First, congratulations to Mike Singletary – I’m sure it’s always special for a new coach to get his first win, and it’s good to get off the “winless” status. Singletary had the team prepared well, and the team certainly showed a lot of intensity.
As for the game, we finally saw what was probably the most complete half-game that the 49ers have put together in the McNolan Foundation Era. This game had its warts, and the struggling and dinged Rams team was no benchmark to gauge anything. But in the first half, the 49ers fired on all cylinders and took care of business. The fumble by Gore was one of those plays that just happens, and the team quickly recovered from it.
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So the Rams come into town this sunday. To me this seems to be the only game that is a guaranteed win on the rest of the schedule. The Rams D is Awful, their run D is even MORE Awful, and Frank Gore should be in for a good day. On offense for the Rams, they still have no clue if Stephen Jackson is playing, and Mark Bulger has no clue how to throw the ball. Does this have anything to do with his swiss cheese offensive line? maybe. But the Niners are weak in the pass rush, so I suspect Bulger might have some time to throw this week if the Niners don’t want to bring the blitz. I for one would take a page from what Arizona did to them in week 8 and just line up the middle linebacker right under center and blitz that guy all day long. On our offensive side, I hope to see the continued development of Jason Hill and Josh Morgan. It would be nice to not have to worry about drafting a wideout in this upcoming draft. Speaking of draft, for those of you who are already looking forward to next season and hoping for a top 5 draft pick, do you even want the Niners to win this game? I for one hope they win and win convincingly. Wins are looking hard to come by this season, and a win does help move the week along. If they can’t win, and they are stuck with another goal line play, at the very least, let me see Frank Gore try to punch it in. No offense to Michael Robinson, but that didn’t fool anybody.
Roy Prasad’s comments:
The 49ers have maintained one odd tradition through the McNolan era: wretched as they have been in the past three years, they found a way to sweep one NFC West team in each of those years (St. Louis in 2005, Seattle in 2006, and Arizona in 2007).
It looks like the wheel has now turned a full cycle, and it is the Rams’ turn again. One could only hope. Arizona will likely sweep all its NFC West rivals this season, and since we can’t aim that high, could we please at least get our share of cheap thrills by dumping the Rams? Twice?
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Well, this game was an interesting and exciting game, but in the end, a strangely squandered opportunity. The 49ers started the game strong, and played perhaps their most competent game this season. Unfortunately, the cracks in The Nolan Foundation kept showing up at all the wrong times, and in the end, cost the game.
Here are some items that kind of stood out:
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The 49ers travel to the desert looking to upend the division leading Cardinals. Seems like a long time ago when the Niners were 2-1. Since then, the team has went on a 5 game losing streak, replaced the headcoach, and had a bye week. So what should we expect? As for me, my expectations are at an all time low. Historically the 49ers play the Cardinals tough, even when they are not favored, so I am hoping to keep it close and pull out the upset in front of a national audience. I am also hoping the defense doesn’t get undressed like the first game under Mike Singletary. Maybe Leonard Weaver is deceptively fast, but you just don’t let the opposing team’s fullback take it to the house on runs of 62 and 43. You just don’t. As for the Cardinals, they will be sporting a new starting runningback on Monday. Tim Hightower went for over 100 yards last week, and Edgerin James never saw the field. The week #1 shootout I predicted, is going to have to happen this week. Warner just has too many options, to be contained like he was in week 1. Plus the master of the Big Nickel is no longer coaching the team. What I am looking for is how the offense responds to the challenge. When Arizona went up big last week, the Rams were just offensive. Here is hoping that with Martz having an extra week to prepare, and Shaun Hill getting those extra reps, that we might be able to move the ball against the Cardinals D. If the 49ers cannot get jacked up to play against the Cardinals on a Monday night and show some extra effort, if not pull out a win, at least show us fans that they still have some fight, then I will be ready to wave the white flag come Tuesday.
Roy Prasad’s comments:
For a range of reasons, this game becomes a little bigger than life, and there is a much higher level of expectation for the 49ers. Not necessarily to win the game, but certainly to show a very clear degree of improvement in the quality of play.
- For starters, Singletary had very little time to prepare for the Seattle game, but this game comes after a bye week. The preparation had better be substantially better.
- In his very first game, Singletary made a QB switch, as drastic as a change as can be made to a football team. If Shaun Hill does not show a marked improvement over JTO, it will raise questions about Singletary’s judgment about offense, as well as change the dynamic between him and Martz.
- With his strong handling of Vernon Davis, Singletary imposed a new kind of discipline that now needs to be validated as working, that the players are responding positively.
