49ers-Saints: Alex Smith and Rookies Grow Up, but Moral Victories Still Suck

Let me just say it: “Moral victories suck.”

Now I haven’t lost faith in the 49ers, and I do believe they did a lot of good things Monday night. But aren’t you just jonesing for a win?

The confounding thing about this team is the mistakes they make and how they beat themselves.

Mike Singletary absolutely stresses ball control and avoiding mistakes. Most coaches do, of course, but “Iron Mike” is such a disciplinarian that it seemed like a foregone conclusion that mistakes from his squad would be limited.

Please don’t think this is another “Mike Singletary should be fired” article. It is not—and please don’t post links to stale articles that say as much in the comment thread.

That said, there are some items that Singletary and his coaching staff need to clean up.

Let’s look at the turnovers first: two interceptions, one lost fumble (two if you count David Baas’ errant snap), and one muffed punt.

There is no question that both interceptions are on Smith, but they were not the egregious kind that are thrown right into the hands of a defender (J.T. O’Sullivan, anybody?). Both were deflected, one off a defensive lineman’s hands, the other off Frank Gore’s hand as he reached out for the pass.

Smith needs to make better throws in these instances, he has to get the ball into Gore’s hands, and he has to get it over the defensive line. Outside of those two throws, Smith had a damn good game—more on that in a bit.

Delanie Walker’s fumble was caused by Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who flew in and stripped him of the ball at about the 8-yard line—a great defensive play. However, Walker needs to secure that ball, especially down by the goal line. 

If you watched the play immediately preceding this play, you saw a beautiful run by Frank Gore, but if you looked closely you would also see a Saints defender trying to strip the ball loose. You would have also seen Gore putting his other arm over the ball to prevent the strip.

The Saints practicing stripping the ball relentlessly, and if you were paying attention to ESPN announcer and former coach Jon Gruden, you would have heard them say that they practice it so often that it causes “irritation” for the offense during those practice sessions with the constant strips.

But then, maybe that is why their offense had zero turnovers.

Huge play—the 49ers control the ball for over 10 minutes during the second quarter, have a chance to go up 14-9 at halftime, and come up empty. 

Okay, so we have the Phillips Adams muff and also the David Baas snap into the bay.

I am not making light of these. One led to a nine-point Saints lead early in the first quarter, the other to a Saints field goal late in the game, giving the Saints an eight-point lead with just over two minutes left in the game.

Quite frankly, I am surprised there haven’t been more bad snaps on Baas’ part; he has filled in admirably for injured starter Eric Heitmann, but his timing sure does suck.

Adams damn near broke one for a long return in the fist half, but he also misjudged one that was so close that the officials said it touched him and awarded the ball to New Orleans. Upon further review the call was reversed, and Adams was somewhat vindicated.

But to have a rookie return punts with the unpredictable and swirling winds of Candlestick is a risk. To his credit, Singletary puts a tremendous amount of faith in the players he selects, but perhaps with the game on the line, he should have gone with someone with a little more experience—someone that knows, if he isn't sure about catching it, to get the hell out of the way.

I am not going to talk about the penalties. There is just no excuse for them—especially a delay of game call and an unnecessary roughness call. Why give Drew Brees 15 yards?

Okay, as Mr. Burkey says, enough of being a “Negative Nancy”!

Obviously the play-calling communication was better, and barring his two interceptions, Smith played a beautiful game­—beautiful because we have been waiting for it for so long.

What I really liked from Alex, though, was when he couldn’t find a receiver and there was green in front of him, he took off. On the 49ers' last touchdown drive he twice scrambled for 12 yards and critical first downs.

The key now for Alex is consistency. Will he be able to play this well in the ear-splitting din of Arrowhead Stadium?

But what I really liked in this game was the improvement of the offensive line—especially the improvement of the two rookies, Mike Iupati and Anthony Davis.

Zero sacks and over 100 yards rushing for Frank Gore. In just his second game, Iupati is starting to look like the guard the 49ers envisioned when they drafted him; he seemed to open holes at will for Gore all night. Iupati also made a key block on Anthony Dixon’s two-yard touchdown run.

I would be willing to bet that Iupati spent a lot of them with assistant offensive line coach (and former 49er guard) Ray Brown this last week, because that is who Iupati reminded me of out there Monday night.

I am not sure if you noticed or not, but every rookie, with the exception of the injured Kyle Williams, contributed in this game. I’ve talked already talked about Iupati, Davis, Dixon, and Adams.

But how about Navorro Bowman tied for second on the teams with six tackles? He didn’t start but substituted regularly and was a staple on special teams.

Speaking of special teams...

Did you see Taylor Mays run down Reggie Bush on that punt return? He had him in his sights, stayed with him, and made the tackle. Bush caught the ball at the 13, and Mays made him cut back to the five, allowing Bush to only get back to the 10 before he brought him down.

Even Nate Byham got in on the action, catching a pass from Smith for six yards.

The run defense was great, and the secondary really came through—­knowing that they would be tested all night. If perhaps Manny Lawson or Reggie Smith had turned those “near interceptions” into turnovers, then perhaps the outcome of the game would have been different, but a loss is still a loss.

The team was upbeat and positive after the game, and that is a good sign. They believe in themselves and each other, and that is a better sign.

With road games against the 2-0 Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Falcons, and a home game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the schedule doesn’t get any easier, as some people have suggested.

This team needs a win, and not just to avoid an 0-3 start.

Former 49er great Ronnie Lott used to co-host the 49ers’ post-game show called “The Point After.” It was late in the season, and Lott and host Mark Ibanez were discussing the 49ers' win. Ibanez suggested that the 49ers had cost themselves draft position and, if memory serves correctly, a chance at drafting Reggie Bush, ironically enough.

Lott insisted that getting the win was more important. I can’t remember his exact quote but his point was that winning is what players are paid to do. It is what they want to do. It is what they relish. There is nothing in the NFL like a win.

Winning is good medicine—moral victories suck.