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Tuesday NFL — Minnesota at Philadelphia, 5:20 p.m., NBC NCAA — NC State vs. West Virginia, 3:30 p.m., ESPN Iowa vs. Missouri, 7 p.m., ESPN Sports 1B Tuesday December 28, 2010 SANTA CLARA (AP) — San Francisco team president and CEO Jed York is turning to his uncle, former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., for advice on how to fix the underachiev- ing franchise. DeBartolo will serve as a consultant in the process of finding a general manager, and York also plans to talk to Patri- ots president Jonathan Kraft about what works so well for New England. Only after a GM is in place will a new coach be hired, and there’s no timetable. Jim Tomsula will coach the 49ers for all of a week, and his bosses have said they expect him to win. The promoted defensive line coach took charge of the down- trodden team Monday, a day after the 49ers fired Mike Sin- gletary late Sunday upon returning to team headquarters following a 25-17 loss at St. Louis that eliminated San Fran- cisco from playoff contention. Also fired were pass rush spe- cialist coach Al Harris and inside linebackers coach Vantz Singletary, the former coach’s nephew. York said he had considered the coaching change in recent weeks. ‘‘Obviously we had expecta- tions of being a playoff-caliber team this year. Whether we were a 7-9 division winner or not didn’t matter to me,’’ York said. ‘‘I wanted to make sure that the San Francisco 49ers had an opportunity to compete for a Super Bowl, which I felt like we had every expectation to do that. When that was not real- ized, I wanted to make sure we were setting ourselves up for the remainder of the season but more importantly for next sea- son. And when we look at next season, there are a lot of things that are uncertain — the labor issues. I’m not sure when our players are going to be back next season, so I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a coaching turnover, coaching change going into that.’’ San Francisco (5-10), which hasn’t had a winning record since its last trip to the postsea- son in 2002, finishes the season at home Sunday against last- place Arizona. ‘‘We’re going to win. Let me MCT photo San Francisco 49ers defensive-line coach Jim Tomsula, who was named to serve as the interim head coach replacing Mike Singletary, speaks to the media during a press conference at the 49ers headquarters on Monday. make that clear,’’ Tomsula said. ‘‘That was something we talked about this morning. Jed’s made that very clear. Trent Baalke’s made it very clear — very, very crystal clear.’’ The 49ers missed the play- offs for the eighth straight sea- Brees leads Saints to win 49ers face final week without Singletary son despite being the popular favorite before the season to win the awful NFC West. They couldn’t recover from an 0-5 start, the franchise’s worst since losing seven straight to begin a 2-14 season in 1979 — the late Hall of Famer Bill Walsh’s first year as coach. York said he has already begun pursuing potential GM candidates and could do some interviews later this week. The 49ers have been without a gen- eral manager since the abrupt departure of Scot McCloughan in March, which York called a ‘‘mutual parting.’’ McCloughan wound up with the division- rival Seahawks. Baalke, who has led the team’s football operations as vice president of player person- nel, will be considered for the job — though other experi- enced NFL executives out of work probably on York’s list are Randy Mueller and Tim Ruskell. If Carolina fires GM Marty Hurney, he could be another person of interest. ‘‘I’m going to try and knock out as many people as we can See 49ERS, page 2B Raiders left to try to reach smaller goals ALAMEDA (AP) — Now that their playoff hopes are officially extinguished, the Oakland Raiders are left looking to achieve much smaller goals. A season-ending victory in Kansas City on Sunday would end a streak of seven straight losing seasons and give Oakland (7- 8) its first perfect record in the AFC West since 1976. Those are just con- solation prizes now for a team that believed it was good enough to win the divi- sion. ‘‘Our goal was to go to the playoffs and give ourselves a shot to move on from there,’’ offensive lineman Robert Gallery said. ‘‘It’s a step forward from where we’ve been in the past but I don’t think anybody feels good about where we’re at right now.’’ The Raiders will be left out of the playoffs once MCT photo Saints quarterback Drew Brees looks to pass during 1st-half action against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Monday. ATLANTA (AP) — After tossing up two throws in the fourth quarter that he wishes never left his hand, Drew Brees connected on the one that really counted for the New Orleans Saints. Brees shook off a pair of interceptions in the final period, hooking up with rookie Jimmy Gra- ham on a 6-yard touch- down with 3:24 remain- ing to give New Orleans a 17-14 victory over the Atlanta on Monday night. Brees and the Saints denied the Fal- cons from clinching the NFC South title and home-field advantage in the playoffs. And Who Dat going back to the playoffs? That would be the Saints, who showed they aren’t ready to give up their Super Bowl title with a win that should give them a huge boost of confidence heading into the postseason. The Falcons (12-3), meanwhile, might be having some doubts after their eight-game winning streak was snapped at the Georgia Dome, where they have been virtually unbeat- able in Mike Smith’s three years as coach. Still, the loss doesn’t ruin Atlanta’s two main goals. The Falcons can still wrap up their first divi- sion crown since 2004 and home field through the NFC playoffs by knocking off two-win Carolina at home in the final week of the sea- son. But this one stung, especially since there’s a real possibility these teams will meet again in the playoffs. Brees completed six straight passes on a 13- play, 90-yard drive, the last of them to the rook- ie tight end for the win- ning score. That made up for Brees’ ill-advised attempt to slip away a backhanded pass while under heavy pressure, which was picked off by Chauncey Davis and returned 26 yards for a touchdown in the open- ing minute of the fourth, giving the Falcons their first lead all night. again, having been eliminated by Kansas City’s 34-14 victory Sunday that wrapped up early in the first quar- ter of Oakland’s home finale. The Raiders went on to lose 31-26 to Indianapolis, ending any chance at a winning season. So instead of having a playoff showdown against the Chiefs (10-5) in Kansas City, the Raiders will end the season with essentially a meaningless game. A win would give the Raiders series sweeps against division rivals San Diego, Denver and Kansas City and make Oakland the first team since the start of division play to win every division game and not finish first. ‘‘It would be nice go in there and try to give them their first home loss and all that, sweep the division,’’ defensive lineman Tommy Kelly said. ‘‘It’s kind of hol- low but, we achieved a goal but we didn’t get the ulti- mate goal. So that’s still kind of hard to swallow right there.’’ There were many signs of progress this season for the Raiders, who had their most wins since winning the AFC championship in 2002. The offense improved by leaps under new coordinator Hue Jackson and quarter- back Jason Campbell. Oakland has scored 379 points already this season, the eighth most ever by the fran- See RAIDERS, page 2B Rams: From 1-15 to one win and playoff-bound ST. LOUIS (AP) — One year removed from a one-win season, the St. Louis Rams are one win away from the postsea- son. All they need is a win Sun- day night at Seattle, where they haven’t prevailed since 2004, to win the NFC West. And after the misery of 2009, they’re overjoyed to have the challenge. It’ll be in prime time, too. The NFL used its flexible scheduling policy to move Rams (7-8) vs. Seahawks (6-9) to an evening time slot. If the Seahawks win, they’ll become the first division champion with a losing record in league histo- ry. A win would give the Rams, the sad sacks who were 6-42 from 2007-09, their first playoff berth since ’04 and their first division title since ’03, when the Greatest Show on Turf was still going strong. So what if they’d be only 8-8? They’d open at home in the playoffs. Cornerback Ron Bartell chuckled when asked how tough it would be playing in Seattle, then said, ‘‘With the opportunity we have, who cares who we play and where?’’ This time last year, nobody could have envisioned this chance — even if the division title up for grabs is the NFL’s weakest. ‘‘It’s great for the team. It’s kind of another step in the whole thing,’’ coach Steve Spagnuolo said. ‘‘We’re hoping we can take a big step and then get on the bottom of another mountain and try to climb that one.’’ The Rams showed spunk in their home finale, rebounding from losses to the Chiefs and Saints by rallying from a two- point halftime deficit behind a defense that shut down the 49ers. Troy Smith passed for 356 yards in the 49ers’ over- time victory in San Francisco last month. In the rematch, also Mike Singletary’s last game as coach, Smith got benched in the fourth quarter. ‘‘We tried to get somebody in his face all the time,’’ middle line- backer James Laurinaitis said. ‘‘No quar- terback likes somebody in his face.’’ The Rams opened the play- book a bit, starting with a four- wideout set. Danny Amendola’s option pass for rookie Danario Alexander drew an interference call that led to Steven Jackson’s 1-yard run the next play. They also ran a few end-arounds with Brandon Gibson. Alexander had his best day with six catches for 99 yards, including a 46-yarder to the 3 that led to a touchdown. Sam Bradford was 16 for 20 in the second half, hitting his rhythm with quick tempo passes. Spagnuolo makes no apolo- gies for finishing the game in a shell, a conservative approach that gave San Francisco three shots to force overtime. He denied being influenced by Bradford’s lost fumble on a sack at the 49ers 10 in the first See RAMS, page 2B