgot that even if he got a perfect score in all categories, he still had to take every game one step at a time. Victory was not a given; it had to be earned.
"Yes, we have a three-game winning streak, but you guys should know better than I do. In the 2007 season, the New England Patriots had a perfect season, sixteen wins in sixteen games. Almost everyone thought they were unbeatable. But what happened? They lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants led by Eli Manning!"
"So, you'd better put away your arrogance and your cockiness. Right now, right outside this locker room, the Philadelphia Eagles are waiting for a win! The seventy thousand fans in this stadium are waiting for a celebration! And the fact is, they're on their way to making that a reality. But I don't agree!"
"I expect a different result. So, I'm going to calm down now, go onto the field, take every single play one step at a time, and tell the Philadelphia Eagles and every team in this league, if you want to win? You'll have to step over my dead body! Because I won't give up easily, and I won't lose easily!"
Lu Ke's voice echoed throughout the entire locker room. Every single pair of eyes was on Lu Ke. Then, they saw Lu Ke raise his right hand high, clenching it into a fist. "I'm ready to go out there and fight for the victory. Who's with me?"
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