Troy Smith to Start. 49ers Coaches are clueless.

Jason LaCanfora, the same guy who reported that Alex Smith was going to start week 12, is reporting that TROY Smith will be the starting quarterback in the do-or-die game against the St. Louis Rams.

According to Matt Barrows, Singletary said he's told the quarterbacks which one is going to start but is not releasing that information. I almost looked past this weak attempt at gamesmanship except for one critical fact: Sing has yet to tell Mike Johnson who is going to start.

[quote=Mike Johnson]No, we have not finalized [the starting quarterback] yet so we're still trying to figure that out. We're practicing both guys, and that decision will be made later.

If Mike Johnson were the janitor, it wouldn't be a big deal. But Mike Johnson is the offensive coordinator. You know the guy who is tasked with maximizing his quarterback's talents and developing an offensive game plan.

So to recap: Head Coach Mike Singletary has told the players who is going to start, but the player's coordinator is out of the loop. Mike Johnson needs to develop a winning game plan that maximizes his team's strengths, but he is unsure which quarterback will be playing.

Mike Singletary has basically ensured that Mike Johnson is flying blind for the arguably most important December game since 2002. Maybe having a clueless offensive coordinator at this stage is all part of the master plan. I mean, who wants to draft 21 in the 2011 draft anyway.