Sando and Williamson on what to do with Smith.

Obviously this style of offense is neither working for this team or for Alex. It's clear at this point that Alex is not a franchise quarterback and we should plan to heavily pursue one in the offseason.

With that being said, Alex is still the only legitimate QB option on our team and if we want to win some football games we should do everything possible to fit the personnel of our team.

Going to the spread gives us a better chance of winning than a quarterback change.

Lets move him to CB for the scout time. He would probably be more helpful to the team then he is at QB.

Originally posted by SoCal9ers:
Smith is not in college anymore... he's playing with the big boys now.
you either have it or you don't!!! it's been 6 damn years for him to adjust... and quite frankly, he doesn't have it!!!

let move on soon...!

What did you say to yourself on that late drive against the Saints? Whenever Smith is put in the shotgun, with three or four targets on the field, he moves the chains. It is the coaches!

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:

Originally posted by backontop:
great post. I have been saying this for a while now.

Thank you. And I'll add that while Smith may not have the strongest arm in the NFL, he does have a good arm and he can make all the throws. His skill-set isn't all that different than Orton's and Orton is leading the league in passing right now. What Orton also has in common with Smith is that he is better in shotgun, and that is where he lives as a QB.

Agree, we need to be in a spread most of the game anyway. After we put some points on the board then we can grind it out with a lead. I hope this team figures this out soon.

Alex Smith has a losing record. I never liked Vick, Mcnabb but they win games. Bradford with less talent on the rams already has played better than Alex has and has his team at 2-2.

When we have the lead, I haven not seen an aggressiveness by Smith to put the game on his shoulder and score to put the game out of reach.

Sure we I wanted Alex to succeed but it looks like Sing will be fired for sticking with him and Jimmy Raye.

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:

Originally posted by SoCal9ers:
Smith is not in college anymore... he's playing with the big boys now.
you either have it or you don't!!! it's been 6 damn years for him to adjust... and quite frankly, he doesn't have it!!!

let move on soon...!

What did you say to yourself on that late drive against the Saints? Whenever Smith is put in the shotgun, with three or four targets on the field, he moves the chains. It is the coaches!

I give him credit for the final 2 minute for moving the chain on the saints game... however, are we gonna be passing the whole time in a game? defenses will adjust. The saints were giving the 49ers those 15 yard passes in that game. we were just very fortunate to get outta bounds every play...

i just don't see it happening on a "consistant" basis with Smith! That's his problem...!!!

Originally posted by tohara3:

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:

Originally posted by backontop:
great post. I have been saying this for a while now.

Thank you. And I'll add that while Smith may not have the strongest arm in the NFL, he does have a good arm and he can make all the throws. His skill-set isn't all that different than Orton's and Orton is leading the league in passing right now. What Orton also has in common with Smith is that he is better in shotgun, and that is where he lives as a QB.

Agree, we need to be in a spread most of the game anyway. After we put some points on the board then we can grind it out with a lead. I hope this team figures this out soon.

I think we just need one more person on the team to figure it out. If you need a hint, Raye was the fall guy.

Read tody's AP article on the 49ers. Josh Morgan is quoted as saying "It's not Alex's fault. Nothing that is happening is Alex's fault. It's us as a whole team. We just haven't been able to execute."

I know, I know, I can already hear the refrain: "Morgan is just saying what he's expected to say." No, he's not. He could dodge the question. He could answer that "we are all to blame. Instead, he makes a point that Alex is taking a bum rap. Morgan knows that it has been the playcalling, the poor protection, the blown assignments, the penalties, the lack of separation, the poor route running, the drops, the tips. Alex makes mistakes, but of all the mistakes and poor performance, MOST is coming from other sources.

Originally posted by tohara3:

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:

Originally posted by backontop:
great post. I have been saying this for a while now.

Thank you. And I'll add that while Smith may not have the strongest arm in the NFL, he does have a good arm and he can make all the throws. His skill-set isn't all that different than Orton's and Orton is leading the league in passing right now. What Orton also has in common with Smith is that he is better in shotgun, and that is where he lives as a QB.

Agree, we need to be in a spread most of the game anyway. After we put some points on the board then we can grind it out with a lead. I hope this team figures this out soon.

to start grinding it out it better be a substantial lead. Not the we're up by 1 point time to start running out the clock BS that Singletary tried last year. I would say at least 2 TD's ahead and in the 4th quarter.

Play calling makes a difference and i agree that Alex would be much more successful in a spread out offense. It's been helping Bradford in St Louis too which people dont see. Hell even Aaron Rodgers prefers a spread out offense (made a comment about it during the press conference)

Now..all that said. The problem with Alex is when sht hits the fan...he seems to be the first turd to hit. That's my biggest issue with Smith. When things are great he's on fire...but when sht goes bad he gets worse. We need a guy who can PULL the team out of a slump and lead. Alex just can't really do that. He's done it once or twice but more often than not he fails.

