For the first time in their careers, Alex Smith’s San Francisco 49ers will face off against Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers. These two young men have been intertwined since their inception into the league. Although they have been in the league for five seasons, they have never played against each other because of different circumstances. On Sunday, the two will be subjected to multiple questions involving the 2005 draft, and how different their careers are.

Rodgers infamously sat and waited for five hours to be drafted after the 49ers selected Alex Smith first overall. The season prior to the draft, the 49ers finished the season with an NFL worst 2-14 record.   The talent at quarterback wasn’t considered top shelf, but the 49ers were desperate. Top shelf is an understatement to say the least. While three quarterbacks were selected in the first round, Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers, and Jason Campbell, eleven other quarterbacks were selected that weekend:

Charlie Frye
Andrew Walter
David Greene
Kyle Orton
Stefan Lefors
Adrian Mcpherson
Derek Anderson
James Killian
Matt Cassel
Ryan Fitzpatrick

What a list of all-stars. How many of these guys have you heard of? A few of them, right? Well, how many of these guys have you heard of being spoken in a positive manner? Compare that to the year before when Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger all went in the first half of the first round. It was an unfortunate time to need a quarterback.

The 49ers ended up selecting Smith over Rodgers and until last season, no one could make a strong argument for the other way around. Rodgers’ first season as a starter was a statistical success, even though the Packers failed to make the playoffs. The comparisons between the two quarterbacks began. I feel these comparisons are unbalanced and unfair. It’s as simple as looking at each situation.

Smith was 20 years old when he was drafted. His fellow quarterbacks on the team were Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey, and Cody Pickett (All of whom were drafted in the seventh round and are not in the league anymore.) Hurled into the starting role because of injuries, Smith took over the former 2-14 team, with wide receivers Johnnie Morton and Brandon Lloyd as his primary options. He played like a rookie not ready for action would play. Fans and media immediately labeled him a bust. The following season, Norv Turner was brought in to be the offensive coordinator after Mike McCarthy left to be the head coach for the Packers. Under Turner, Smith seemed to blossom and turned in a decent performance. (2890 passing yards, 16 TD, 16 INT) There was hope after all. However, Turner was chosen to be the head coach for the San Diego Chargers late in the off-season, giving the 49ers little time to find a replacement. Head coach Mike Nolan promoted quarterback coach Jim Hostler to offensive coordinator, a position he had never held before. Under Hostler, the offense struggled and Smith injured his throwing shoulder when the Seattle Seahawks’ 308 pound Rocky Bernard fell on him. The injury caused a public dispute between Smith and Nolan. Nolan called out his quarterback and said he had to learn to play through pain. Smith accused his coach of ignoring the seriousness of his injury. Last season, the 49ers tried the Mike Martz experiment. Martz, known throughout the league as an offensive mastermind, and sometimes referred to as the “mad scientist,” was brought in to ignite the offense. Smith’s surgically repaired shoulder never healed properly, and was shut down, he never took a snap. This season, a new offensive coordinator was brought in to implement new head coach Mike Singletary’s run first offense. Smith was given a shot to win the starting job, but couldn’t beat out journeyman Shaun Hill. Against the Houston Texans, Singletary pulled the struggling Hill and Smith took over, throwing three touchdowns, falling three points short of a comeback victory. Now as the starter, Smith has yet to find that rhythm and is coming off his first win since 2007. After five different offensive coordinators in five years, missing essentially two seasons, and a rotating door that featured 10 different starting receivers, Smith heads to Green Bay in hopes of defeating his draft day counterpart.

Aaron Rodgers’ path is basically the opposite of Smith’s. While Smith was struggling to learn a new offensive system every year, Rodgers had the luxury of being in the same system, sitting behind a future Hall of Famer. From my understanding, Brett Favre wasn’t necessarily a mentor to Rodgers, but the ability to watch Favre first hand probably helped in his development. The consistency in the offensive system didn’t hurt either. Admittedly, taking over for a legend is no easy task, but Rodgers took the reigns and was fully embraced by the organization and the fans, even when Favre made a mess of things and unretired. Confidence and preparation was required to succeed, and Rodgers had both. Aside from having the same system, and watching Favre for three years, Rodgers inherited a 13-3 team, with Ryan Grant solidifying the running game, and a wide receiver tandem that featured the reliable veteran Donald Driver (82 receptions, 1048 yards) and up and coming touchdown machine, Greg Jennings (12 touchdowns in 13 games.)

