Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole unleashed a title wave of hate during the week when he wrote about the communications problems for the 49ers. It’s not Cole’s fault that San Francisco got crushed by Seattle in week one; he just reported on some of their troubles. That did not sit well with coach Mike Singletary who said there was a “rat” on the team.
Singletary wisely said he was not going to waste time looking for the rat (they have more important on-field issues to fix), but it looks like said rat may have manifested itself. At the heart of Cole’s report about the communication issues was the inability of offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye to properly relay plays to quarterback Alex Smith in a suitable amount of time. The source of the story seemed to have intimate knowledge of the inner-workings of the process and a desire to set the record straight about the problems lying with the offensive coordinator.
The source of the story appeared to be quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson, who was cast as a sympathetic figure in the Cole story. Johnson was a go-between Raye and Alex Smith and was defended in the story: “Johnson couldn’t decipher what Raye was saying during tense moments when the Seattle crowd was making noise.” The whole column by Cole is worth your time because it helps explain how poorly run and organized the 49ers are. Now of course if Alex Smith would just call a play himself and make it happen, this would be a secondary story.
Bottom line is San Francisco has a good defense but their offense is too brutal to be counted on each week. Alex Smith is not a strong quarterback option but he sure isn’t getting much help from his coaches. And it is on Mike Singletary to get this problem fixed.
