Why Are The Niners So Bad?

Attempting to have rational thoughts and judgments about the 49ers are difficult at this point. Being born in ‘85 I barely remember the Niners glory years. What I do remember is the firing of Mooch in ‘02 and the 49ers descent into NFL obscurity.

On the surface the Niners are 3-2 (3-0 in the division) and seemingly, despite the blowout loss to the Falcons, are in a decent position entering their by week.  However, not all things are present on the surface, digging deeper I find a team that is a poor match of personnel and scheme and one that would be lucky to finish the season .500

So why exactly am I so down on the 49ers?

• Jimmy Raye Jr. has never been a successful offensive coordinator, why does anyone think he would be now?
• The Niners are 29th in yards per game.
• The Niners have 68 first downs, 29th in the NFL only ahead of the; Bears (bye week) Jets (playing tonight) and the woeful Raiders.
• The Niners complete 28.2% of their 3rd downs. 27th in the NFL.
• Despite being a “disciplined” team the Niners have 28 penalties for 270 yards.  8th most in the NFL.

The deeper problem is the Niners offensive identity, a power running team, doesn’t match their personnel.  The Niners don’t have a lot of beef or toughness along their offensive line.  The Offensive line is hamstringing the entire team.

• Despite only 145 passing attempts, 23rd in the NFL ( remember teams have had bye weeks), Shaun Hill has been sacked 16 times.

Of course the passing game is secondary to the Niners running game.  And the fact that anyone thinks the Niners have any semblance of a running game is foolish.

• Week 1 – 21 attempts for 30 yards.
• Week 2 – 29 attempts for 256 yards.  Though two of those runs (80 yards and 79 yards) were all Frank Gore’s doing.  Those two big runs aside the Niners had 27 carries for 97 yards, 3.6 a carry.
• Week 3 -  26 attempts for 58 yards.
• Week 4 -  29 attempts for 96 yards.
• Week 5 – 17 attempts for 100 yards.  Most which came from Shaun Hill scrambles in garbage team.

When you take away Gores two big runs on a per carry basis the Niners run game has been awful.  Part of that is Gore being hurt, part of it is terrible play calling but most of it falls on the shoulders of the offensive line.   It’s hard to explain why the Niners offensive line has been so terrible.

• Left tackle Joe Staley was a first round pick.
• Left guard David Bass was a second round pick.
• Center Eric Heitman was a seventh round pick.
• Right guard Chilo Richal was a second pick.
• Right tackle Adam Synder was a fourth round pick.
• Cody Wallace was a fourth round pick.
• Justin Smiley, current Dolphin and former 49er, was a second round pick.
• Jonas Jennings, former 49er, signed a seven year 36 million dollar contract in ‘05.
• Kwame Harris, former 49er, was a first round pick.

One thing for certain is that the Niners have certainly pooled a ton of resources into a total ineffective squad.

Singletarys brand of football can work, the problem is that it isn’t.  Despite having weapons in the passing game (Morgan, Davis, Gore and soon Crabtree) the Niners have rarely gone three wide (and never four.)  When you don’t spread the field you become all too predictable.  The Niners have offensive personnel better suited to a zone-blocking scheme yet they stubbornly stick to  a totally ineffective power running game.

That’s the 49ers problems in a nut shell.  They have a coach who isn’t an XO guy surrounded by horrible offensive coaches.  Someone needs to be in Singletarys ear telling him “Coach this isn’t working” yet for one reason or another no one has.  Singletary has such a strong presence (and ran the last guy who didn’t agree with his offensive philosophy out of town) that no one wants to question him.

Everything is fine and dandy when your winning.  After four weeks everyone on the Niners, and in the media, was drinking the Singletary cool aid.  The Niners were 3-1 and only a terrible awful last second loss away from being undefeated.  Who cares how you win, an ugly win is still a win.  But it’s a loss, like the 49ers suffered to the Falcons, that starts to expose Singletarys limitations as a coach.

The Niners were sloppy, unprepared and out coached.  Singletary burned all his timeouts (in what’s becoming his trademark) and had none remaining in order to challenge an obvious fumble call.  Dre Bly after an interception showboated, and subsequently fumbled, how does that fit in with Singletarys “I want winners” attitude.  Singletary himself nearly got into a fight with Harvey Dahl, a Falcons player.

Passion from a coach is great but when you stop winning your message gets lost.  Listening to Singletarys press conference today I found myself sick of hearing the same old garbage.  I don’t care what Singletary has to say anymore I want to see results.

You have to wonder if the players are starting to think the same thing…

Related posts:

1. Fantasy Sleeper: James Davis
2. 49ers Trim To 53
3. The Legend of Brett Favre Just Won’t Die…
4. Crabtree’s Signing A Return To Normalcy
5. Fantasy Football Recap: Week 1