Players Losing Confidence in Singletary

The talk of last Sunday's loss to the Seahawks, and the miserable game management that transpired during that game just will not die, and it's starting to get to coach Singletarry.

During these last couple of day's, Singletary's shortcomings as a coach have been brought to the forefront, and he refuses to discuss the Seattle game with reporters, inclining only to speak about the upcoming match-up with New Orleans. The only real issue that kind of caught me off guard was that Singletary really isn't in tune with what's going on offensively and leaves that entirely up to OC Jimmy Raye and his assistants. That right there is a problem. A head coach needs to be versed on everything going on during the game, and needs to be involved, in at least some capacity, in a game plan. How else are they going to effectively manage a game? When Raye was having communication issues with his new assistant, Coach Singletary couldn't really intervene, because he really has no grasp of the offensive game calling. I mean, obviously Singletary is a defensive minded coach, and nobody expects him to be an offensive whiz or someone who's going to construct a dynamic offensive game plan. However, a head coach of an NFL football team needs to have some kind of grasp of their respective teams' offense, or defense. When the Niners were down inside Seattle's 5 on Sunday and not accomplishing anything, it would have been nice to see the head coach take over the play-calling and eliminate the communication confusion.

I had big expectations for Singletarry this season, even picking him as my favorite for NFL Coach of the Year for 2010, but after this whole situation, and after seeing his reaction to this whole situation, I'm already second-guessing myself. Now, the Niners can really reverse this misfortune, and make everybody forget about week 1's ugly loss, if they can somehow manage to upset the reigning Super Bowl Champs at Candlestick Park, and this really will be a good barometer to see just what kind of coach Singletary is. I'm not expecting the Niners to win, but they need to respond from last week, and make some sort of statement. The New Orleans Saints are going to make things even tougher than usual though, as they've had an extra couple of days to prepare for the 49ers after opening their season last Thursday. It also allowed them to sit down and watch the Niners play the Seahawks live, so the Saints have a very good idea of what the 49ers are doing on both sides of the ball.

I'm really ready to see the Niners start mixing things up offensively, like they should have done in the 2nd half of last weeks game. I want to see some more Brian Westbrook, and some Gore and Westbrook on the field together, and a little more of Delanie Walker out of the 2 TE set, as I think Walker is the teams 3rd best receiving option behind Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree. Walker needs to be out there more often than #2 wideout Josh Morgan in my opinion. They should start taking some shots down-field (even though top deep threat Ted Ginn is out 2 weeks) and spread things out, a la Indianapolis Colts style, in order to spark some offense. They need to really create some things in order to even dream of keeping up with the Saints, but that won't happen until Alex Smith gets comfortable and in a groove. We saw it start to happen at the beginning of the game Sunday, but wasn't nearly the same after the failed red zone attempts. We'll take another look at this game in Saturday's post, when we discuss the Niners and Raiders week 2 NFL odds.

Stanford Football: The Stanford Cardinal, led by stud sophomore QB Andrew Luck, and running back, Stepfan Taylor as well as veteran wideouts Doug Baldwin and Ryan Whalen, have started their season off 2-0 (1-0 in conference) and are ranked #19 in the country. They smoked the Bruins last Saturday in their Pac 10 opener, as Luck threw for 2 more scores after throwing for 4 in the opener vs. lowly Sac State. Stanford's schedule tightens up a bit over the next few weeks though, as they host an improving Wake Forest next week, followed by a matchup with the Fighting Irish in South Bend, then consecutive games with #5 Oregon and #18 USC. We'll really have a good idea of what kind of team this Stanford Cardinal will be this year after that USC game. Right now though, they're ranked 19 and rolling with confidence, talent and great coaching.