- His highly emotional press conference leaves him with little room to maneuver with the media if the team lays an egg. Singletary does not have an encore if the team plays badly again.
- Last, but not least, after the dropping-his-pants incident, if the team plays poorly on national TV, Singletary will have made himself the butt (pun intended) of endless jokes, beginning with “Well, Mike, what did you drop this time in the locker room?”
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Well, it surely didn’t take long for the conversation on this blog to fast forward to the 2009 season after the miserable outing against the Seattle Seahawks. When the game highlight is 100+ receiving yards and two TDs by an unheralded fullback – for the other team, it’s obvious that our heroes are not going anywhere without some … ahem, foundational changes.
However, the Foundation can’t be re-engineered until January, assuming anybody even knows who might be engineering those changes. So we have plenty of time to discuss the bigger issues once the offseason starts after the Washington game.
In the meanwhile, as Gerald reminded us, this season is not over yet. The question is, what could the 49ers do that would make them at least interesting in the remaining half of the 2008 season?
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“I want winners. I want people that want to win”, said Mike Singletary after the game. This is not how he wanted his head coaching career to start, but he said he’d rather see all the bad stuff happen now rather than later, so he has a better idea of what this team is about.
It’s safe to say Singletary now has a very good idea of what he has got.
The 49ers outgained the Seahawks 388 to 261 yards, had 21 first downs vs. 14 for the Hawks, and controlled the clock 34 minutes to 26 minutes. The yardage differential is even more astonishing considering over 100 yards came from two plays, both TD passes to Leonard Weaver. The defense played well by and large, but broke down at key moments, like the two TDs by Weaver. The offense consistently laid eggs, and the net result was a terrible 13-34 loss.
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Between the Nolan firing and the stock market gyrations, it’s easy to overlook there’s a game coming up: the dinged up 1-6 Seahawks sans their starting QB Matt Hasslebeck will be in town. At stake is nothing less than the bragging rights for supremacy of the NFC West Cellar.
I expect there will be a lot of questions posed to Mike Holmgren this week along the lines of “So Mike, do you intend to keep Martz as your offensive coordinator?”, to which Holmgren will no doubt respond he has no intention of coaching the 49ers or anyone else next season.
Actually, hiring Holmgren as the head coach is probably not the right thing for the 49ers. Holmgren looks a little tired, and somewhat done with coaching. I would vote for Holmgren being hired as Club President, to mentor Jed York, Scot McCloughan, and Mike Singletary until Jed York takes over in 5 years. But that’s a discussion for another day.
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With due apologies to Rudyard Kipling, it is a time honored tradition to have your head handed to you, if you sold the natives that you were God and their King, but later, they figured out you were not.
And thus came the abrupt (for the owners; 10 months late for the fans at large; and 22 months late for many of the denizens of this board) and ignominious end to the Mike Nolan era.
Although, Nolan was symbolically beheaded, he did presumably walk away with the balance of his $8M / 5 year contract, so in the context of the current global economic disaster, we need not excessively grieve over the financial security of the Nolan’s family. Besides, he is a good man, so we wish him all the best.
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No, Mike Nolan did not throw the red flag to challenge the coin toss, and did not yell at Manny Lawson for the same crime Tully Banta Cain was guilty of a week ago (offsides penalty). But that did not save Nolan from registering his – now get this – TWENTY FIFTH double digit loss as head coach.
Considering today’s game was only his 55th game as head coach, I wonder if Mike Nolan is the fastest to ever reach such a dubious distinction in pro football, perhaps even the only coach? Surely, Nolan must be in relatively exclusive company, because very few head coaches last long enough to generate such records.
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In football, as on the stock market, timing is everything, and unfortunately for the 49ers, the timing couldn’t be worse. How nice it would have been for the 49ers to have been the beneficiary of a trap game for the NY Giants, if we had this meeting last week, instead of on next Sunday.
An elite team doesn’t take it well when it loses to a clearly inferior underdog, especially if the elite team also happens to be the Superbowl Champion that was previously undefeated in calendar year 2008. The Giants were thoroughly embarrassed on Monday Night Football by the struggling Cleveland Browns, who got exposure to a national audience only because the New York Giants were playing on MNF, and the Browns just happened to be the opponent. The real MNF script was supposed to be a showcasing of the reigning champions and its star-studded players. Instead, the Browns stung the Giants by a 35-17 score.
I have a bad feeling that the Giants will now play with a chip on the shoulder for the rest of the season, and use the Cleveland game as a constant reminder to motivate themselves, beginning next week, when the 49ers come visiting. I just don’t see the Giants doing an encore of last week, and losing a second game in two weeks to an underdog, that too, playing at home.
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