The Niners are nothing if not consistent. They lost -- badly! -- to the Chargers, 34-7, and, to quote a familiar refrain written multiple times throughout this season, it wasn't as close as the score would indicate.
So what did Coach Singletary do to fix the myriad of problems, particularly with the offensive line, that made that Thursday night so cringe-worthy? Why, he benched Alex Smith, of course! It's ALWAYS the QB's fault when he's sacked, don't you know? [/sarcasm]
Troy Smith was given the start against the Rams. How'd that work out? Worse than expected. The 49ers lost to the Rams 25-17. Both touchdowns scored by the Niners were flukes: a 60-yard pass-and-run to Michael Crabtree, and a 78-yard punt return by Ted Ginn.
Aside from the pass to Crabtree, Troy Smith was absolutely putrid: 7-19, 153 yards, 1 TD, 1 pick. Alex Smith came in in the 4th quarter and led a drive that ended in a field goal, but by then it was too late. The 49ers were officially eliminated from the playoffs with the loss.
The 49ers "brain trust" (and BOY do I use THAT term loosely) finally performed the mercy killing and fired Coach Singletary with one game left to play. It figures that the 49ers would choose that game to get something going. Whether it was Singletary being gone, or the fact that it was
So the Niners finished at 6-10, the exact opposite of the 10-6 I had predicted for the season. *sigh*
The team is in a major transition period now. Trent Balke was named as General Manager, and Jim Harbaugh was hired as the new Head Coach. Normally I would be giddy with optimism with the Niners landing a hot coaching candidate like Harbaugh...but there so much wrong with this team, and, no matter how good Harbaugh is, the team is STILL going to suck next year.
Let's start with the quarterback, shall we? Who is it? No one knows. Alex Smith will be a free agent this off season, and he's pretty much made it known that he's done in SF. Who could blame him? The booing. The "we want Carr" chants. All he did was overcome a horrendous start (3 touchdowns and 7 picks after 4 games, 6 touchdowns and 9 picks after 5 games) to throw for 8 touchdowns and 1 pick the last part of the season. He ended up with a passer rating of 82.1. It's not good, but it's better than 10 other starting quarterbacks including Donovan McNabb and Matt Hasselsuck. And it was certainly better than what Troy Smith ended up doing (5 TD, 4 picks, 78.8).
Apparently the plan is to draft a quarterback and trust the combination of David Carr and Troy Smith to server as the stopgap until the new quarterback is ready. *groan* This is a sure guarantee of 6-10 seasons as far as the eye can see.
Oh well...it's the playoffs, and hockey season beckons as well. Great season, Niners! You broke my heart yet again!.