The evidence from these situations leads to only one conclusion; Rodgers was in the best position to succeed. Comparing these two quarterbacks is unfair and rather moot. Look at their different career paths, Rodgers was set up to win football games. It would make more sense to compare Jason Campbell to Smith. Campbell has had to fight through the same obstacles as Smith: no consistency in the offense, lack of talent in the wide receiver area, etc. These two quarterbacks shared similar paths, and produced similar results.

The reality is Smith and Rodgers will always be connected. I expect to hear the comparisons of the two well after the game is over. There will be much talk about how Smith needs to win in order to prove to the organization that he was the correct choice. This kind of talk makes for good TV and debate, but the information is not really relevant in any way. If Smith does lead the 49ers to victory, but loses every other game, he’s not going to say, “We missed the playoffs, but we beat Aaron Rodgers.” To prove he was the right choice to the 49ers, the media, and the fans, Smith needs to go out every Sunday and win. Rodgers is just another opponent standing between his team and the post-season.

Follow me on Twitter: jarrod49ersnews

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The highlights from the 49ers win over the Bears are now up over at NinerTV. Two part highlights, most of the focus is on the defense and Frank Gore.

NinerTV

Unlike games televised on FOX, CBS, or ESPN, the camera never directly featured a shot of the cheerleaders on the sideline. We didn’t even get a look at them during timeouts or before/after commercial break. That disappointed me greatly because from the slight glimpses I did see, they looked really good in their white uniforms. What disappointed me even more than not seeing our Gold Rush, was the fact our offense couldn’t turn turnovers into points.

What started out as a great offensive drive with their first possession, the 49ers could not move the ball into the endzone, or even through the uprights. Joe Nedney’s missed 39 yard field goal would have been the only points the 49ers didn’t score off of turnovers. However, it never should have come to a field goal attempt as Alex Smith hit Michael Crabtree on an important 2nd and 7, that would have been a 1st and goal, but Crabtree dropped the ball. That drop was costly and confusing as Crabtree made an amazing almost-catch on the first play of the series.

The offense as a whole did not fare very well against the Chicago Bears.  Frank Gore finally received more than 20 carries for the first time since the first game of the season, and he did average four yards a carry, but as always, take away a big run from him and you see the results of a poor offensive line.  Gore rushed 25 times, with positive yards on 16 of those carries, but nine attempts for no gain, or negative yards.  The O-line’s inability to create a push upfront was apparent when Smith attempted to gain a yard for a first down but was denied.  Although the 49ers are without Joe Staley, easily the most talented member on the line, the ability to gain one yard on 4th and 1 is what the front office is paying them for.

Alex Smith didn’t necessarily play poorly, he was just very unspectacular. He threw 16 of 23 for 118 yards. While completing nearly 70% of his passes is what the offense is looking for, having only 118 yards to show for it does not help anyone.  He could have completed 100% of his passes but if it goes for 150 yards, who cares?  I don’t even know if Jimmy Raye can be faulted completely anymore. Half of the plays were called out of the Shotgun, and I do like them using run plays out of the formation. The dink and dunk approach is fine, but the offense has to push the ball down the field once in a while. There was the one play-call that I absolutely loved, the deep ball to Michael Crabtree, that turned into an interception. It is on Smith to have seen the defender was with Crabtree step for step. The play just wasn’t there. Smith should have either continued through his reads, or overthrow Crabtree so it’s an incompletion, or great diving catch. I suppose Smith just doesn’t feel comfortable in the pocket, or confident in his decision making to look off the primary target and hit some one else.

After the interception, the 49ers didn’t dare unleash another downfield attempt, and played to not lose the game. To their credit, it almost worked. They were able to milk a good amount of time off the clock. With 9:01 left to play, the 49ers gave the Bears the ball back with 2:47.  If they scored a touchdown at the end of the drive, it would have put the game away. Unfortunately, that did not happen and the game was much closer than it should have been.

All of us fans love to see nail-biters, especially when its our team that wins. This win was the ugliest win I have ever seen, and although a win is a win, the offense needs to improve if they want to win the division.  Five interceptions is what offenses dream their defense gives them. Points off of turnovers will usually, and did determine the outcome of the game. But a meager ten points is plain embarrassing. The fifth interception doesn’t really count because it was the play that ended the game, but four turnovers and only ten points is just as bad. Last week the Tennessee Titans went into Candlestick and got 24 points off of four turnovers. That is what wins games.

Not enough praise can be showered onto the defense.  What we already knew was a talented group, shined during a primetime game.  It seemed everyone on that side of the ball came up with a big play.  Aubrayo Franklin’s interception is probably one of my favorite plays this year.  The 49ers are fortunate to have such a dominate defense, whose core players have not yet reached their potential.  The defense deserves all the credit for the win, and hopefully continues to play well and get help from the offense.

