It’s pretty unfortunate when a Mike Singletary-coached team can’t tackle, isn’t focused and decides to give up after one half of football.
In the past, I’ve been guilty (and I’m not the only one) of making default statements such as, “You know the 49ers will come to play against so-and-so because of Singletary,” and “You know the 49ers are always going to play hard under Singletary.”
But after watching the Seahawks completely embarrass the Niners in a 31-6 rout on Sunday afternoon, I won’t be making those statements again any time soon.
The 49ers’ performance was reminiscent of their game in San Francisco last year against the Falcons (a 45-10 loss). They didn’t tackle today, they didn’t play hard and when they got down 21-6 early in the third quarter, they should have just got onto the team bus and headed back to San Francisco because they displayed zero fight in the last 27 minutes and change.
Granted, it’s only Week 1 and the Niners are a good football team. But this is a game they have to win if they expect to compete for a division title. Or at the very least, show up for four quarters. Can you imagine what the post-game speech was like in the locker room afterwards? If Singletary didn’t eat someone’s face off I’d be shocked.
On the other side, Pete Carroll’s squad played inspired football. They held the Niners to only 49 yards rushing (granted, San Fran had to throw the ball the entire second half), forced two turnovers and were 3-of-4 in the red zone offensively.
Amazingly, Mike Williams (yes, that Mike Williams) led the team in catches with four. He racked up 64 receiving yards, which included a 35-yard grab that helped set up a touchdown in the first half, and also finished with a 16-yard-per-catch average.
If anyone would have told me back in January that the Seahawks’ first win wound come with Pete Carroll as their head coach and Mike Williams as their leading receiver, I would have totally bought it. I would have said, “Given what they did at USC together, I could see that. I could also see a Mike Singletary-led team not being able to tackle and Arian Foster single-handily beating the Colts. Also, I can totally see LeBron James staying in Cleveland. He loves it there.”
