San Francisco 49ers: Alex Smith Wants Less Private Time With Mike Singletary

Well, so much for the perfect season. Now the Carolina Panthers and the Buffalo Bills are the only obstacles standing in the way of the hallowed members of the 2008 Detroit Lions renting out a ballroom somewhere and popping that champagne.

The 49ers won. They won!

It wasn’t pretty, but it never is with this team, nor do their coaches want it to be. Against an Oakland Raiders outfit missing their best quarterback (Bruce Gradkowski), their best playmaker (Darren McFadden) and missing, apparently, any semblance of a passing game, the 49ers pulled out a game they were trailing 6-0 after a pair of possessions. They were losing still at half time 6-3, and dangerously close until they finally scored the go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter to make it 10-6.

Kudos must go to the defense, who were thoroughly flummoxed by a couple of Oakland gadgets in the first quarter, but stiffened when they had to in the red zone and thoroughly dominated during the middle two quarters.

They were fortunate that Raiders QB Jason Campbell, who doesn’t bare nearly as strong of a resemblance to Jim Plunkett as I was led to believe, badly underthrew receiver Louis Murphy on a first play flea-flicker.

They still got a 46-yard pass interference penalty out of it, but a throw on the money would’ve made it 7-0 before Candlestick whipping boy Alex Smith even took the field.

On their next drive they got another field goal, thanks to a 43-yard field goal reverse by Murphy in which rookie safety Taylor Mays and linebacker Manny Lawson both lost backside containment, which sounds like something that would be a lot worse if it happened in real life rather than in a football game.

After those two series, the Raiders offense took the rest of the afternoon off, with Campbell going 35:21 on the game clock, and what felt like seven hours in real time, between completions.

Still, for a time that 6-0 lead looked darn near insurmountable, thanks again to an uninspiring showing by the 49ers offense. The boo birds weren’t nearly as generous with Smith as they were last week, when they waited till well into the second half to let him have it.

This time, they were chanting for backup David Carr early in the second quarter, even though Smith hadn’t suffered any unsightly turnovers.

What Smith did suffer, however, was a few knocks by a frisky Raiders front seven, some dodgy route running from receiver Josh Morgan, and yet another sideline lecture from coach Mike Singletary.

It can certainly be argued that Smith deserved a tongue lashing, if you go by the box score. After all, in his first five series he was 2-of-11 for 21 yards.

But what Smith seemed to be relaying to Singletary, by his pointing and gesturing, was something along the lines of, “Hey coach, are you actually watching what’s going on out there? I’m getting hit on every play, the defense isn’t buying the play-action at all, and the one time I’ve got a receiver open downfield, he runs a post instead of going down the seam like he’s supposed to.”

Of course I can’t prove Smith actually said any of that, but he did not look like a man who was accepting of constructive criticism at that point.  

The next day, Smith shared his sentiments regarding his vis-à-vis tête-à-têtes with Singletary to a fella who had his own share of frustrations with coaches over the years in former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, during an interview on SIRIUS radio.

While Gannon prefaced a question by interjecting his personal opinion that quarterbacks would rather just play without feedback from the coach, Smith shot out an “exactly” while Gannon was still speaking.

Then, he explained his viewpoint.

“He's trying to get this ship straightened out. It's something I've gotten used to at this point and I'm ready for, but you're exactly right. As a quarterback, when you do have a three-and-out or things do not go right, you are the first one to know. You know more than anyone out there what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and don't necessarily always need to hear it when you come off to the sideline. It's something I have gotten used to at this point and can deal with.”

From those comments, it sounds like Smith views Singletary as a meddling nuisance he has to endure rather than someone who can actually “coach” him up during games or help him in any substantive way.

To be fair, Smith did also compliment Singletary to a degree during the interview for his honesty and character, and described Singletary’s call-‘em-as-I-see-‘em philosophy “refreshing.”

“It's refreshing to have a guy you can trust with certainty that what he is saying is the truth,” Smith said, and yes, that was absolutely a shot at former coach Mike Nolan.

It also has to be pointed out that in both cases where Singletary confronted Smith, both last week against the Philadelphia Eagles and on Sunday against the Raiders, that the quarterback’s play immediately picked up.

After his 2-of-11 start, Smith finished 14-of-22 for 175 yards and two touchdowns, and led three scoring drives overall.

There is no doubt Singletary will point to this development as something necessary and significant, and start using the tactic sooner and sooner, while Smith grits his teeth and rolls his eyes.

Last year, in the season opener at Arizona, Singletary gathered the entire defense around him during a timeout because he was dissatisfied with their play. They responded and the team won.

So Singletary took it as a sign and made it a regular thing. Soon it got stale and gimmicky and stopped working. Eventually the advice has to be tactical instead of motivational.

You get the feeling if Singletary could offer some X’s and O’s input, Smith would be more receptive to their private huddles in front of thousands of curious onlookers.

However, if the counseling doesn’t extend beyond “Let’s go” and “Stop throwing it to the guys in the different shirts,” then it’s easy to understand why Smith may look at it as pointless at best or humiliating at worst.

He may also wonder, if his coach really does view the quarterback as only “one of eleven” on offense, no more important than the right guard, then how come he’s the only guy who’s getting singled out when things go awry?

Why isn’t Singletary seeking out Joe Staley when he misses a block? Why isn’t he contemplating benching Frank Gore when he fumbles twice, as he did against the Eagles?

Smith let his tongue slip a little with Gannon, a kindred spirit who knows what’s going on out there. He forgot he was on the radio for a second and he probably regrets it today. But you wonder how much he’s actually holding in.

What cannot be overlooked among all this Smith-Singletary psychobabble is that the 49ers almost blew the game.

Once they finally took the lead on a 32-yard pass from Smith to Michael Crabtree on the final play of the third quarter, they went back to their conservative, playing not-to-lose, ways.

The next time they got the ball, Smith wasn’t allowed to pass until it was third-and-long. They punted, the Raiders finally strung a couple of passes together and presto, it was a 10-9 ballgame with 8:21 to go.

They were fortunate that on their next possession the Raiders remembered they were the Raiders and their run defense wilted. Gore found a hole on the right side, with fullback Moran Norris making his best block in two seasons to seal off a linebacker, and the resulting 64-yard scamper led to a three play touchdown drive to put the game away.

The 49ers got away with it this time, but as they proved last year, playing it safe with a small lead is not a recipe for success.

How will this team handle a win? By going on vacation, naturally, first at winless Carolina and then to London for their “home” game with the Denver Broncos.

The next time we see them they’ll either be riding high and right back in NFC West contention at 3-5, a 1-7 dreck with a different quarterback under center, or most likely of all, a 2-6 squad going nowhere and thankful for the bye week so everyone will leave them alone for a bit.

By then, we’ll no doubt have noticed that familiar Warriors stench has returned, anyway.