Emergency Backfield Can Make a Good Coach Out Of Mike Singletary

"Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." 

Malvolio read this letter from Maria in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, thinking it was from Lady Olivia.

Mike Singletary wasn't born a great coach, and he certainly has not achieved greatness. But due to circumstances he couldn't have foreseen, he does indeed, on the 49ers' twelfth night of the season, have a chance of having greatness thrust upon him.

You're probably thinking that "greatness" and "49ers" don't belong in the same sentence unless you're talking about the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana era, and it can certainly be argued that Walsh was the last great coach this franchise has had, even though they won a couple of Lombardi trophies with George Siefert.

But take a look around at the NFL landscape and look at current rosters of all the playoff hopefuls. This will take some time since three-fourths of the teams are still in contention.

How many of them are without the quarterback and the running back they began the season with?

In the AFC, the Patriots traded Laurence Maroney, the Colts have had to deal with Joseph Addai being in and out of the lineup, the Chargers have had a lot of shuffling with their running backs and the Raiders keep going back and forth between quarterbacks Jason Campbell and Bruce Gradkowski.

Meanwhile in the NFC, the Eagles have voluntarily gone with Michael Vick over Kevin Kolb, the Packers lost running back Ryan Grant in the first game of the season and the Saints have been without both Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush most of the year.

The 49ers, however, are now without Alex Smith—by choice—and Frank Gore, who's out for the year with a fractured right hip from last Monday at Arizona.

As a consequence, their backfield consists of Troy Smith, a fellow who hadn't started a game since 2007 and who wasn't even with them during training camp; and Brian Westbrook, who played just 22 games the past two seasons for the Eagles because of injuries to his ankles, knees, ribs and head.

The former was available because he was surprisingly cut by the Ravens after the preseason, and signed because San Francisco's coaches had been unhappy with the development of second-year QB Nate Davis.

The latter was signed—midway through training camp—because second-year back Glen Coffee unexpectedly retired to join the ministry.

Circumstance and blind luck brought both to the 49ers.

Going into the season, the 49ers were expected to win the NFC West and win it handily. They had the best team on paper, by far and two of their division rivals were starting new eras at quarterback, while a third, the Seahawks were overhauling everything but the quarterback.

The rest of the division has indeed been bad, at times excruciatingly so. The Cardinals, with their Derek Anderson/Max Hall combo, are even worse than we imagined they would be. The Rams, buoyed by the sterling play of rookie Sam Bradford, have been somewhat better than expected. Seattle is right where they ought to be.

Suppose the 49ers had won a couple of the games they've blown. What if corner Nate Clements didn't fumble away his interception at Atlanta and the team didn't blow a 20-13 lead at then-winless Carolina.

And for the sake of this exercise, suppose Alex Smith was still under center and Gore was perfectly healthy.

Where would the 49ers be? 6-5, leading the division, on track for a 9-7 season and a division title and still very much looked at as the best of a bad lot and first round playoff fodder.

Would Singletary have gotten any credit for doing what was merely expected of him, taking a clearly superior roster to one game over .500 and prevailing in a division that has three bad teams?

Would he have deserved any?

Critics would've dismissed that accomplishment the same way Jerry Jones dismissed Jimmy Johnson's work at Dallas all those years ago, when he told him that 500 coaches could win a Super Bowl with the Cowboys' roster.

Now though, Singletary has a unique opportunity to show that he's not some overseer, figurehead or motivational speaker with the right look, the right voice and absolutely nothing of substance to offer a team after the opening kickoff.

He has a chance to prove that yes, he does have some coaching chops.

Troy Smith has a few advantages over Alex Smith. He's more mobile, more willing to take chances and he has the command of the huddle. However, having joined the team so late, he's limited in the number of plays he can and pretty much specializes in roll-outs and the play-action. Putting him into situation where opponents know a pass play is coming is going to be dicey.

Singletary and offensive coordinator Mike Johnson have to scheme so that Troy Smith is in third-and-manageable situations and also be proactive and aggressive on first downs, when defenses have the least idea of what's coming.

Then there's his handling of the running back situation.

Westbrook's boffo performance on Monday had plenty of people up in arms. This guy's still got some juice in his legs, how come you didn't find a way to get him on the field?

Looking at it from a glass half full perspective, you'd commend Singletary for keeping Westbrook as an insurance policy. For the last five weeks of the season he'll be the freshest starting running back in the league.

Cynics though will condemn Singletary for not being imaginative enough to find ways to give Westbrook ten touches per game, either in relief of Gore or sharing the backfield with him.

How the idea to keep Westbrook in mothballs will be viewed historically depends on what the 49ers do the rest of the way. If they win three or four games and capture the division, Singletary looks like a genius. If they don't, then he's a bad coach who mismanaged his assets.

With Gore out, not only will Singletary be forced to run a balanced offense as far as the run/pass mix is concerned, but he'll also have be wise in divvying up the work between Westbrook and rookie back Anthony Dixon.

There will actually be thinking involved.

Winning the division games with his default roster would've earned "Coach Sing" a round of shrugs. Do it with Troy Smith and Westbrook and you might impressive a few people, perhaps even the important people.

Win Sunday at frigid Green Bay, against Aaron "I have no ill will towards the 49ers at all" Rodgers and Singletary will have everyone's attention.

Rodgers was nothing but diplomatic during his conference call, but a Malvolio had a line or two that fits him too.

"I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you."

The Pack has too much for the 49ers, no matter who's in their backfield.