Shaun Hill’s finest hour lasted about a minute. His biggest victory came in a defeat.
It all happened last Nov. 10, when the 49ers nearly pulled off an upset of the Arizona Cardinals on “Monday Night Football.”

Making his first start of the season, Hill somehow kept his cool despite the crowd, the clock, the confusion and — by Mike Martz’s own admission — a colossal blunder by the offensive coordinator.
Fans like to point to the 29-24 defeat as a reminder that the 49ers were 1 yard away from beating a team bound for the Super Bowl.
The 49ers find out Sunday if they’ve closed the gap: They face the Cardinals on the road in the season opener.
In advance of that game, Hill met with the San Jose Mercury News to help navigate the chaos of last year’s memorable final drive. The quarterback sat in a darkened meeting room at team headquarters.
He pressed “play” to relive the 49ers’ final possession.
The situation: 1:06 left. 1st-and-10 at ARZ 42.
The play: S. Hill pass short right to J. Hill for 13 yards.
“At this stage of the game, I was very, very confident,” Hill says. “We’re at the 42-yard line. We have great field position. We need a touchdown to win.”
The 49ers line up in with an empty backfield. Arizona drops eight men into coverage; all the defenders allow a healthy cushion. When Jason Hill glides across a soft spot over the middle of the field, he’s an easy target.
It’s a nice start to the drive, with a caveat. Hill aims a laser pointer at the bottom of the screen where Frank Gore is struggling to get up.
“This is where Frank gets a little dinged,” Hill says. “That actually comes into effect later.”
The situation: 0:56 left. 1st-and-10 at ARZ 29.
The play: S. Hill pass short right to J. Hill for 14 yards.
“Things are great in the huddle,” Hill says. “Once you get that positive first play, you’re moving. Guys are feeling good. Now we’re really rolling.”
The second play of the drive looks like a replay of the first. Jason Hill might have seemed an unlikely target to emerge as the go-to guy, having caught just three passes for 38 yards over the first eight games.
But Hill and Hill had established a strong rapport on the practice field, especially during that week. In a separate interview, Jason Hill said, “I knew it was my time to shine.”
The situation: 0:52 left. 1st-and-10 at ARZ 15.
The play: S. Hill pass short right to J. Hill for 14 yards.
Hill takes a quick look at the end zone, but Bryant Johnson is well covered.
“I don’t have the over-the-top throw, so I go underneath to Jason again,” Hill says.
Jason Hill catches the ball at about the 9-yard line and fights his way down to the 1. Cornerback Ralph Brown makes a game-saving tackle.
Still, everything is on schedule.
“At this point what I’m thinking is, ’All right. We’ll take a shot at the end zone. If it’s there, great, we’ll score. If not, it’s an incomplete pass and the clock is stopped,’ “ Hill says.
If only it were that simple.
The situation: 0:21 left. 1st-and-goal from the ARZ 1.
The play: S. Hill spikes ball to stop clock.
Martz, a veteran of two Super Bowls, should have known better. Instead, he lost his cool. “There was some chaos that I created on the sideline,” he admitted the next day.
Martz made the mistake of signaling to spike the ball while simultaneously dispatching the goal line personnel group. Those moves should have come one at a time. As it was, different players saw or heard different signals.
Hill knew he couldn’t spike the ball until the 49ers were in a legal formation. It was a long wait.
“At this point, we’re all discombobulated,” Hill says. “We’re confused.”
Hill looks calm, though, as he directs the action like an air-traffic controller. On the video screen, the receiver lining up to the far right is so late in arriving that it’s hard to tell who it is.
“It didn’t really matter. Just as long as it was somebody,” Hill says. “Jason shows up and gets set. So we spike it.”
The situation: 0:20 left. 2nd-and-1 at ARZ 1.
The play: F. Gore run left tackle for minus-1 yards.
For a split second, the 49ers had a clear path to victory. Gore took the handoff and was headed for an easy touchdown.
There was just one problem.
“I slipped when I came around the corner,” Gore recalled this week.
Indeed, on screen the running back’s legs crumble as he tries to elude linebacker Gerald Hayes. Gore says the play haunted him for a week. “I couldn’t get it out of my head,” he said.
Gore had suffered a head injury on the first play of the drive, the one that Hill pointed to with the laser pointer. “He scores in my opinion if he doesn’t get dinged up,” Hill said.
Watching the film, it’s amazing how quickly Hill shifts gears. When Gore slips, Hill goes from signaling a touchdown to racing back to the line of scrimmage and barking instructions.
“Watch me,” Hill said. “I’m ready to spike it — spike, spike, spike!”
The situation: 0:03 left. 3rd-and-goal at ARZ 3.
The play: Michael Robinson run middle for 1 yard.
The spiking never happened. Officials reviewed the play to see if Gore was down by contact. What happens next belongs in the Confusion Hall of Fame.
After a long look, the officials announce that the ball will be placed closer to the 3-yard line. But the 49ers never hear those words — the crowd noise drowns them out.
Martz had designed a play he thought would be run from the 1. When the 49ers hurry to line up at 3, they recognize immediately that a fullback dive by Michael Robinson is doomed.
“In hindsight, it’s third down. I could have just spiked it,” Hill said. “At the same time, this was my first game with Martz. I certainly wasn’t going to go against one of his play calls. I wasn’t thinking that. He’s called a lot of great games in his life.”
Worse, the officials informed Hill that the play clock would start winding down at the referee’s whistle. But with 64,519 roaring fans, Hill hearing the whistle would be impossible.
Instead of his ears, Hill used his eyes. On the screen Hill points to himself staring up at the scoreboard and waiting for the numbers to start counting down.
That’s only way he can tell when to snap the ball.
Robinson is immediately stuffed by a tidal wave of defenders. On the replay, the Cardinals celebrate wildly. Hill doubles over in agony then staggers a few steps in disbelief.
“Yeah, that one hurt,” Hill says, watching himself.
The aftermath: Coach Mike Singletary is not a moral victory type of guy, but the 49ers nevertheless found inspiration in this one. They rallied to go 5-2 the rest of the season.
The heady play of their quarterback has them thinking they’ll do things right if they get the chance at crunch time again in 2009.
“As long as there is time on the clock, we have a chance,” Hill said. “A lot of games in the NFL come down to the 2-minute drill. . . . I certainly enjoy having the ball in my hand at that time. It’s a lot better than being on the sideline.”