The 2010 San Francisco 49ers have ruptured their main artery at their all-time lowest flogging, following their devastating and humiliating loss many hundreds of miles south in San Diego, California against the Chargers 34-7 in a nationally televised debacle on the NFL Network. Mike Singletary's continued tight-lipped and head scratching antics continue to be a mesmerizing spectacle as he continues with his relating matters to watching film and moving forward to the next game on the schedule. He is without a doubt a man without any legitimate answers.
As all of us watched in horror the Alex Smith and Mike Singletary show took center stage in this pivotal showdown for a legitimate shot at being a viable contender for this year's NFL Playoffs. Both teams with so much at stake took the field with great expectations to inflict a major blow on their opponent and define themselves as an inspiring young team hungry for redemption following a struggling season of adversity. All we saw was even more of the same from missed opportunities to distinctive moments of our blatant inability to execute.
Nothing that Mike Singletary has attempted to do has worked. The offense is as much a bowel of rotting shark chum as it continues to be manhandled, manipulated and mortified at the inadvertent situations it finds itself in from ineffective play-calling to having the wrong starting quarterback out on the field. San Diego Charger quarterback Philip Rivers played the part of a true veteran warrior in completing 19-of-25 passes for 273 total yards and three touchdowns. He also hit a long touchdown pass for 58 total yards and ended the day with a quarterback rating of 150.5. The San Francisco 49ers in the meantime only managed to convert but two third down conversions and surrendered time of possession with 22:49 to the Chargers 37:11.
This game was so much like so many others that I've watched as you have with an offensive line with as many holes as a well-saturated sponge, ultra-conservative play calling on the part of offensive coordinator Mike Johnson and Alex Smith at quarterback doing what he does best in not executing or being accurate with his passes while holding on to the ball and taking six total sacks for a loss of 34 total yards. Frustration, stress and an acceptance of being just too ignorant to know better explains the bulk of our lost season. Mike is a head coach without any real definitive answers when it comes press conference time and the analysts and sports columnists strive to extract meaningful answers to their pointed questions as to why we are where we are today.
Film study seems to be the daily order of the day and there is real clarity as to how fragile his experience and knowledge is now to being a head coach and acknowledging some real big mistakes. Had Troy Smith started this game against the San Diego Chargers the results may have been much different but not enough still to win this game. Alex Smith again revealed his true colors as a lost cause at quarterback by his inability to make plays and move the chains, even failing to get enough of his human matter beyond the pylon in the end zone for a legitimate touchdown.
So many lost opportunities in this game that there are too many to talk about in that every phase of the team from both sides of the ball to special teams played a part in our demise this past Thursday Night. The National Football Conference's Western Division has become the laughing stock of the entire league as there is no team among four that has even come close to legitimizing their dominance on this division. In fact it has become a division of beaten mediocrity and simply more of the same old same old, week in and week out as losses stack up like an I-HOP stack of pancakes.
San Francisco 49er fans are distraught to think that they must endure another losing season with eight straight dating back all the way to 2002 since our last playoff berth with then Jeff Garcia the helm as our quarterback. Mike Singletary has failed to pick-up the baton from Mike Nolan and creates substantial change in this team to the point where it can be said it is at least competitive. Right now we can't even punch our way out of a paper bag so to speak as we add to our ever increasing loss column and stand at (5-9) on the season.
Our offense self-destructs right before our eyes in each and every game we have played this season which includes some of the victories we've managed to pull off. We are an offense that is as if it had failure extraordinaire offensive coordinator Jim Hostler at the helm all over again who was a losing icon defended by then head coach Mike Nolan. Now it is Mike Johnson being defended by Mike Singletary. In fact Jimmy Raye's offense probably wouldn't have looked as lackluster as what we saw today had he still been our offensive coordinator today. Still we have the one common denominator that everyone that knows something is still talking about and that is quarterback Alex Smith the anti-West Coast quarterback.
Admission on the part of this franchise's ownership and management that we mismanaged the 2005 NFL Draft has to take place sooner rather than later in my opinion. We need a firm anchor in a head coach that can revitalize what we are known for and born from in the Bill Walsh offensive system he is still so famous for today. Jeff Garcia was the last quarterback scouted and anointed by the late Bill Walsh to take the reins of this 49er offense. We have seen no one since then if that tells you almost anything about where we are today.
The Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan and now Mike Singletary rein of terror has been nothing short of just abysmal from all points of view. Singletary stands at (18-21) overall as our head coach but his ultra-conservative game thoughts on keeping the scoring close and leaning back on a stingy defense is not the physical nor mental state of the game we need nor do we want to rely upon. The West Coast Offense must be reinstituted into this franchise and adjustments made to calculate the strengths of all the collective talent we have at our disposal.
Are we deserving of being known as an outside shot to the playoffs? Absolutely not in my opinion as any team at (5-9) should tuck their tail between their legs and go home in my just opinion, maybe play the spoiler for someone else at best. The tale of this offense tells the whole story and the defense is a mere shell of its former self from 2009. With two starting rookies on the offensive line starting at once it showed this season with one learning curve on each side contributing to our overall insecurities with Mike Iupati being the most consistent in comparison to Anthony Davis.
For this offensive line to give up six sacks, allow the passing game of Philip Rivers completely to obliterate you and convert only two third downs during the entire game is a definite black eye on this team we want to be hiding with our best sunglasses. Alex Smith is at best a third or even second-tier quarterback renegade who will be and should be shopped around the NFL to someone that is desperate like we were in acquiring someone very similar in David Carr. The San Francisco 49ers need a complete makeover and real general manager that knows how to rebuild from the inside on out. President Jed York needs to step-up with his parents and do what is right and admit the mad scientist experiments thus far are a complete and utter failure in the worst degree.
Sources of Information: Mercury News.com, SF Gate.com, Inside Bay Area.com, NFL.com and my own personal analysis and opinion.