When all else fails, yell at the refs.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesComing into the season we thought the San Francisco 49ers would do some momentous, groundbreaking things, and by golly they haven't disappointed.Residing in last place in the worst division in the history of pro football? Check. Reebok New York Jets #6 Mark Sanchez Realtree camo Jersey
Losing to Tampa Bay at home for the first time since 1980? Check.Suffering the ignominy of being shutout at home for the first since Oct. 9, 1977? Check.Employing a coach who has quickly become a laughingstock even among his peers? Check.Any way you slice it, the 49ers are a bad, at times unwatchable, football team. Their offense is slow, scared and unimaginative. Their defense is more bark than bite. Their special teams aren't special in the slightest. But most damning of all, they're captained by a man who hasn't just rammed the vessel into an iceberg but one who won't even notice the iceberg until he reviews the film.Coach Mike Singletary uttered his trademark "I have to look at the film" default response to nine of 16 questions posed to him in the postgame press conference, and really, no one even gets hot and bothered about it anymore.It's as honest as anything as anything he's ever said to the media. Without the benefit of watching a slow-motion video replay, away from the pressure and live bullets of the game, he really doesn't have the foggiest idea why something didn't work as it should have.Maybe the only time all game Smith wasn't surrounded by Bucs defenders.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesHe can't see a problem, analyze it and conjure an immediate and workable solution for it any better than you or I could.Well, unless Jon Gruden or Jim Harbaugh happens to be reading this drivel.In what is becoming something of a pattern, immediately after losses Singletary is all fire and brimstone, full of bluster and ripping into the players and warning them that when he reviews the film he will see who's not pulling their weight and make the appropriate changes.By now I'm sure the players just roll their eyes and chuckle to themselves at his empty threats. Singletary always softens his tone on the morning after and keeps the lineups intact on both sides of the ball.He's made two changes all season, and they both involved safety Taylor Mays. The first time he put him into the lineup for no other reason but for the fact that he was a second round pick. He certainly hadn't done a thing during training camp and the preseason to warrant it.The move alienated starter Michael Lewis, who demanded his release. Last week Singletary yanked Mays in favor of Reggie Smith, who's better in coverage, but wouldn't admit that Mays was benched until yesterday's post mortem, a full seven days after the fact.Players now Singletary's threats don't mean Reebok Oakland Raiders #21 Nnamdi Asomugha Realtree camo Jersey
a thing because if he was able to process anything by film study, personnel moves would've been made long ago. It's the same guys playing poorly week after week after week. It's not like it's one person one game and another person the next game.Outstanding player. Probably not somebody you want coaching your team someday.Jed Jacobsohn/Getty ImagesRight guard Chilo Rachal is simply awful. He was the worst player on the offensive line last season, but the coaches didn't seek to replace him the way they replaced David Baas at left guard and Adam Snyder at right tackle because Rachal is youthful and athletic and was a second round pick in 2008.They were hoping he would improve with another off-season of experience, but it hasn't happened and likely never will. Snyder has been better in relief appearances against New Orleans, when Rachal missed the game with a shoulder injury, and in parts of other games.Right tackle Anthony Davis has been better than Rachal in the run game, but he's given up seven sacks already this season and been penalized quite a bit as well. For reasons that escape me, the coaching staff hasn't helped out the 20-year old very much by putting a tight end on his side. They're throwing him in the ocean without a life preserver, making him sink or swim.Only it's the quarterbacks that are getting sunk when he screws up.Left tackle Barry Sims was a revelation when he replaced an injured Joe Staley last season. When he re-signed in the off-season, he looked sloppy and out of shape in minicamp, and very slow. If some rookie free agent hopeful came into camp in that condition, he would've been cut after a week.Sims earned the benefit of the doubt and made the team. When called upon against the Buccaneers, he was beaten for three sacks. "Overall, I thought he did a pretty decent job," said Singletary.Singletary's area of expertise begins and ends with the linebackers. If a corner or a left guard or a quarterback or a receiver are playing poorly, he won't figure it out. He doesn't understand the fundamentals or the techniques of those positions. He's not involved in the game planning, so he doesn't know the assignments of each player on each play.If he's soliciting opinions from his coaching staff and they're telling him that everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing and playing up to their ability, then the coaching staff is failing Singletary as well. Maybe he's surrounded himself with yes men."You know, every week, you have a preparation time for a team and you prepare for them," Singletary explained. "You really don’t know what they’re going to do game day; that’s something that as you look at it you have to make Reebok Pittsburgh Steelers #86 Hines Ward Realtree camo Jersey
adjustments as you go."Except plenty of teams know exactly what the 49ers are going to do. Buccaneers linebacker Barrett Ruud admitted after the game that the linemen and Frank Gore were tipping off whether plays were going to be runs or passes. Singletary was surprised to learn that in Monday's presser and dismissed it, saying that's the first he's ever heard of anything like that happening to his team.Except that it happened at Kansas City as well, with Chiefs defenders calling out the 49ers' plays at the line."If they’re doing something a little bit different; if the other team’s trying to work on something to take away something that you’ve done, then you just have to continue to play that chess match during the game," Singletary continued.Except while everyone else is playing chess, he's playing checkers. Hell, he might be playing hide and go seek. He might be in a different room entirely."I’m not going to say that I felt that we were just really not prepared," he said. "We were prepared for what we felt they were going to do, and once they did some things a little bit differently, then we tried as best we could to counter those things."How can you counter anything when you have to wait till the next day to figure out what happened, coach?After every loss Singletary tells the players things will be different and nothing ever is. There are no changes to be made or ideas to try, beyond "working harder" and "getting better." It's kind of sad to watch.Slowly but surely "Coach Sing" is getting worn down by the losing and starting to sound resigned to his fate. This week he tried something new and took responsibility for the team's failures.The guy who defiantly promised his team "wouldn't try to score on the Saints, we will score on the score on the Saints," and "we won't try to stop Drew Brees, we will stop Drew Brees," is gone.Now he's saying the 49ers can be a playoff team "if" they win at Arizona. Not when, if.The worst moment of Reebok Pittsburgh Steelers James Harrison Realtree camo Jersey
all was his rationalization of the blowout loss to the Bucs."I just think that some games a team just has your number, or things just don’t work the way you want them to work. There are going to be some games that you have. I don’t care who is supposed to be the best team in the league right now, they’re going to have a game where somebody just has you’re number, and yesterday was ours."He made it sound like some fluke thing, perhaps forgetting his team's gotten slaughtered three times already in ten games.The whole league has their number, and Singletary's is up.
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