Reason why we lost the first 5 games???

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:
in this order:

tough schedule
coachingturnovers
porous defense

Those 2 were huge. People so quickly forget how the front half of the schedule was murderers row. Those were really tough games. And with coaching we couldn't even get the plays in on time. This team was a mess at the beginning.

yup, and yet--we were in every game but two. we could have easily gone 3-2 in our toughest five games if it weren't for costly turnovers and a defense that can never come up with a big stop. but our coaching put us in that hole to begin with. we have the sheer talent to compete with the best teams, IMO, but we never come into games prepared enough to pull it off. Not to mention being absolutely blown out twice.

Coaching is horrendous on this team. A better coach could get more out of this.

agreed. if belichek were the coach of this team we'd probably be 8-1 right now.

i think Singletary can learn to be a good/very good coach, and the next 7 games could be interesting, just in terms of seeing if he can keep this team together and find his way as a coach.

Sing's problem is finding his niche, IMO. He's not going to be a strategic coach, but he could, potentially, be like a Tony Dungy (but his opposite in terms of disposition) who is a "leader of young men" and who looks at his job as a mentor as much as a football coach. But the key to making that work is having great organization around the coach. He has to have a lot of experience around him and a great staff, because Sing doesn't have Dungy's ability to manage a game. I doubt, at this point, that Sing will find his way as a coach here. I think the structure of our organization is completely wrong for him and that he doesn't know enough to correct it, he doesn't know enough about what he needs to succeed. But you never know. If he holds this team together after that terrible start then there is probably hope for his future as a coach. Whether its here or not depends on if he has any miracles up his sleeve.

We have a pretty good talent level. Although not great. But we are nowhere near 3 - 6 bad on talent level. We are absolutely coached down in every way. From preperation, to QB development, to time management, to game management and knowing when to bench under performers like Chilo.

yup, and stubbornly refusing to supply any help for Anthony Davis, even in the form of a RB or TE chipping on his guy. The right side of the line has been a major problem all year and not once, 9 games in, has it been addressed with even elementary tactics. Its really pathetic.

Given our talent level and the schedule we played I think we should be about 5-4 right now, but that (theoretical) record would be better if we were capable of pulling out close games against good teams, or winning on the road whatsoever, and that comes down to coaching.

Aside from those things though, the D has underperformed tremendously and the offense couldn't take care of the ball. Poor coaching against tough teams gave us no margin for error, and we made too many errors. And while the playcalling and the QB play were not getting it done, i think blaming those factors alone is missing the big picture.

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Once again, the board shows a total lack of intelligence. Anyone who blames Alex Smith more than Mike Singletary simply does not understand the game, period.

The total lack of organization, structure, communication problems, argument on what style of offense to play, player personnel issues....this falls on Alex? Come on, people, grow a brain cell.

Alex Smith did not have a great, or even good first 5 games. But, he is one element in the chaos of this team, with a head coach who simply does not know what he is doing. To assign blame on him for being the main cause of our bad start is simply naive.

I need to read no further... THIS!

This thread was created just as a cowardly way to talk more sh!t about #11. Pathetic.

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Once again, the board shows a total lack of intelligence. Anyone who blames Alex Smith more than Mike Singletary simply does not understand the game, period.

The total lack of organization, structure, communication problems, argument on what style of offense to play, player personnel issues....this falls on Alex? Come on, people, grow a brain cell.

Alex Smith did not have a great, or even good first 5 games. But, he is one element in the chaos of this team, with a head coach who simply does not know what he is doing. To assign blame on him for being the main cause of our bad start is simply naive.

Yet here we are with the same coach, different OC and different QB with 0 INTs in two games and 4-1 in our last 5 games.

Note: Troy is in his 3rd year in a new offense without a Training Camp to learn it.

I don't think Singeltary was the primary problem.

Now, imagine if Nate doesn't fumble that ball or Carr doesn't throw the INT, or we don't turn the ball over in the red zone twice in one game.

[ Edited by Joecool on Nov 19, 2010 at 10:14:19 ]

Originally posted by iamtheman698:
What do you think the main reason we lost the first 5 games?

Uncle Fester and Bubble Boy

mixture. Jimmy Raye, Alex Smith, Mike Singletary.

2 of the 3 are gone, we should be a better team. Next season, we'll be even better without Singletary.

Troy didn't play!

Troy so far has been able to succeed despite the many problems around him. He is also making Johnson look very smart.

Singeltary´s stubbornes and Raye´s ineptude to open the game up.

last year the spread worked Ok, and running out of the spread worked fine, this year we did not apply the same tactics.

[ Edited by JeuSF49 on Nov 19, 2010 at 13:32:13 ]

This board is primed for a major meltdown when Troy Smith returns to being Troy Smith, not John Elway, as we saw last week.

He is simply not that good people, and we are simply not good enough to begin considering playoff talk. In fact, how about we hold off playoff talk until we win ONE road game.

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
This board is primed for a major meltdown when Troy Smith returns to being Troy Smith, not John Elway, as we saw last week.

