49ers a real fright
With Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d point out
that 49ers’ quarterback Alex Smith has a rating of 666. Sorry, I
mean 66.6.
49ers a real fright
With Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d point out that 49ers’ quarterback Alex Smith has a rating of 666. Sorry, I mean 66.6.
And what’s even scarier than that is that Trent Dilfer, the backup 13-year veteran who is supposed to lead the Niners over the next few weeks while Smith heals his separated shoulder, has an even lower QB rating of 43.3. After the first few weeks of the season I wondered why Alex Smith was the 49ers starter. Now I know.
What’s most scary is that these two “gunslingers” for the 49ers have a combined passer rating total of 109.9 – nearly 20 points lower than that of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (128.7), about three points lower than Dallas QB Tony Romo (112.9) and about a push with reigning Super Bowl Champion quarterback Peyton Manning (108.6).
One of those players or someone who ends the season with similar numbers is sure to lead his team to this year’s Super Bowl title – not a couple of hacks that can’t put up a 150 yards of passing a game, let alone 300.
Based on the numbers of those other quarterbacks, that would mean that both Smith and Dilfer would need to improve roughly 100 percent to have any reasonable chance at guiding the 49ers to the NFL’s Promised Land.
But forget about that kind of improvement. It’s an accomplishment for these guys just to move the chains once or twice a half, let alone light up the scoreboard. Gone are the days when we would ask what went wrong if the Niners won by only 10 points.
Last week, Trent Dilfer hadn’t thrown for a single yard by halftime. Read that again. It has to be an NFL record. At that point wouldn’t the logical decision for Nolan be to bring in the third-stringer just to see what he can do? After his lone touchdown toss of the afternoon, Dilfer fist-pumped himself into such a frenzy that you would have thought the Niners won the game.
In five games that they’ve played so far, the 49er quarterbacks have tossed a mere 2 touchdowns, thrown 4 picks and have been sacked 18 times. Blame the last one on the offensive line, but don’t cut them any more slack than that.
Yes, it’s hard to believe but this might be the worst 49ers team I’ve ever seen, which is amazing considering all of the money that was spent in the off season to bring in quality players that had many insiders picking the Niners to make the playoffs.
Without a reliable quarterback, sporadic play on the offensive line, conservative play calling and everyone keying in on Frank Gore, the 49ers season has quickly turned into a chapter straight out of a Stephen King novel.
Instead of Super Bowl it’s time to for 49er fans to start thinking about how we’re going to use that No. 1 draft pick again. And the first position that I’d look to fill is at quarterback, followed closely by the offensive line. Sure, they’ve got $50 million invested in Smith and the front office doesn’t want to admit that they blew it by picking him. But I say, without a dramatic change it’s time to take a page out of the Democratic playbook and cut and run away from Smith.
After filling the QB position and the O line it’s all about bringing in a tall, physical receiver who can make plays. Believe me, if Nolan decides to go in any other direction expect a lot of blacked out games next season because even the die-hards are getting sick of the display they’re seeing on the gridiron each week.
They say defense wins championships but after watching the last few games, I’d take a kick-ass offense any day over great defense. Why? A defensive game is boring, and even more so when no matter how well that defense plays the offense can’t do a thing to back them up.
Did you know that the 49ers are averaging less than 15 yards a drive this year – the lowest in the NFL! That stat would make it dangerous for anyone to trick-or-treat as the team’s offensive coordinator Jim Hostler this year. That stat would make Bill Walsh turn in his grave.
