San Franciso 49ers Pushing Panic Mode Way Too Soon

NFC West Champions, deep playoff run, Super Bowl? There was a buzz around this team coming into the 2010 season and why not the way the team ended 2009. After a 3-5 first half, the 49ers fought hard and finished 5-3 outscoring teams 156-107 including holding four of those teams under ten total points.

The team finished 8-8 on the season, and Coach Singletary seemed to have his team believing that 2010 was its season. There is nothing more dangerous then a confident team, but a team that reads its press clippings to much can also fall short of those high goals.

The 2010 offseason and preseason did nothing but help the 49ers heads swell as the defending Western Champion Arizona Cardinals took a major hit when Kurt Warner finally sailed into retirement.

This left the team with first round draft pick bust, Matt Leinart and Cleveland Browns cast-off Derrick Anderson. When Anderson won the quarterback battle and the team parted ways with Matt, it looked like the Cardinals reign in the West was over, and someone else would step in.

Looking at the other two NFC West teams, the St Louis Rams and the Seattle Seahawks things looked great for the Niners. These two teams combined for a 6-26 record in 2009, and had raw coaches heading into 2010. The Rams are in year two of the Steve Spagnuolo era and the Seahawks brought in, fresh off a USC scandal, Pete Carrol. Both coaches have a lot of proving to do.

Coach Spags went 1-15 in his first run with the team in 2009. The defensive guru saw his defense give up 30 or more points five times, and got shut out twice, both times to division rivals, 28-0 to Seattle and 35-0 to the Niners. The Rams drafted Sam Bradford to be the savior.

So taking this all into consideration the team looked like it would be no match for the Niners. The Seahawks gave Jim Mora one season to prove himself, not right at all in my mind, and decided to bring in Carol who conveniently left USC right before the sanctions came down. Now this team did a lot of positives in the offseason with its roster but looked to be far behind the 49ers in talent.

This all lead to a lot of experts picking the 49ers to easily win the division and make a run. The team was flooded with people filling their heads with how great they were going to be, and maybe this team listened to closely to this and assumed this would be a cake walk.

I have played football for 14 years and I know how it feels to be on a team that let its press clippings go to its head. Going into the opener against the Seahawks the Niners were big favorites and again rightfully so.

Well, things took a weird turn when Seattle stomped on the 49ers, 31-6. Alex Smith reverted back to his old ways throwing two costly picks, and Gore being held to a grand total of 38 yards. Not the way this team needed, or thought to have started the 2010 campaign. But, okay, every team has a hiccup, right?

Well, things seemed to continue to go sour as after the game rumors came out that offensive coordinator Raye did not get the play call down to Smith fast enough. This prompted Singletary to defend his coordinator and say that the team had a "rat" which would be sniffed out. As the team landed Singletary called a team meeting right away at the Niners' buildings. This, in my mind, is a panic way too early in the season.

Week two saw the Niners hosting the Defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. This was actually a fantastic game and the Niners lost on a last second field goal 25-22. Although the team lost they showed great promise against the Champs. The offense outgained the Saints 417-287, including holding the Saints to 50 total rushing yards.

Even though the team fell to 0-2 things looked better in San Fran after the loss. This team held close to the Champs, and should have beaten them. Maybe this was the confidence builder the team needed to climb up the standings in week three. Any confidence the Niners had after the Saints game quickly evaporated as Kansas City took them apart, 31-10.

Alex Smith was greatly outplayed by Matt Cassel with his three touchdowns and one interception to Smiths one score and one pick. The biggest issue again was Gore's lack of production as he only got 43 yards on 15 carries.

What is the most disturbing matter for me three weeks into 2010 is the Niners defense. This unit was one of the better defenses in 2009, but has not lived up to this claim so far this season. So far, now again we are only three games in, the defense is letting an average of 29 points a game up for a rank of 32nd in the league.

Only once so far (Week 2, in which the let up 25 to the Saints) have the Niners let the opposing team score under 30 points. You can not win on any level if you allow this many points every single game. The Niners are also letting up way to many yards a game right now, 328.7 which is the 16th ranking in the NFL. This defense has to get back to dominance.

What leads to a defense struggling? Well the lack of getting off the field does not help. They are letting opposing offenses to convert 46 percent of the time on third down. Next thing that is greatly hurting this team is sacks, or lack there of. The Niners only have three sacks for the season.

Willis, LaBoy, and Brooks have those sacks. Not good. You have to get pressure on that quarterback to force him into bad choices The lack of sacks and pressure from the front seven has lead to a lack of turnovers. The Niners have only gathered two interceptions from Clements and Spencer.

Opposing teams have five against the Niners already. If the defense can not stop a team on third down, does not get off the field, and does not create turnovers they will not win. I dont care who you play against.

Offensively things get worse. Alex Smith was suppose to have matured into the kind of quarterback the Niners dreamed of when they drafted him. Well not so true so far this season. He is completing 62 percent of his passes. That's great, but he has two scores to five picks. He has been sacked seven times, and lost three fumbles.

I really think what is hurting this team, and Alex Smith most, is the lack of a run game. Gore has been all but held in check so far this year. He has 193 yards this season and one score. Last year he would get that in a single game. The next leading rusher on this team is Smith with 28 yards. Not good.

Smith needs the rushing game to take the pressure off his shoulders. Maybe it's the play calling—more passes then rushes—I don't know. But they have to get Gore more carries and get the NFL's 27th ranked rushing attack up if they want to make a run here.

Now fixing these problems will not be easy. I believe that the team is in panic mode way to early right now as Singletary called a meeting as soon as they got home from the Seattle game and now fired his offensive coordinator three games in.

This team needs to settle down. The division is still up for grabs and the team has 13 games left to go. In saying this it is time for some changes. If Smith struggles early in the Atlanta game, I really believe they have to get him out and give David Carr a chance.

The biggest thing the 49ers HAVE to do against Atlanta is establish the run. If they can run Gore this team will be fine. If they can't...well, it is going to be another long season on the bay.