Here are five quick-hit observations from the Rams’ huge 25-17 victory over the 49ers on Sunday.

1. There’s no way Mike Singletary can retain his job.
This was a massive win for the Rams but I have to talk about Mike Singletary first. This man continues to prove that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a head coach at this point in his career. Once again, he got into another shouting match with his starting quarterback when he and Troy Smith went at it in the third quarter. Right before the altercation, Smith had thrown an interception and Singletary told Alex Smith to start warming up. That must have angered Smith, who had been brutal but the Niners were only trailing 22-14 at the time. Singletary decided to put Troy Smith back into the game, but benched wound up benching him for the fourth quarter. Singletary clearly doesn’t know how to manage NFL quarterbacks and if I’m the 49ers’ brass, I wouldn’t wait a millisecond before firing him at the conclusion of the season. He benched Troy Smith in favor of Alex Smith a couple of weeks ago, even though Troy Smith had posted a winning record in his five starts. Then, with the team’s season on the line this weekend in St. Louis, Singletary again makes a switch, only to bench Troy Smith in the fourth quarter anyway. Granted, it doesn’t matter. The 49ers weren’t going to make the playoffs and Troy Smith was awful. But this is the NFL. This isn’t a video game where you jostle between quarterbacks every quarter in attempt to strike lightening in a bottle. Too much preparation and planning goes into a game the week before for Singletary to keep going back-and-forth between quarterbacks. It’s freaking idiotic and seeing as how this wasn’t the first time one of his players has yelled at him on the sidelines, it’s also apparent that he doesn’t have control of his team. I wouldn’t trust him to run my car at this point, let alone my football team.

2. The Niners should call Chucky.
Once San Francisco cans Singletary, the first call the front office needs to make is to Jon Gruden. Assuming he wouldn’t mind leaving the booth and coming down to the sidelines again, Gruden would be a perfect fit for the Niners. After the debacle that is Mike Singletary, San Fran will need a head coach that knows how to manage quarterbacks. Chucky won a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson and won a division title with Jeff Garcia, so clearly the man knows how to do just that. Whether or not they stick with Alex Smith or Troy Smith is irrelevant. Gruden can figure that out once he comes aboard but the key is that the Niners need to hire an established coach that can help restore the order that has been lost under Singletary. The players need someone that they can follow and who they trust, not some windbag who likes to here himself talk but who doesn’t have the faintest idea about the X’s and O’s of the game.

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Fans that were hoping Mike Singletary would get the boot during the season won’t have their prayers (for lack of a better word) answered anytime soon.

49ers owner John York says that he’s committed to Singletary through the duration of the season despite the team’s 1-6 start. The Niners were the preseason favorites to win the NFC West but despite all their talent they can’t get it together on Sundays.

Barring a miracle second half, Singletary is likely out at the end of the year. His rah-rah style was great when the Niners showed steady improvements but it has obviously started to wear on players. And if the players don’t want to fight for their head coach in good or bad times, then there’s no sense keeping him employed.

What’s really interesting is the idea that Singletary may not get another head coaching job after bombing so badly in San Francisco. That might be premature of me to write, but he’s shown an inability to make in-game adjustments and is turning into a P.R. nightmare. This isn’t a movie – you can’t give the “halftime speech” every week and then get your ass handed to you on the field. Winning is the only thing that matters in the NFL.

Even if he’s fired by the 49ers, Singletary needs to use these last nine games as an audition for other teams. Because unless he wants to go back to being a linebackers coach, he needs to prove that he can outmatch other coaches in the league.

It’s usually not advantageous to put too much on one game. After all, if the 49ers lose to the Raiders on Sunday, it’s not like they’ll be eliminated from the playoffs.

But lose to the Raiders and Mike Singletary and Alex Smith could be stuck in the unemployment line together sooner rather than later.

Team president Jed York gave Singletary the dreaded vote of confidence last Sunday before the Niners went out and lost their fifth game in a row (a 27-24 barn-burner to the Eagles). Singletary then turned around on Monday and said that he was sticking with Smith, despite the quarterback’s 6:10 touchdown-to-turnover ratio.

Something has to give. Some people still believe that the 49ers can turn things around because of the division they’re in. But as Bill Parcells once said: You are what your record says you are. And the Niners’ record says they’re playing like gorilla feces right now.

Smith has shown signs that he can command the offense (most notably on the final drive against the Saints and the opening drives in losses to the Falcons and Eagles the past two weeks), which is why Singletary has decided to stick with him. But he can’t continue to turn the ball over and hope to retain his job. He’s fortunate that David Carr is behind him, or else Singletary may have made a change by now.

San Francisco fans are clamoring for Carr to get a start, but as the faithful in Houston, Carolina and New York can attest, he’s not the answer. Just because he was a former No. 1 overall pick doesn’t mean he can play the game (just look at Smith) and while I understand that fans would rather see a 67-year-old Jeff Garcia take the snaps than Smith, Carr is a back up on his fourth team for a reason.

It’s now or never for this team. Lose to Oakland to fall to 0-6 on the year and consider all hope lost. Beat the Raiders behind a consistent Smith and then maybe this team can start talking about a comeback.

The problem with motivation is that when it comes from the wrong person, it carries as much weight as loose leaf paper.

Mike Singletary is a great motivator, but it appears that nobody’s listening anymore. The 49ers nearly pulled off a great upset on Monday night against the Saints, but then followed it up with an uninspired 31-10 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday.

Today, the first axe fell in San Francisco as offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye was fired. The move was hardly shocking when you consider how inept the Niners have been on that side of the ball this year. They currently rank 20th in total offense but are averaging just 12.7 points-per-game, which ranks them 31st in the NFL. There have also been reports that Kansas City defenders were calling out San Francisco’s plays yesterday before the snap, which is troubling to say the least. Some offensive coordinators can be predictable in their playcalling, but there’s a much bigger problem at hand if your opponent knows what you’re going to do before the snap.

But back to Singletary. The 49ers no longer seem to be responding with his methods and even appear to be tuning him out. Fans and the media like his post-game pressers and his intense persona, but if it doesn’t work with the players then none of it doesn’t matters.

There haven’t been any reports to suggest that Singletary will lose his job, but it’s not like the 49ers have it any easier over the next two weeks. They’re in Atlanta this Sunday and then host the Eagles in Week 5. They catch a break with the Raiders, Panthers and Broncos in Weeks 6 through 8, but if they continue to play as poorly as they did in Kansas City yesterday then it won’t matter who they’re playing.

Quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson will replace Raye as offensive coordinator, so maybe he’ll provide a spark. But even if he does, the players still have to believe in what Singletary is preaching because if not, then Raye won’t be the last to go.