To Point Fingers
by: Bryan Hersh
I have been biting my tongue the past five weeks or so, watching the 49ers lose week after week, or come close to it on one occurrence. I can't hold my words anymore. As a fan, I have simply had enough. I was patient through an entire Nolan era. I was patient through an entire Erickson era too. Time is up. I am no longer patient, I tried to be, but there is nothing I see on the field each Sunday to warrant more patience. Unfortunately, that means I need the team to make a rational irrational decision. Yes, I see the oxymoron in that; but, it is the only way I can describe what this team needs to do.
Changes, big changes need to be made NOW. Not at the end of the season, NOW. The changes must start with the firing of Jimmy Raye. YES, this team needs ANOTHER offensive coordinator - and maybe even ANOTHER head coach. And that is where this rational irrational decision comes in.
To win in the NFL you almost always need consistency on a team, particularly on a coaching staff. For literally decades the 49ers had this, today, they have nothing but inconsistency. Yet, the rational decision is to vote against consistency. Hence, it would seem irrational to choose in favor of change, knowing full well that inconsistency leads to failure. I fear though, that this is the only rational decision to make when you have a team that has plenty of talent and no sense of self or regular victory. This team needs wholesale changes, at a time, when it should be building for consistency.
This last loss against Green Bay showed the complete incompetence of the coaching staff. For that matter, the offensive coaching staff in particular. I take great exception to a team that plays scared, to an offensive coach that plays possum and instills fear of the opposition in his quarterback. Jimmy Raye needs to go. He has done absolutely nothing positive to this offense since joining the club, and failed to establish the one thing he said he would, and that coach Singletary wanted, a run game that could instill fear in the opposition. In the short run, Tom Rathman should be promoted to coordinator.
Rathman should have been hired to this roll to begin with, and for that reason, and a few others, Singletary may not make it to his second full season as head coach either.
The complete incompetence on offense and the way they play out of fear is embarrassing. It is also not how you win football games. This team has offensive talent. Smith has shown he can throw the ball well. Gore is a great running back. Crabtree and Davis and big threats to catch the ball and Morgan, Hill and Walker all can create mismatches. There is enough talent here that a good coordinator could ignite an offense. That is not to say it has to be pass happy, but it does have to fit the personnel. That means using weapons, not seeing how many three and outs you can have in a quarter. The offensive line is banged up right now, but a good coordinator should recognize what it can do well and run an offense that fits. Instead, the 49ers decided not to game plan for the Packers. Yes, they have all but admitted that the plan was to adapt as the game went along. What an amazing use of 10 days between games.
This team was not built for smash mouth football. Neither line offensive or defensive was built for that. That the team continues to argue that it is a power running team is laughable. That it refuses to adapt is a huge mistake. Hence, Mike Singletary's decision making is largely flawed on this count, as it was on the hiring of Jimmy Raye. Mike Singeltary's vision is one of power and intensity, but brains will always triumph over brawns.
Tom Rathman would have been a better choice at coordinator. Rathman has been around winning teams, and offensive signal callers who understand modern football. He is a hard hitting, no non-sense guy who understands that the run game. Yet, Rathman learned football in a team that was pass based. This balance is what Singletary should have been after this off-season. Instead, he went with a coordinator who clearly is inept. Rathman should be the choice right now. He also gives the 49ers some chance at consistency on offense should the team rid themselves of Singletary this off-season. Rathman has never called offensive plays before, but I gather from what I have seen so far on offense, that this won't make a difference. The team needs to fire Raye, promote Rathman, and begin instilling an offense that gives the team a chance to win - based on the talent on the roster.
Mike Singletary's best chance to survive into his second full season at head coach is to make the change needed on offense. Beyond that though, he has to drop his current vision of the team. It is important for a coach to be a motivator, but there are only so many games that are won based on motivation. The physical approach is valuable, but physical power is not the difference maker in the NFL that it is in the NHL. Singletary needs to relax his vision. He needs to see that a Physical game built around smart scheming on both sides of the ball is imperative. That should be his vision for this team.
The defense was laughable in the first half against the Packers. That is sad, for a team that claims to be a strong defensive unit. Bend but not break is not a strategy that works, because at some point, as evidenced this past week, the bleeding cannot be stopped.
The defense failed to record a sack in the first half of football against a quarterback who is known to be extremely sack prone. The same defense has been repeatedly burned by the screen pass all season, and breaks containment when faced with angled blocking in the run game. All of this is a result of a vision of football based on being physical, and not smart. You do not win many football games without the solid scheme. The 49ers have shown that they do not have that scheme on offense or on defense. That spells trouble.
There is no debate that Jimmy Raye must go, and must go now. There is time for us to salvage an opinion on Mike Singletary. The coaches already have strikes against him for his offensive coordinator hire, and his 'vision' lacking relevant scheme. Batters up.
Bryan Hersh is the Founder and President of 49ers Paradise, www.49ersparadise.com He is a good friend and supporter of Hooked on the Niners. Please contact Bryan with any questions or comments at bryan_hotn@49ersparadise.com