Be careful with what you wish because it might come true, back in the game against Philadelphia there were many people booing A. Smith and shouting "we want Carr". Next time A. Smith plays a bad game you better think twice before wishing Carr on the field, please anyone but Carr. didn´t you see the preseason games? because back then it was already obvious that D. Carr is an awful QB.

A. Smith is the best QB in the 49ers roster right now by far (NOT SAYING HE IS GOOD, ONLY THE BEST AVAILABLE) so we´d better stick with him this season, he might not be the answer, but he´s not the only problem either, I wish he was, it would be much easier to fix, but we have a lot of problems.

1- Coaching: I know Singletary doesn´t fumble, he has not been intercepted and he doesn´t miss tackles, but as a head-coach you have certain degree of responsability in every aspect of the game, you have it with the wins and you have it with the losses. He has not  managed the games properly  and during this seven weeks he has not been able to turn things around either, it´s understandable because he has been too busy yelling at the referees. This 49ers team is bad coached. He is NOT  the solution he is a BIG part of the problem.

2- Play calling: we´ve had some improvement after firing Jimmy Raye. Our offense usually has a great drive every week and then it collapses, any explanation? V. Davis, Crabtree, Morgan etc..are being used less than what they should be and  we are still predictable; Gore up the middle, screen pass to Gore, Gore, Gore...He is a great player but we can´t keep playing on offense with just one weapon.

3- Defense: The defense against the rrun is doing quite a good job, but we´re struggling against the pass the whole season, and the last game our D-backs played as bad as possible, how could they play so soft? It looked like they were playing flag football. And the pass-rush is still an issue as well.

4-Stupid Mistakes and penalties=Self destruction.

5- Lack of leadership: we are in desperate need of a vocal leader on both sides of the ball, someone who can push the rest of the team to a higher level.

I still refuse to give up this season although it looks like we have too many problems to solve but I´m flying to London ready to support my team and hopefully we´ll come back with a win. GO NINERS!!!

When a team play like we played versus Seattle you can´t seriously put the blame in just one player, Alex Smith played quite well for a quarter and a half, most of the team did, but then the whole team collapsed, not only the QB.

Our offensive line couldn´t open holes, so Frank wasn´t able to run.

We couldn´t give our QB a better protection so our passing game stopped working.

Our receivers dropped some balls so our QB lost confidence.

Our QB threw some bad passes so we lost confidence.

Our defense gambled too much so we were torched on double moves.

We weren´t able to rush the passer so everything was easier for Hasselbeck.

The play calling and the coaching were far from perfect.

I don´t think Alex Smith is being judged fairly, I can´t understand how some people can always blame him when a play goes wrong, but then when a play is good, they even forget Alex was on the field. I am not saying he is a great QB, not even a good QB yet, but he´s gonna be our QB this season, and I think he´s now ready to have a reasonable success.

If next game against New Orleans Alex throws for three touchdowns with no interceptions and lead us to a great win, he will not be the only one to  deserve congratulations, the whole team will deserve congratulations, that´s the way it has to be, that´s the way a winning team is built.

When Frank runs with the ball, someone is trying to open a hole for him, someone is blocking for him, someone is pretending to receive a pass so less people is defending that run. When a QB throws the ball, someone is protecting him, someone is pretending a run, and someone is doing his best to catch that ball, and don´t forget that there is a whole team trying to spoil every attempt of the offense; there are many things that can go wrong during a football play so I think is very simplistic to put all the blame on the QB

Football is a team sport, nobody can win or lose on his own.

Yesterday was a nice sunny day for the fortyniners, although certainly there were some clouds in the sky.

In the sunny side we saw a few things:

-The special teams unit seems to have been improved from last year (it was so bad last year that it could only get better)

-The defense looked as good as usually, except in the first quarter, with Payton Manning leading the Colts to score quite easy.

-Anthony Dixon- Singletary said a few days ago, when Coffee quit so suddenly,  that A. Dixon had to step up
and the guy certainly did, he played a very consistent game, making his statement as the back-up running-back.

-Diyral Briggs- I know he made a couple of big mistakes, but i liked the intensity he played with anyway.

-Both our back-up quarterbacks did a solid good job.

And on the other side, the clouds were (once again):

-Alex Smith, he couldn´t lead our offense first unit ( I know, without Crabtree and Gore) to move the chains consistently. I hope we don´t start again with the same old discussion between A. Smith supporters and haters, at least not yet. I think we all agree that we need continuity as a team and at the quarterback spot as well, every player on the roster will have a bad game every now and then, so let´s wait and see.

-The weakness of the ofensive line, mostly protecting the passing game, Iupati and Davis struggled a little protecting the pass, but they looked good protecting the running game. ( Logically the ofensive line still needs some adjustment after going through so many changes)

The good news is that it was just the first preseason game, so it´s normal that we are a little bit rusty, but we still have plenty of time to solve the problems and get much better before the season starts.

