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| 49ers head coach Mike Singletary could potentially be jobless if his underachieving team continues to struggle entering divisional play. Singletary fired his offensive coordinator last week and is already looking to let go of other coaches. |
The last place people expected to find the San Francisco 49ers in the first four weeks of the NFL season was last place.
That's exactly where the National Football Conference West preseason favorites reside, even behind rookie quarterback Sam Bradford and his St. Louis Rams. Keeping company with such doghouse NFL teams as the Browns, Bills, Lions and Panthers seems disappointing for a franchise that was supposedly resurrecting itself into a championship contender.
Maybe the Niners will turn it around and surge to the top of a division where the champion just might finish with eight victories-after all, the rest of the division is historically weak enough to pull off such an enormous turnaround. Or maybe they will continue to underachieve, because there are some deeply rooted problems in San Francisco.
After the Niners' third loss of the season, head coach Mike Singletary remained optimistic, with it still being early in the season, that the team could still turn it around before it was too late. But San Francisco again shot itself in the foot in week four with too many turnovers, bringing the Niners to 0-4 in 2010.
All four of the 0-4 teams in the NFL have major issues, but none had the expectations placed on them that the 49ers did. Not even close.
If 49ers fans are confused by this pitiful start, then they are clueless as to what has unfolded before them. There's confusion on the sideline, in the huddle and in the locker room. The chaos is everywhere and it's obvious to anyone who has watched one quarter of any given San Francisco game. On second thought, all they have to do is watch how their head coach conducts himself leaving the field. After the heart breaking loss to the Falcons, Singletary skipped the traditional post game handshake with Falcons head man Mike Smith. The '9ers have had communication problems, whether in play-calling, getting defenders lined up properly or even when making coaching decisions. Something as basic as having the correct number of players on the field has been an issue at times for Singletary's team.
San Francisco is No. 27 running the ball, which might be understandable if Frank Gore was sidelined, but he's fine. There's been little running room because of inconsistent blocking and too much emphasis on the pass, where the line also has struggled. Former Ute quarterback Alex Smith has a 66.1 quarterback rating with eight sacks, seven interceptions and only three touchdowns. The Niners rank second to last in the entire league in scoring.
Defensively, the Niners have a beast in All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis. But they've forced only three turnovers, given up an average of 26 points per game and allowed nearly 336 yards of total offense.
To complicate the problems, Singletary fired offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye last week, paving the way for an unprecedented seventh offensive coordinator the first six years of Smith's young career. Firing coaches will not make a difference-besides, Singletary's own job could be on the line if the 49ers don't right the ship next week when they host the Mike Vick-less Philadelphia Eagles.
At this point, firing staff and readjusting your entire offensive scheme is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic-there's no point.
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