No doubt Mike Singletary will take the win, but if his 49ers go into Green Bay content with an awful win, 4-6 is what we’re going to be looking at. The Packers are being just as inconsistent as the 49ers, so there is no reason why they can’t go into Lambeau Field and come out victorious.   The offense better show up next week because the cheerleaders will not be there to cover up their porous play.

Follow me on Twitter: jarrod49ersnews

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Are they who we thought they were? That question has two meanings based on tonight’s game. The first is are the Bears who we thought they were? The answer is yes they are. Their defense was better than we thought but their offense and in particular Cutler who was as erratic as we thought he could be.

Also are the 49ers defense who we thought they were? I thought I was going to be writing this article stating they were not who we thought they were. With the way that last drive was unfolding with Cutler marching down the field it looked as if those four interceptions were going to be for naught. I thought I was going to have to bring up the defense that has lost the games for us instead of the offense not winning the games. Think about it, our first loss comes at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings after the defense couldn’t hold them on a final drive and Mark “Oh Shit” Roman was out of position for the last game winning touchdown pass from Favre. The next game the 49ers got destroyed by the Falcons at home where Michael Turner and Roddy White ignited Candlestick Park. The next loss came at the hands of the Houston Texans where the defense gave up a 21-0 lead at halftime, then came Alex Smith?!? leading the 49ers back into the game while the defense came back to life and surrendered only 3 more points in the second half-but still lost. I thought I was going to have to talk about the Colts game where the defense shut Manning not down, but out of the end zone-only to ultimately give up the game winning touchdown pass to JOSEPH ADDAI! Of course the defense had help in losing this game as Alex Smith tossed an INT to cement the loss.

For once the defense did not lose this game. By all account the defense WON this game. Other than a couple Crabtree passes and a Gore touchdown with a few decent runs the offense might as well not have taken the field. The defense held its ground at the end when it mattered most. People say this is a “proud” defense, finally they have a real reason to feel that way. 5 interceptions is a hell of a feat, Cutler can clearly go either way in a game and credit the 49ers for making sure he went south tonight. If Mark “Oh Shit” Roman can get an interception, you know things are going your way.

Now the team needs to build off of this game, a cliché I know, but the defense did a lot of things right aside from getting blown up on screen plays to Matt Forte all night long. I guess they made up for that by shutting down his rushing attempts for the duration. The offense clearly needs a defibrillator on the sideline to shock some life into the offense. I think the Bears were intent on shutting Vernon Davis down and they did. Last time I checked there were 10 other guys out there with him, Jason Hill was a ghost this week. Josh Morgan wasn’t much better. This offense needs all the skill players to step up if they want to change this from a long season to a lengthy season. Last point, the new slogan for this team should be “It’s the defense, stupid.”

The 49ers ended their losing streak by beating the Bears 10-6, or should I say Jay Cutler broke the streak for them on Thursday night. The 49ers were gift wrapped five interceptions by Jay Cutler and walked away with only 10 points. That isn’t a typo, the 49ers once again couldn’t do crap on offense, well besides Frank Gore and even he seemed to struggle at times, thanks once again to a crappy offensive line.

Alex Smith was unimpressive again this week, he even did he best Cutler impression and tried giving the game away, but Cutler just wouldn’t let himself be outdone.

The 49ers are now 4-5 on the season and who knows maybe this win will give them some momentum, unlikely considering Jimmy Raye is still the OC. Once again late in the 4th the 49ers tried running the clock out, but just like they did in the Vikings game they couldn’t get a first to put the game away. Not sure I can blame Raye this time though, considering Smith might have gave the game away.

All in all another piss poor performance from the offense who was gifted 5 interceptions by the defense, who almost didn’t stop the Bears offense from winning this game. Any other quarterback not named Cutler and the Bears most likely would have walked away with the victory. One good thing is the 49ers get an extra couple games to prepare for the Packers.

The two part highlights from the 49ers/Titans game have been put up over at NinerTV. Thanks again to Jason for the work on putting together the videos.

NinerTV

After watching the 49ers over their last six games, it’s obvious Singletary is in over his head. Over those six games the 49ers have lost five of them. Hate to say it but Singletary should be with this team for only eight more games. At the end of this season, the Yorks should buy out his contract, give him some water and say thanks for your motivation and leave it at that.

The 49ers went into the season preaching Physicality with an ‘F’ and after watching every game this season it’s more Phailure with an ‘F.’

