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| Daniel Leroux. 3rd October, 2010 - 5:16 pm
 Let?s start with this: If I were in charge of personnel, Nate Clements would never see the field again as a 49er. His decision to go for a TD while swinging the ball around was one of the most selfish, stupid decisions I have ever seen on a football field. All Clements had to do was hold onto his excellent interception and get the yards he could get. The worst-case scenario there would be that the Niners would have the ball on Atlanta?s 10 and kick a field goal after burning all three of Atlanta?s time outs.
Instead, the completely unsurprising happened given Nate?s conduct and Roddy White stripped the ball giving a team that had gashed the San Francisco D when not in the red zone, giving the Falcons an opportunity to get down the field with all three of their time outs while only needing a single score of any variety to take the W.
That single play was emblematic of the bigger issue in the game: the 49ers need to clean house.
Some may start with Mike Singletary, but the bigger issue in the 16-14 loss at Atlanta was Alex Smith and the overall offensive scheme. Casual viewers could see the box score and think that things were fine (albeit unspectacular), but that belies the major problems with this team. Over the course of the game, there were almost zero passes thrown by Smith to receivers more than 15 yards past the line of scrimmage. It is unclear whether the responsibility for this lies on Smith or new playcaller Mike Johnson, yet the fact remains that any QB who is not trusted to throw passes of 20+ yards (or do it with any success) should not and can not start in this league. There were a few plays which ended up going beyond this invisible boundary, yet those were fueled by yards after the catch. To be clear, YAC yards possess immense value in today?s NFL. However, they are not an offensive philosophy in and of themselves. Even the Bill Walsh West Coast offense centered on short passing and a wide variety of receivers (9 players caught passes on Sunday) used the long ball effectively to keep defenses honest.
Johnson is worth praise for breaking somewhat from the predictability of the Jimmy Raye offense in terms of playcalling, particularly on first down. The game started with the typical runs on first and moved away from that form over time in a welcome change. Unfortunately, some of the strange decisions that plagued the first three weeks continued, including a bizarre run up the middle (not a draw) on 2nd and 22 following a sack that generated two yards and the Niners? first three and out on their second drive.
The biggest problem with Alex Smith?s game was not his apparent inability to hit a receiver beyond 12 yards- it was what he did without options. Both of Smith?s interceptions were horrendous decisions and his first being the most egregious since the Niners were in scoring position with very little time to go in the half. Even eating a sack provides more to the team than just throwing a hard to catch ball with nearly no line of sight just to do it. When a team?s margins are tight because of limited big play ability, the rest of the game has to be perfect.
The theme of poor decisions continued on the defensive end beyond the Clements debacle as the game had numerous silly defensive penalties. One of these, immediately after Smith?s first interception, proved particularly notable as it led to a free play where Matt Ryan used that freedom to take a short pass to Harry Douglas which became the 34 yard gain that helped set up Atlanta?s field goal as time ran out in the first half.
The second half followed the same basic theme, though the defense deserves credit for their overall play. After all, Atlanta only got one touchdown on four trips to the red zone. On the other hand, San Francisco only reached the red zone once the entire game. That time was on the first possession when the 49ers got their only offensive touchdown.
In fact, it appeared from the announcing that the excellent punt block and TD ?catch? by Taylor Mays somehow bought some goodwill for the offense as a whole. At the end of the day, San Francisco ended with a total of one offensive touchdown and one red zone visit as long as one does not include Nate Clements? time there before getting stripped. The offense had eight drives in the game, with only three of them lasting more than six plays and only two of them finishing more than 40 yards away from where they started. The defense and special teams did a very good job overall on Sunday, but that is simply too much slack for them to pick up against a decent team on the road.
In the end, the buck stops with Mike Singletary. He appears to get his guys fired up, yet both the offense and defense continue to make stupid decisions and silly penalties that can turn into losses quickly. Furthermore, the Niners have been an absolute abomination on the road during his tenure: their only wins away from San Francisco were against the Cardinals Week 1 in 2009 and two in St. Louis against Rams teams that won a combined three games those two seasons. Some of this comes from being a young team, yet it was clear both last year and this year that the assembled team has the talent to do much better than that.
Furthermore, both of San Francisco?s close games featured strange use of the clock. This week, the issue was the decision to go into clock-killing mode with plenty of time left in the game, a long distance to the end zone or field goal range, and only a one point lead. Unless the team was going to break form and get all the way in for six on a 98 yard drive, the Falcons were going to get the ball with enough time to score and not enough time for the Niners to respond. Atlanta did get lucky on the interception turned re-turnover, yet the overall game plan from San Francisco still made no sense.
I said before the season that ?When David Carr is your back-up, it is abundantly clear that it is your team.? There absolutely still is time for both Smith and Singletary to turn this season (and their intertwined futures with the organization) around, but it?s time for management to start eying potential replacements and considering the tough decisions ahead. |