I really don´t know what´s happening to this team, it seems that there are two different teams on the field and each one plays one half of the game. What´s wrong with our coaching staff? Why can´t they make up their minds on how should this team play? It shouldn´t be so hard, If you keep on giving away one half in every game, we are neither making the play-offs nor having a winning record this season. If you stubbornly insists on playing as we did during the first half, that will make us lose a lot of games, so come on Mike OPEN YOUR EYES, this is not  Chicago 1985, this team can´t impose its will, not with this offensive line. A good coach has to be able to get the best from his players, if you put Alex Smith on the field because he is better passing the ball than Shaun Hill, then why don´t you let him pass until we are 21 points under the opponent, I can´t understand how we play so differently during the same game. If you are so afraid of turnovers let me ask you something, do you really think the risk of a turnover is much worse than ending every drive with a punt?, wasting our offense opportunities and giving the ball to the opponent´s offense over and over.

I know that from the start of this season you said you wanted to run the ball and play physical football, but we have already played 10 games, and by now you should have realized that we are not tougher than any other NFL team. It´s good to have a clear concept of what you want, but stick to a system that has proven itself wrong for this team is a MISTAKE (with capital letters).

You have got the weapons: Alex Smith, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree, Josh Morgan, etc, so why do you insist on keeping them in the holsters during the whole first half of every game?

Please stop doing that, let´s play an offense our players can fit in, we can´t afford any more mistakes,  because we are running out of time, so you better change quickly or it will be too late to keep your word " this is the last year…"

I knew this would happen, the very first bad game of Alex Smith this season has been enough to give some people the opportunity they were waiting for since he was named the starter QB again, because they keep judging him for the mistakes he made in the past as well as the ones he makes now, that is not fair.

Every QB of the NFL has a bad game every now and then:

Kurt Warner 5 INT a couple of weeks ago, Aaron Rodgers 3 INT last game, Max Schaub 2 INT last game, etc...There are many other players this season and through NFL history who had horrible games.

The important thing is that even in such a bad game we were able to move the ball much easily than we did a few games ago,(or you have already forgotten we seemed to be unable to get a first down),  I think he has to be the starter QB for the rest of the season,  he is not going to be intercepted so often, I think he is going to start improving with every game, and I´m looking forward to watching the game against Green Bay, I hope  after three years of comparison between him and Aaron Rodgers, after that game finally he will be able to take taht monkey off his back

Right after beating Arizona I said this could be a 10-6 season, finally winning another division title, and you may think that I´m too optimist, but I still think the same.

I couldn´t see the whole game yesterday, but according to what I saw and what I have heard, it seems that Alex Smith made a decent job and the offense is getting a little less predictable (although it still needs to ve developed into a good offense, but we have the weapons to do it ), and our defense has proven itself to be good enough to keep us in the games.

If we take a look at our schedule, we are not worse than any of the teams that we have to play against, except maybe Philadelphia, so let´s say we lose that game, then we have eight games remaining:

We have three games that should be easy wins: TENNESSEE,SAINT LOUIS and DETROIT.

It won´t be that easy with SEATTLE and JACKSONVILLE, but we should manage to beat them.

And the three remaining games will make the difference: CHICAGO, GREEN BAY and ARIZONA, they are tough teams, but definitely not unbeatable, so if we keep on building confidence in our offense,playing a tough defense and finally they can put it all together, then we can beat anyone.

I´ve been posting lately about our problems at QB, the need of balance and Crabtree´s need of someone who could pass him the ball in order to make any impact, and I think the game against the Texans has proved my ideas right.

I wrote about Shaun Hill´s incapacity of passing the ball( No excuses, he can´t pass the ball and it continued being painfully obvious yesterday) and how this would affect not only our offense as a whole, but Michael Crabtree possible impact as well, and during the first half of yesterday´s game that was desperately evident. In five drives he hardly could make a couple of first downs, ending every drive with a punt; but it wasn´t just yesterday, with Hill our offense has collapsed in a similar way too often this season

I know many fortyniners fans clearly dislike Alex Smith and the first mistake he makes will be used to throw him to the lions, because they are looking forward to watching him fail, but he deserved another chance now that finally seems to be healthy again, and he played a very good game.

Before preseason started Singletary said there would be an open competition for the QB spot but we all knew Shaun Hill had to screw it up to lose the job, now after six games, I can´t believe that he has to review the game tape to make a decision, because Hill can´t do much worse. 

I know it was just a game, but yesterday we had a glimpse of the kind of QB Alex Smith could become, trailing 0-21 he did a great job to get us in the game, and finally we saw our offense moving the ball, although the rushing game seemed to be a little rusty.

Alex Smith showed a great accuracy passing the ball, (the interception was a pity because he didn´t deserve it after such a good game, and it could have happened to any QB in the league under that circumstances, and don´t forget that Hill could have been intercepted as well in the first half)

He took fast and smart decisions, avoiding a couple of sacks with his fast reaction, he showed poise and leadership, and his arm can make our play calling less predictable.

Our defense was competitive again after a bad game against Atlanta, and they will keep growing.

Michael Crabtree had an astounding début, showing that he is a very dangerous target right now and probably he wil be better and better with every game he plays.

