The 49ers’ Week One meltdown was the most complete of any team.
Michael Crabtree’s lazy preseason led to a sloppier opening performance. The team couldn’t run the ball. The team’s red zone defense provided little resistance. Oh, and the team’s starting quarterback and head coach took turns calling each other out after the game.
Wait, what?
Mike Singletary publicly backed Alex Smith after the game as his starter, but Matt Maiocco of Comcast Bay Area reports that the coach “called out” Smith, Crabtree, and the offensive line to the team.
“I think as time went on [Smith] began to press a little bit more,” Singletary told the media.
Meanwhile, Smith called out the coaching staff, intentionally or not. Trying to explain a series of penalties, wasted timeouts, and other offensive confusion, Smith not-so-subtly blamed the coaches for getting plays in slowly.
“For whatever reason most of [the timeouts] occurred on third-and one, fourth-and-one, so yeah, whatever it is, deciding on what personnel would go in, deciding on if we would go for it, that decision has to be made,” Smith said. “The refs aren’t waiting around to spot the ball based on what we’re going to decide to do. That clock’s rolling.
“You’ve got to make that decision if you’re going to go for it, then the play’s got to get called. You’ve got to have a call ready. That happens fast. It was all in key situations like that today when we had most of the problems. It’s frustrating, absolutely.”
Holy crap. If you think we are overreacting, check out the venerable Lowell Cohn’s excellent column for the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
Smith not only made his coaching staff look incompetent (correctly), but made them sound like liars. Singletary blamed all the confusion on headset problems, but Smith indicated the headset was fine for the most part.
Singletary has a reputation as a disciplinarian, but his team doesn’t reflect it. From Crabtree’s elephant in the locker room to the team’s play to the differing media stories on Sunday, this looks like the same old disorganized, dysfunctional franchise we’ve grown used to.