San Francisco 49ers Should Learn From Giants Example, Let Play Do the Talking

It's 11:00 p.m on a Friday. Do you know where your San Francisco 49ers are?

If you answered "London," you're literal.

If you answered "the NFC West cellar," you're pragmatic.

And if you answered, "I couldn't possibly care any less, I'm watching the Giants," well then, you my friend are honest, rational and wise.

At this point the only people paying attention to this team should be getting paid to so, whether they be future opponents, team employees or scuzzy, despicable media types like yours truly.

Yet the games go on, because they must. While the rest of the NFL world has given the 49ers up for dead (losing to an 0-5 Carolina team will do that), they continue to insist that they not only have a pulse, but that they've never felt better.

"There's no doubt in my mind, somehow, someway, we will regroup and we will keep fighting and we will make a season of it," said 49ers head coach and resident crazy person Mike Singletary. "I still believe we can go to the playoffs. I still believe we can get those things done. We just have to get the right things in place and go from there."

If by right things he's referring to better players and better coaches, then I'm in complete agreement with him. However, with the trade deadline long past and the next collegiate draft not scheduled until next April, the opportunity to acquire difference makers isn't there.

Not unless the Colts want to really be charitable and put Peyton Manning on the waiver wire, of course.

Of course, that line was just the first of several Singletary whoppers this week.

"The one thing I don’t do is spend much time thinking about what was," he said when the team arrived in England, which is ironic coming from a man whose most common phrase when facing the postgame firing squad is that he has to watch the film. It also recalls the old adage about those who don't learn from their history being doomed to repeat it.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about the possibilities ahead of us," he explained, matter-of-factly.

Other people who spend time thinking about the possibilities ahead of them: Daydreamers, horoscope readers, fortune cookie eaters and lottery ticket buyers.

More Coach Sing? More Coach Sing.

"I talked to the team this morning and one of the things that I told them, and that I will tell you, is this is our finest hour as a team, and as a staff."

Because there was no media availability? Because nobody cares if you lose anymore? Because you get to play at Wembley Stadium instead of the 'Stick?

"When things are going very well, it’s very easy to be a great coach, very easy to be a great player, but when things are not going the way you want them to go, it’s tougher, and not only that, but its giving us an opportunity to really look at where we are, and be able to understand it for what it is."

You see, my simple friends? That's why they're not 6-1. It would be too easy. They want to show how great they are by giving the rest of the NFC a four game head start, just to be sporting.

Boy is my face red. I just thought they were awful at football.

"It’s also important that as a team, you know some teams may not be playing very well. Some teams may not have a very good record right now, and for whatever reason there’s not a lot that they can do about it."

Teams such as the San Francisco 49ers, for example.

"We can, and when you lose close games, on one end of it, it looks like wow, you know, what’s the reason that you can’t win the close ones, but there are always two sides to every coin. There’s a reason why you’re close, and we just have to get to that point to where we win those.”

And we will do this by not making any changes whatsoever and not examining what we did wrong to lose those close games so we won't do them again. We're a team that looks forward. 

The season has quickly soured on the Niners, and it seems like everyone knows it but them. With each successive playoff conquest by the San Francisco Giants, and each frustrating 49ers defeat, the contrast between the two bay area clubs gets more alarming.

Here are 10 such examples…

1. Take depth, for starters. Offensive coordinator Mike Johnson, like Jimmy Raye before him, keeps preaching the gospel about getting the ball into the hands of the same three guys—Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis—every game. He clearly believes these gentlemen to be the cornerstones of the attack, with everyone else being an afterthought.

The Giants in turn have no offensive cornerstones. Everyone in the lineup is equally important and as likely be the hero, come up with the clutch hit. They’ve hit eight homers in the postseason and four of them have come from the eighth spot in the batting order.

That’s akin to third tight end Nate Byham scoring half of the 49ers touchdowns.    

2. The 49ers—both their players and coaches—talk about being a great defensive team.

The Giants simply are a great defensive team, if you consider pitching a part of defense. They led the majors in ERA in the regular season and have allowed just 36 runs in 12 postseason games, or three per game.

3. The 49ers best defensive players are all having poor seasons. Patrick Willis is nowhere to be found among the league’s leading tacklers. Justin Smith has but two sacks. Dashon Goldson has done nothing.

Tim Lincecum has outpitched Derek Lowe, Roy Halladay (twice) and Cliff Lee and has won three of his four playoff starts, while Matt Cain is 2-0 and has not allowed an earned run in three starts.

4. The 49ers don’t know how to close games. They’ve allowed game-winning field goal drives to New Orleans, Atlanta and Carolina, blowing leads in two of those contests.

The Giants have a great bullpen, led by Brian Wilson, who led the National League with 48 saves in the regular season and has added five more (plus a win) in the playoffs.

5. The 49ers Nate (Clements) screws up late in games, either allowing long completions or fumbling away interceptions.

The Giants Nate (Schierholtz) runs down shots into the gap as a late-inning defensive replacement and has been a solid pinch-hitter as well.

6. The 49ers rookies have mostly been duds. Guard Mike Iupati and safety Taylor Mays have been up and down, but tackle Anthony Davis—the 11th pick of the draft—has been a disaster, and he and fellow freshman running back Anthony Dixon screwed up a block that led to Alex Smith separating his shoulder last week.

The Giants have the Rookie of the Year in catcher Buster Posey, who has already earned the respect of all the veteran pitchers and is the backbone of the team.

7. The 49ers have veterans who grumble about their roles. Safety Michael Lewis quit the team when coaches told him that Mays was going to take his starting spot. Linebacker Takeo Spikes has complained about rookie NaVorro Bowman eating into his playing time.

On the Giants the highest paid guy on the team, pitcher Barry Zito, has been left off the postseason roster and has supported his teammates. Guys like Pablo Sandoval, Aaron Rowand and Schierholtz have lost their starting jobs and they’ve been nothing but professional about it.

8. Singletary keeps talking about making lineup changes for a struggling team, but it’s just that, talk. Their leaky offensive line keeps starting the same five guys. The same linebackers who can’t rush the passer and the same corners who can’t cover, nothing changes.

All season long Giants manager Bruce Bochy has not played favorites and demanded accountability. The guys who’ve been hot have played, the guys who were cold sat. The players understand it’s all about winning and they’re all pulling on the same rope.

9. For two months now we’ve heard the coaches promise to get running backs Dixon and Brian Westbrook more involved in the offense. Gore still gets 95 percent of the touches.

When Bochy says someone is going to get playing time, he means it. Rowand, Schierholtz and Travis Ishikawa have been valuable pinch-hitters and defensive replacements. Just about everybody on the bullpen gets used. About 35 different Giants have taken turns playing the hero over the season.

10. Finally, in Bochy the Giants have a manager who doesn’t say much, never looks past the next game and makes a living by nightly managing the pants off opposing skippers, such as the Rangers Ron Washington.

All Singletary does is talk and he’s famous (infamous?) for taking his pants off at half time.

“It’s going to be a good game,” he said of Sunday’s upcoming tilt against the slightly less pathetic Broncos. “I don’t know what Denver is going to do, but I can say that we will play well.”

Based on what, exactly? 

“You have to watch the game and then you will see.”

That’s right coach. I do have to watch the game. Thankfully most people will have the choice of sleeping in.

Don’t tell me.

Show me.