Niners Shutdown By Bucs

Well, any hope of Troy Smith being the answer at QB for the San Francisco 49ers was all but erased Sunday afternoon. Not only were the 49ers beaten by Tampa Bay, but they were shutout, something rarely seen in the NFL these days.

Sure, Mike Singletary should have done some things differently, as has been the case for most of the season, but this week, the players looked downright defeated too, and it all seemed to come apart. I don't want to say that they weren't trying, but in that 2nd half (really throughout the whole game) it was embarrassing, and it reminded me of a sucky little league team, going up against the league power-house, knowing they're going to get beaten, and with that in mind, not really putting it all on the line. I mean, look at Frank Gore for example. Sure the O-Line was hideous in every sense of the term, but 25 yards on 12 carries. Even when things are going bad for the Niners, Gore seems to be the one beam of light and the one guy that shows up week in and week out, but even Gore seemed like he really didn't give a S$^* out there in that 2nd half. Troy Smith ended up just 16-31 with 148 yards and a pick and showed really why he can't be considered a weekly starter at this level. For how fast he seemed at Ohio State (I know it was college and all) he's nowhere near that fluid or quick on the NFL field, or at least didn't look it Sunday.

All that said, I'm still not ready to throw in the towel on Smith, for no other reason than the 49ers lack of other options at QB. He's already their 3rd stringer and it's clear that David Carr and now Alex Smith don't have a future with this team, so why not at least see if Smith can be a capable back-up for you next year. Unless he wins out, or goes darn near close to doing so, Troy Smith will not be the starting QB of the 49ers next season, but that doesn't mean he won't be part of this team in 2011. I liked what I saw out of him the previous 2 weeks and he's shown very capable of coming in for a half or even a game and filling in nicely, but he just doesn't have ability to beat NFL teams who've prepared and planned to play him. Granted, the 49ers were going up against one of the tougher defenses in the league in Tampa Bay, but heck, the combo of Max Hall/Derek Anderson managed to put up 35 against 'rm, and the Jimmy Clausen led, Jonathan Stewart/DeAngelo Williams-less Panthers put up 16 points on em. That goes to show you how low the 49ers have sunk. In the glass-half-full spectrum of things though, the team that was supposed to run away with the NFC West with a revamped offense and Singletary-led defense may just "Luck" out in the Draft.