I mean ask yourself: if Alex was in Jeff Garcias shoes in 2002 when we were playing the Giants...down 38-14...you think Alex brings us back? I like the kid but I think we lose 41-21 with Smith getting a TD in garbage time and then throwing a pick which gets turned into a FG by the Giants.

Originally posted by binary2nd:
Williamson is right that Alex needs to be in spread formations. He's wrong about our personnel though. I think our personnel would fit better in spread formations as well. Our OL isn't built for the down running game, because we get very little push. Chilo was supposed to be our mauler but he's a bum, Staley is not a power blocker, and Iupati/Davis are rookies.

We run better out of the spread, block better out of the spread, and throw better, the coaching staff is another story. Fact is, we can't do any worse than we are doing now, the coaching staff has to realize this and change their philosophy like they did last year for 2-3 games, it would do the entire team some good. This style of getting as many fat people as possible across the line and running over the opposition is just dumb.

As for the running game, it's finally taken us until week 4 to realize that running Gore against 9 defenders is tougher than running him against 7. Raye never understood this basic concept, and I think MJ does.

how does Smith needing to be in spread formations address the issue of his incredible accuracy problems? I think one of the core issues has been skirted entirely.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by binary2nd:
Williamson is right that Alex needs to be in spread formations. He's wrong about our personnel though. I think our personnel would fit better in spread formations as well. Our OL isn't built for the down running game, because we get very little push. Chilo was supposed to be our mauler but he's a bum, Staley is not a power blocker, and Iupati/Davis are rookies.

We run better out of the spread, block better out of the spread, and throw better, the coaching staff is another story. Fact is, we can't do any worse than we are doing now, the coaching staff has to realize this and change their philosophy like they did last year for 2-3 games, it would do the entire team some good. This style of getting as many fat people as possible across the line and running over the opposition is just dumb.

As for the running game, it's finally taken us until week 4 to realize that running Gore against 9 defenders is tougher than running him against 7. Raye never understood this basic concept, and I think MJ does.

how does Smith needing to be in spread formations address the issue of his incredible accuracy problems? I think one of the core issues has been skirted entirely.

It's not going to fix the issue. It masks it. The MOST frustrating part is that his accuracy problems could have been fixed in the FIRST YEAR with proper coaching.

If you're going to draft a project QB from a gimmick offense...you would think we'd have brought in high powered offensive minded coaches who knew how to develop fast attacking offenses, develop QBs, etc.

Oh well. Like ive been saying...time to start over.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by binary2nd:
Williamson is right that Alex needs to be in spread formations. He's wrong about our personnel though. I think our personnel would fit better in spread formations as well. Our OL isn't built for the down running game, because we get very little push. Chilo was supposed to be our mauler but he's a bum, Staley is not a power blocker, and Iupati/Davis are rookies.

We run better out of the spread, block better out of the spread, and throw better, the coaching staff is another story. Fact is, we can't do any worse than we are doing now, the coaching staff has to realize this and change their philosophy like they did last year for 2-3 games, it would do the entire team some good. This style of getting as many fat people as possible across the line and running over the opposition is just dumb.

As for the running game, it's finally taken us until week 4 to realize that running Gore against 9 defenders is tougher than running him against 7. Raye never understood this basic concept, and I think MJ does.

how does Smith needing to be in spread formations address the issue of his incredible accuracy problems? I think one of the core issues has been skirted entirely.

In the shotgun your feet get set much quicker and you start your reads quicker. When you drop back, you have to have good footwork, set your feet, gather your balance, all while making your reads. Alex's biggest problems with inaccuracy come when he has to drop back and set his feet, that's when his mechanics often go haywire if he has a collapsing pocket.

I may be reading too much into this but quite a few players have inferred it was not Alex's fault. I do think a fair portion is but more important is what I think the players left out and that is if the team is not playing well and we can see the talent then by gum the idiotworm in the apples must be------

Originally posted by LambdaChi49:
Play calling makes a difference and i agree that Alex would be much more successful in a spread out offense. It's been helping Bradford in St Louis too which people dont see. Hell even Aaron Rodgers prefers a spread out offense (made a comment about it during the press conference)

Now..all that said. The problem with Alex is when sht hits the fan...he seems to be the first turd to hit. That's my biggest issue with Smith. When things are great he's on fire...but when sht goes bad he gets worse. We need a guy who can PULL the team out of a slump and lead. Alex just can't really do that. He's done it once or twice but more often than not he fails.

I mean ask yourself: if Alex was in Jeff Garcias shoes in 2002 when we were playing the Giants...down 38-14...you think Alex brings us back? I like the kid but I think we lose 41-21 with Smith getting a TD in garbage time and then throwing a pick which gets turned into a FG by the Giants.

There isn't a word you wrote that I disagree with. But I think the reason Smith has the loser mentality we seem to see is because he has been in a loser environment for so long. If we can pull off a string of wins, maybe, just maybe, he can shake that.