I honestly believe we were all fooled into thinking that this team under Singletary could be good, who could blame us. Last season Singletary took over a 2-5 team and got them to 7-9. We all drank the Kool-Aid. If we only knew now what we didn’t know then, I’m sure most of us would have hoped the Niner brass held off on announcing Singletary as Head Savior so quickly, when not shortly after coaches like Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren and even John Gruden became available.

Yesterday’s lose to the Titans was Mike’s 16th game as Head Coach and with that loss his overall record landed him at 8-8. I know most Niner fans are thinking 8-8 is great, but seriously, are we now at the point where 8-8 is acceptable? Have we got to the point where we as fans are so sick of horrid records that anything close to .500 is exciting. At one point we could accept the bad records as not having the right tools in place, but if you look at this team there are some very good players on this roster and I have to say the coaches are not utilizing those players right. Let’s take yesterday for example. Jason Hill, who had no catches going into the game, finished the day with four catches and two touchdowns. The only reason he got in was because Isaac Bruce got a little banged up on one play. It was obvious after week two that Isaac Bruce was no longer starting material and it took the Head Coach 8 weeks to figure that out.

From Week One the 49ers put the team on the back of Shaun Hill, another player who fooled us into thinking he was good. It was actually Mike Martz who fooled us, because as you could see of Hill under Jimmy Raye he couldn’t do crap.

Spare me the 3-1 to start the season, the defense, Frank Gore and special teams won those three games. All Hill had to do was not turn the ball over.

Now, not all the blame goes to Singletary, Scot McCloughan gets a lot of it as well. It is him that is responsible for drafting the players and one area he has failed at is the offensive line. Which is a big issue, because heading into the season Singletary and Co. wanted to pound the ball and punch people in the face. Newsflash, you can only do that if you have the offensive line for that and that was something Singletary and Co. didn’t realize. Marvel Smith, Tony Pashos, Adam Snyder, Barry Sims, David Baas, Chilo Rachel. All that is is a revolving door of crap. It’s sad when I long for the days of Jonas Jennings and Kwame Harris.

So when they let Mike go they need to take a long hard look at McCloughan as well. McCloughan has been here just as long as anyone and not a lot to show for it, minus Willis, Davis and Gore.

The one part of this team that Singletary is 100% accountable for is that of offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye. Raye was Singletary’s choice, he was the one who believed Raye would be the man to help punch people in the face, after eight weeks it’s more of a light slap.

We all know what will happen though. The team will finish either 7-9 or 8-8, they will not make the playoffs. No changes will be made, well maybe a new OC will be brought in. But aside from that after this season we as fans will be promised the same thing we have been since Nolan. Team is heading in right direction, we have the players needed to execute, we want winners, blah, blah, blah. Then we’ll get to see the likes of Shanahan, Holmgren and Gruden head to other bad teams and watch them turn those teams around while we sit and continue to watch this team in all its mediocrity.

Where is Jim Mora Sr. when you need him. It has now got to a point where I feel nothing for this team. They win great. They lose oh well. It is a sad state of affairs that this team has lost four in a row. With that said let’s take a look around Ninerland for this weeks Monday Morning Punter.

• Maiocco breaks down the four turnovers yesterday, which resulted in 24 points
• Quick Hits from Maiocco regarding the loss
• Has the coaching staff finally realized what 95% of the fans have, that Isaac Bruce is done in this league and no longer a starting WR, (Bruce did not get the start and even lost the #3 spot to Jason Hill
• Speaking of Jason Hill, he is just the second WR to score a touchdown, and he had two yesterday. Nice to see they basically had him on the bench for 7 weeks
• Stating the obvious, but the 49ers seriously need help at the KR and PR positions
• Kawakami has his spin on things
• Vernon Davis was 10 for 102. First tight end to go over 100 since Eric Johnson did it back in 2004.
• Peterson of the Merc asks if Alex Smith regressed in lose to Titans
• Thank God for Andy Lee, he boomed three punts that had a net average of 53.3 yards.

]]> http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/mmp-playoffs-playoffs/feed/ 0 http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/mmp-playoffs-playoffs/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/49ersnews/~3/N7QY506uhEU/ http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/four-in-a-row/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:13:48 +0000 erickson@49ersnews.com http://49ersnews.com/?p=4079 How embarassing. The 49ers dropped their 4th in a row today to the Tennessee Titans. That's right the 49ers got beat at home to a team with the worst passing defense in the league...

How embarassing. The 49ers dropped their 4th in a row today to the Tennessee Titans. That’s right the 49ers got beat at home to a team with the worst passing defense in the league and a team that is quarterbacked by Vince Young.

