San Francisco 49ers: Wait Two Weeks Before Pulling The Plug on Mike Singletary

If you’re Jed York, your finger is dangerously close to the San Francisco 49ers’ eject button.  But that button should be avoided no matter what happens this weekend in Atlanta.

By firing offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye, Mike Singletary has made his first major move in dispersing accountability for the 49ers win-less start to the season.  You learn most about a head coach when the times are bad. 

The times will never be worse for Singletary, because he will get fired and replaced before they have the chance to.  Luckily for him he has a talented roster, thirteen games to play and a historically bad division to play in.

How will the team respond against Atlanta? 

It will not matter, mainly because even the most miraculous performance will still probably result in a loss.  The Falcons just did what the 49ers couldn't do in beating the Saints (at the Superdome no less), and if recent history stays true, the 49ers will get killed traveling East by being forced to play a game at 10 a.m. in their home time zone.

Remember, the Falcons came to Candlestick and beat the 49ers like a drum last season, to the tune of 45-10 when the team was 3-1 coming off a 35-0 drudging of the lowly Rams. 

The real litmus test for the 49ers ability to respond to Singletary will come in week five when they take on the Eagles in Sunday night prime time at Candlestick. 

There will be no excuses not to come out and perform well at home under the lights.  If they could come within one play of beating the defending Super Bowl champions under the same conditions, then they should be able to play as well if not better against Philadelphia no matter what happens against Atlanta.

The prospect of starting the season 0-5 should be enough motivation to not be embarrassed with the nation watching.

If the 49ers lay a stinker against the Eagles, it will be Singletary’s last game as head coach for the 49ers.  Here’s why:

In this horrible, no good, very bad NFC West, contenders can afford to be bad road team.  But you can’t be a bad road team and start off the home schedule 0-2 and expect to come anywhere close to winning a division. 

If the 49ers really are as bad of a road team as they’ve proven so far this season, they will need to win every home game from here on out to have a chance at the division. There are only six true home games left, with 49ers being the “home team” against Denver in London week eight.

Judging by the way they’ve played away from Candlestick, even week ten in St. Louis will be a tough game.

Seattle, Kansas City and Atlanta are all very tough places to play on the road, especially for a West Coast team.  As bad as the first two road loses of the season were, it’s still to early to say that the 49ers will be as bad at home as they are on the road.  All we have to go on is the solid, but not perfect, performance against the Saints.

That’s why the Philadelphia game is so important.  If the 49ers can prove they can play well at home, then there is still hope for the team to win the division simply because it is so bad. 

But if they can’t, then the Singletary tenure will blow up faster than John Gruden can sign his name on a piece of paper (stay tuned).