And maintaining faith and belief in the locker room is key. If it goes, as it did with Erickson and Nolan, a head coach is toast.
I believe that this is why Singletary decided to fire Raye after an all-nighter in front of the film projector. Singletart recognized that if he didn't "lead" with a major change, right then and there, he would lose the locker room that very week. So Raye was the scapegoat, deserving or not. Singletary was stunned after the Atlanta game, because he recognizes that the players don't see much of a real change. And now he really doesn't know what to do.
Read Crabtree's quotes ("Mike Johnson doesn't play"). Listen to what Michael Lewis ('contradictory message from the coaching staff") and Takeo Spikes ("I was always taught that where there's smoke, there's fire") are saying. Listen to Patrick Willis ("the longest two minutes of my life"). The locker room is slipping away. I don't know yet about Crabtree's heart, but Lewis, Spikes and Willis are really respected in the locker room.
Seems to me that Singletary must feel desperate, even though he would never admit it. What DOES he do next? Doing nothing this week is NOT acceptable.
I doubt that he will bench QB Smith this week, but I wouldn't be surprised if he told Mike Johnson to build his Philly game plan around the spread offense, especially with the injury to TE Walker.
Johnson supposedly knows the spread and Singletary allowed Raye to go to the spread in the latter part of the 2009 season. This offense has to be geared to scoring 28 points per game, using some big plays. No QB on this roster is good enough to march this team methodically down the field 3-4 times per game. The mistakes will come sooner, rather than later.
Singletary has to create some excitement, some hope in that locker room this week. I think that this is his only shot right now. With an 0-5 or 0-6 start, every marketable player in that locker room will have his agent looking for a way out of SF. The fuse is much shorter than management is conceding.
What do you think?
[ Edited by jimbagg on Oct 5, 2010 at 12:38 AM ]