He is simply not that good people, and we are simply not good enough to begin considering playoff talk. In fact, how about we hold off playoff talk until we win ONE road game.

He will lose. But we have some softballs lined up and home games. So the illusion will continue for some time. When we play vs. Chargers at Chargers you will find out what we have with Troy Smith. But it's the only tough team we play on the back half of the schedule. And even they aren't as tough as they used to be.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
This board is primed for a major meltdown when Troy Smith returns to being Troy Smith, not John Elway, as we saw last week.

He is simply not that good people, and we are simply not good enough to begin considering playoff talk. In fact, how about we hold off playoff talk until we win ONE road game.

He will lose. But we have some softballs lined up and home games. So the illusion will continue for some time. When we play vs. Chargers at Chargers you will find out what we have with Troy Smith. But it's the only tough team we play on the back half of the schedule. And even they aren't as tough as they used to be.

those are all good points, but the thing is, we don't know who the "real Troy Smith" is. I don't think its reasonable to paint him as some "second coming" but its equally unreasonable to say that he's definitively "not good." The little evidence we have so far says that he is pretty good. Lets take our evaluation of him game by game and see what we have by the end of the season.

How quickly some forget that Singletary hired Raye with the directive to run a smashmouth offense, crowned Alex the starter and Captain, ditched Shaun Hill and avoided any possible competion to improve the position.

Never mind that it took only two weeks for a new OC and a new QB to get it together and find a way to win.

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
This board is primed for a major meltdown when Troy Smith returns to being Troy Smith, not John Elway, as we saw last week.

He is simply not that good people, and we are simply not good enough to begin considering playoff talk. In fact, how about we hold off playoff talk until we win ONE road game.

I'm a little more open minded about Troy, but while I tend to agree with your other thoughts here, why bother to dampen the expectations of others? Let them find instant gratification and hope... however empty it may be.

Sorry, but it WAS Alex Smith's TOs, period. Sure Singletary messed up on just as many issues, but looking back our QB play was atrocious at the most inopportune times.

Can you imagine if he only had half of those TOs especially against NO, Philly and Atl!

Damn it! What it could have been with MJ and Troy from the beginning.



No use now.

It's time to the house with our new offensive combo! Troy and MJ FTW!!!

Originally posted by Joecool:

Yet here we are with the same coach, different OC and different QB with 0 INTs in two games and 4-1 in our last 5 games.

Note: Troy is in his 3rd year in a new offense without a Training Camp to learn it.

I don't think Singeltary was the primary problem.

Now, imagine if Nate doesn't fumble that ball or Carr doesn't throw the INT, or we don't turn the ball over in the red zone twice in one game.

Correction, 3-1 in our last 4 games... while we all want to beat the Bucs, we still have to play them first.

Troy Smith has outperformed Alex Smith. This does not mean that Alex Smith was the problem. To think so is a major fallacy. There are too many other factors involved.

One of those wins was with Alex at QB. He had the same coach, a different OC and 0 turnovers from the start of that win until he was injured. Does this mean that Troy and Alex both drank the same game winning, turnover eliminating, super serum and David Carr did not?

For the sake of argument, let's say Singletary didn't make any mistakes during the season. It is still his job to make sure that the team is in the best position to win games. We obviously were not in that position at the start of the season.

The last statement is closer to the truth. There are so many factors that played a role in our close losses that you can't pin it on any single player. It's difficult to put the blame on anyone but the coaches when you have breakdowns in so many areas, especially discipline.

To go back to your first statement and make a final point, I will point out again that with Raye as OC we were 0-3 with 2 blowouts. With Johnson at OC we are 3-3 with every game we lost being close and two of those losses were 4th quarter comebacks, one after Alex Smith was injured and replaced by Carr. If not for that, I think we are 4-0 in our last 4 games.

Don't forget the defense. There were 4 games that the defense allowed the opposing team to march down the field and score the winning field goal or TD (Saints, Falcons, Eagles, and Panthers). The Rams did it too, but luckily the defense held when it counted in OT and we won the game. Image if they had held against the four other games that I mentioned? We would be 7 and 2, NFC West leaders, playoff contenders, and one of the teams analysts talk about every week in a good way like the Patriots, Colts, Eagles, and the Ravens. Instead, we are 3 and 6 and hanging on by a very slim thread.

In the end, football is a team sport. You win and lose on every aspect of the game. Not just one player or unit causes teams to win or lose. It is a team effort to do both. Our players and coaches have done enough to win (mixing up the offensive play calling and capitalizing on turnovers) and done enough to lose (penalties, blowing timeouts, allowing teams to march down the field on winning drives, and crucial turnovers at critical moments in the games).

In order for this team to win and possibly make the playoffs, each man on the team will have to work harder, hit harder, make plays, reduce or limit penalties, stop turning the ball over in crucial moments, stop biting on out and ups and trick plays, tackle better, take advantage of turnovers, coach better, and play to win. Or, in a nut shell, play the perfect game.