Why Not One Week Later: The Mike Singletary Debate
Monday, December 27, 2010 at 7:51PM Joe Simmons 
After initially responding to Mike Singletary's brand of leadership and motivation, it was easy to see he'd lost his team early on this season. He'd taken them as far as he could...but the job of head coach is one he really wasn't qualified to be in or so it seemed.
As much as I wanted to see Singletary and Alex Smith to succeed this season, they both did everything possible to prove that I was only hoping things would get better. However letting him go before the final game is pretty classless as an organization in my personal opinion. I can see firing a head coach if you still had a few games left and you wanted to see how one of the coordinators would do, but with only one game left, what are you really gaining? This really didn't make any sense. Why not let him coach one last meaningless game and then calling him in and telling him how you feel would have been the classy thing to do. I think it just shows that this team is a far cry from the classiest organization in the league title that they used to wear.
This team needs a new coaching philosophy and it needs to construct a team that has balance and utilizes its weapons. The smash mouth offense didn’t work, the basic scheme was run, run again, throw a swing pass, and then punt. It was really obvious to the average fan that when the 49ers went into the spread formation, they were passing the ball. It usually resulted in them running one of the three route combinations that they ran to little or no success.
Honestly they had the worst player management in the league, and they failed to make good use of the play-makers on their roster. Frank Gore was overused, abused, led astray and got injured as a result. They had Brian Westbrook and never mixed any packages in the game-plan for him. He just sat and rode the bench for 10 straight weeks. Not once was he was used until after Gore got hurt. Then when they used him they realized that they had another weapon to deploy.
Singletary has only himself to blame for the 49ers failure. The 49ers have the most dynamic tight end in the league in Vernon Davis, who runs a legit 4.3 40 yard dash. But instead of running routes and getting open Antonio Gates style, he is being used to block for runs by Gore. That in essence is a waste of talent.
The way I see it is that this team is in shambles. Singletary having an argument with a player on the sidelines symbolizes that the team had lost respect for him as a leader.
Coaches can’t go around pulling quarterbacks in and out of the game, when they make one mistake. Head coaches should be trying to concentrate on all of the penalties that their team is accumulating and how to correct the predictable offense that keeps getting stalemated every game.
As much as the running back in me hates to say it, the NFL is a quarterback driven league, you have to have the ability to throw the ball downfield to make any play work, or you will get defensive fronts that can take away what you do. Even if you don’t believe in that you have to do it a few times every so many plays just to make the defense play you honestly.
The 49ers have a lot of things to clean up in their establishment besides finding a head coach. Instead of loading up the front office with friends, The York’s may want to get some solid football people in that front office. When I think back, Steve Mariucchi was the last good coach the 49ers has had. I am also about 99% sure they will target John "Chucky" Gruden or Jim Harbaugh as his replacement.
Either way, the ownership is bad, the coaching has been bad, and the teams performance has been bad, but is one more game really going to change anything. Maybe ownership was thinking that the players need a breath of fresh air and if they finish with a win the last game of the season, fans will be optimistic and start buying season tickets a little earlier. But still you don’t disrespect a legend of the game like that unless you have something that was just inexcusable. Singletary deserved better, but I could say that about all coaches I guess.
Stay Breezy ~ I’m Out!
Reader Comments (4)
This sucks. Granted, the man had to go, but I'm with you. It would have been better to see him get the chance to finish the season. WIth that said, I'm not gonna make excuses for the man. I wanted him to succeed, and with the NFC West being God-awful, it seemed inevitable they would rise up and take the crown, but they were awful. Shame to see him go, but with the year they had this year, it's warranted.
Singletary doesn't have what it takes to be a leader at anything. That type behavior does not win the respect of kids and certainly not grown men. That team will not perform with a coach who leads by fear and intimidation. That approach does not work in business or any organized sport and especilly at the professional level. Professional is a key word and the coach needs to set the standard and Singletary certainly did not do that. The team needs to keep Troy Smith and let Singletary go find something else to do that does not involve management of pepole at any level.
About ten minutes before this confrontation, Alex Smith and Singletary were in a yelling match on the sideline as well. Maybe Alex appealed to Singletary to give him another shot and bench Troy, because on the next drive Alex played and Troy was furious.
another great article, really enjoyed it. I was pretty surprised when they let him go with one week left.