Where do I begin. Playcalling was crap, offensive line was crap, quarterback was crap (3 INTs and a fumble), secondary couldn’t stop big pass plays by Vince Young. I know I’m forgetting something else.

Can’t wait to hear Mike Singletary’s spin on this one. So much for being ‘Physical’ with an ‘F’.

The saddest part is the Titans got 24 points off of turnovers.


]]> http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/four-in-a-row/feed/ 113 http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/four-in-a-row/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/49ersnews/~3/dy_bkTKEgW0/ http://49ersnews.com/2009/11/moral-victories-are-not-victories/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:13:36 +0000 erickson@49ersnews.com http://49ersnews.com/?p=4074 After last Sunday’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts, in another very winnable game, I find myself ignoring the good points, something I normally do to keep a positive attitude.  I felt like Dennis Green after his Arizona Cardinals “let them (Chicago Bears) off the hook.” For the second week in a row, the 49ers [...]

After last Sunday’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts, in another very winnable game, I find myself ignoring the good points, something I normally do to keep a positive attitude.  I felt like Dennis Green after his Arizona Cardinals “let them (Chicago Bears) off the hook.” For the second week in a row, the 49ers squandered a big win on the road against a playoff caliber team. And three of their four losses have been from the “aw shucks, we ALMOST won” variety. Those are the games that separate the winners from the also-rans. All four losses have come from teams over .500, who look like they’re headed for the post-season. So at the very least, the 49ers are winning games they’re supposed to and being competitive in games they’re not. But the time for moral victories has come to an end. Once it becomes OK to lose games, then the team will be complacent with “good” losses.

What went wrong:
The offense struggled mightily against the Colts defense, particularly the defensive line. Aside from the long touchdown run, Frank Gore found very little running space.  However, he only received 13 carries. The loss of Joe Staley definitely hurt, but the 49ers need Gore to balance the offense. They will have to find a way get through basically the rest of the season without Staley, so proving they can run without him will be vital.  The ultra conservative play calling was a huge factor in the loss. Two weeks ago against the Texans, Alex Smith orchestrated three touchdown drives out of the Spread formation. They were forced to play from behind and scored out of the formation that Smith is notorious for succeeding in. Against the Colts, Smith took snaps under center for the majority of the game, once getting stepped on by center Eric Heitmann. Whether that’s a quarterback error, or center’s is up for debate, but that wouldn’t happen in the Shotgun. Come on Jimmy Raye, we all see it, why can’t you? It’s usually hysterical to me how fans think they know more than the coaches, but in this case, I’ll let it slide. I think team’s have to adjust to the players they have, not force the players into the system. I understand the philosophy the offense has adapted, but a few calls out of the Shotgun won’t compromise the integrity of the run game. It’s aggravating to see three and outs so consistently.

Whether it was rust or nerves, Smith has to work on his accuracy. He was not sharp, completing 19 of 32 passes for a touchdown and interception. The interception was a tipped ball, but thrown poorly as it was off target anyway. In the 4th quarter, Smith avoided a defender and found a wide open Isaac Bruce, but he threw it behind Bruce. A few of Smith’s passes were off mark, but these errors are correctable and coachable.

Thanks to the weak NFC West, the 49ers still have a great chance to win the division. Their 3-0 start in the division will also help with any tie-breakers. If the 49ers can capitalize and go undefeated in the division, a feat that should not be difficult, their playoff hopes will remain strong. Out of the next seven games, the 49ers need to win only four games to stay at or near a .500 record, then finish off the season against the Lions and the Rams. But enough looking ahead, this week is a must-win to break a three game losing streak. The Tennessee Titans may be 1-6, but are coming off a big win thanks to Chris Johnson’s 228 yards and two touchdowns. He is always one carry away from a big gain, his 6.9 YPC average tells us that. However, the Titans defense has struggled immensely since the departure of Albert Haynesworth, and the secondary does not resemble the Pro Bowl secondary it was last year. It will be up to the 49ers defense to stop Johnson, and the offense must exploit the weak secondary of the Titans.

These good losses are starting to take its toll on the team. At the end of the year, no one takes into account how many close games were lost. The only thing that matters is the amount of wins. This has to be the end of the close losses because the mid-point in the season is here, and a 4-4 record will be the first time the 49ers are .500 at midseason since 2002, their last playoff appearance year. This game may be the most important game of the season so far, either they continue their losing streak, or get back on track to winning the division.

Follow me on Twitter. Username: jarrod49ersnews


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