Vernon Davis played very consistently once again, he´s having a great season, Frank gore is yet to explode, but I have no doubt that he will. With all this weapons we should develop a bigger threat than what our offense has showed untill now, a more balanced game play that would improve our rushing game as well, that definitely would turn our team into a real play-off contender.

So bad news is we have lost two games in a row, but the wind of frustration for the loss could push away the clouds and bring the hope of a sunny future on the bay

Maybe I´m the only one in the whole world, but I think Alex Smith could manage this team at least as well as Shaun Hill.I really don´t understand how you keep saying that Smith overtrhows the ball and hesitates (what according to some of you makes him a bust), but you systematically refuse to see that it is exactly what Shaun Hill does every sunday. Some of you quickly defend Shaun by talking about the O.Line, the bad play calling etc, but Alex didn´t play with the best fortyniners team ever, did he? And nevertheless you had never forgiven his mistakes.

There are three differences between them:

1-Alex Smith was forced to play injured (which probably had some influence in at least some of his mistakes)

2-Alex Smith can pass the ball, Hill CAN´T

3-Alex  Smith has never played starter with a motivating coach as Singletary.

The first five games of this season  have been enough  to see the problems that we have to solve if we want to take a step further:

1- Soft pass rush, 2-Awfull play calling, 3-Very weak O.Line,4-QB mediocrity

I wrote a post about Shaun Hill before season started, so please don´t think that I´m using a bad game as an excuse to blame him for everything, but if you are not the solution, then you are part of the problem, and we all know Hill is not the solution and will never be. He lacks the abilities needed at QB to take a team to a higher level, I know the O. Line has been playing awfull, and that  ANY QB needs a minimun time to deliver the ball properly, but that can´t hide the fact that Shaun Hill CAN´T PASS THE BALL, I mean really pass the ball, no the short passes that he is able to complete, with very little or no yardage gain at all, even our WR say that they see the ball coming like a wounded duck or a punt return.

If the passing game is not a threat, then defense is much easier, and is not only that he can´t pass, but also he is not managing the game as well as he was supposed to, in fact he has not been able to set our offense in any game, and Defense had to give us the tree wins, and that won´t happen against top teams.

I know confidence is part of the game, and chemistry as well, and changing QB is not an easy decision to take, but I think that in the last quarter it would have been a good idea to let a healthy Alex Smith take some snaps, or even Nate Davis.

Does anyone really think that Shaun Hill can take us to a super-bowl win?

So I think if we really want to step forward we need to be brave and make changes

What´s Michael Crabtree real value for the fortyniners today?
How can you be so greedy dear Michael?
Poor little boy, so you think you should have been picked in a higher position,
wake up man! every guy in the draft but Mathew Stafford thinks the same,
but fortunately they are not as selfish as you seem to be.
His value for the fortyniners is decreasing with every day he continues the hold out,
with no practice time at all before season starts i don´t think he can make any impact.
For what i know niners offer is completely fair, i know this is part of the bussinness,
but if he is greedy and stubborn enough to hold out for a whole season,
then i hope next year he gets what he deserves:
a worse draft position and half the money he could have won this year.

According to what I saw  during the game against the Raiders, I really don´t know how Singletary is going to be able to choose a quarterback before the season starts: Alex Smith didn´t play well, although a couple of mistakes ( the incomplete pass to V. Davis and the interception to J. Morgan) weren´t his fault at all, so he could have had better numbers. Shaun Hill made exactly the same mistakes that we all criticize on Alex Smith: hesitation and overthrowing the ball, besides he looked really slow and could have been easily intercepted if he hadn´t been so lucky;  the only decent drive was based completely (8 out of 9) hand-offs to Glen Coffee, who did a great job; but actually you don´t need a Pro-Bowl quarterback to hand-off the ball.

"I LOVE IT WHEN THEY CAN´T COMPETE" What a great opportunity you lost to keep your mouth shut.

If we ever decide to try to pass the ball at least every now and then, we certainly could use a little longer pass protection.

The pass rush is still non existent.

Nate Davis looked good, but we must not forget he was playing against the third or fourth Raiders defense.

Balance is the key of mastering this game, we are running the ball quite well, but we are running the ball TOO MUCH, we need BALANCE with capital letters,  running the ball 80 % of the times, leaving the passing game only for the long third downs is a mistake, as passing the ball in such a high percentage is a mistake too, because that makes the team "predictable" and that is something that sounds great for the defense.

During the first preseason game against Denver our wide receivers picked only six passes, my point is if we are going to play the whole season like that, then what do we need Crabtree for? I mean if the idea is run the ball eight out of ten plays, then i think it doesn´t matter if he finally doesn´t play.

I hope our ofensive game plan will be more balanced when the season starts, if not we´ll be in trouble.

Our defense looked quite well on the secondary, but we need to improve dramatically our pass rush if we don´t  want to see a lot of touch-downs.

To me both quarterbacks looked allright, but  I think i haven´t seen enough yet to make up my mind, because according to the stats of that single game the best one was Damon Huard.