Hill is the better qb for protecting the lead. But he can't come from behind.

Earlier in the season with Hill the offensive scheme was very boiled down. The past three games with Smith the offense has been more varied and they seem to be going deeper into the playbook.

This could mean that they (Singletary/Raye) were willing to make adjustments to something that didn't seem to work well. That would be a credit to both of them and really a credit to Hill who was able to put up number which are comparable to Smith (in terms of QB rating) despite greater handicap.

The watered down play selection under Hill could mean that the coach/OC had little confidence in Hill's ability to lead the offense and tried to put the burden of production on everyone but him. It could be that it was understood that if they started the season with Smith and it went badly that the fans would turn on him for good. Smith may have been their guy the whole time but no one wanted to risk riling the fan base. So far the fan base and media has been very kind to Smith this season.

It may also be that Smith looks a lot better than Hill during the week. Smith is a smart guy, he has impressive tools and can look very good. He may win everyone over in practice when everything moves at 80-90% speed. Hill may suffer from the sort of thing that dogged guys like Garcia, Flutie, Pennington (or even Drew Brees until very recently). Guys like that don't fit into the strong armed Marino, Manning type mold that coaches and GMs love. That's why Jeff George has thrown 300+ more passes in his NFL career than Jeff Garcia.

Hill would be getting more out of this offense than Smith and was on an unfairly short leash.

Either way, SF should be looking to draft a QB in April.

It looks like they have two first pick (one from the Panthers) in 2010 so it is a possibility. Something tells me that they'll stick it out with Smith. Figuring that they draft somewhere around 8th through 15th based on their and Carolina's finish+/- they'd probably be looking at Bradford or maybe Tebow. I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with either.

The free agent route looks to be a little threadbare next year (Kyle Orton, Jason Campbell, Tavaris Jackson, etc.), so hopefully Smith ramps it up.

Don't draft Tebow, please, for the love of god.

they could open up the playbook under smith because he can throw the ball more than 10 yards downfield

smith has a better completion percentage, ypa, and a much lower sack rate despite worse blocking. basically the only thing that hill has done better is turn the ball over less, mostly because a)he can't throw the ball downfield anyway and 4 yard dumpoffs are less likely to be intercepted and b) smith now has three picks that have bounced off receivers hands.

i don't know if smith is the answer for the future (probably not; he looked very bad against the bears although the line couldn't pass block at all) but hill is definitely not. and lol qb rating. hill is basically designed to look not bad by qb rating because he does nothing but throw five yard passes.

Consider me tilted four weeks later. It's so obvious that the power running game scheme just doesn't work for this team as currently configured but Singletary's way too stubborn to actually concede to reality. Very depressing.

Lads, how has Kentwan Balmer got on during his limited playing time this year? Would ye be happy to label him a complete bust at this point, or just a disappointment / guy who can contribute something positive to a defensive rotation (which would obviously be tilting given 1st round contract)? Cheers.

Smash mouth football. The 49'ers personnel isn't well suited for smash mouth offensive football. Smith is a better QB behind the shotgun and spread offense. The offensive line is better at pass protection than blocking for the run. The WRs are nearly useless for run plays.
The 49'ers can bring in Hill in the 4th quarter to protect a lead. They do it in baseball.

I agree, but much of the three receiver set offensive production they've seen has come against teams nursing 3 touchdown leads (Houston, Green Bay). It isn't clear that they're going to display the same efficacy in a tight game.

I still think we should come out in the shotgun or spread to see if it will be effective all game long. Teams run the shot gun a lot. If Alex in the spread >>>>>>> Alex under center--we need to change things to make our QB look better. It's not like we always have to run out of the shotgun, but if we ran 75/25 shot gun I think it would work better. Gore can run of the spread pretty well as well. I think the issue is Singletary wants to play smash mouth--but our personnel isn't setup to do that especially with the injuries in the OL and the poor play at the OL--and injuries to Gore. I believe due to Alex's comfort level in the shotgun that we need to run it more or we will continue to be down by a ton of points and forced to run it. I think we should start initiating it. It puts much less stress on our D if the D isn't on the field the whole half.

'85 Bears. Smash mouth football. Has any team which has won the Superbowl since been a smash mouth team?

...the Ravens come to mind (where Singletary started as a coach). He has worked to remake the Niners in that mold.

Problem is Ravens had a much better secondary and a much better OL than we do. I doubt we can get the next Ogden...and Gore isn't to me smash mouth like Jamal was when they won it.

Anyone?

Not that I've paid much attention to him, but since no one else has replied, Balmer hasn't been starting. He gets situational spot play. As a first round pick I believe this qualifies him as a bit of a disappointment. I can't really think of much in the way of any Balmer contributions. I seem to remember some conversation about his being tried at nose tackle, but that role is now quite ably filled by Aubrayo Franklin.

Thanks man. I would have to say that, considering where he was drafted, his production has been majorly disappointing.

Complete win.

Gave up a ton of yards but came up with a bunch of big plays on both sides of the ball.

Sacked Garrard a ton.....

We have a very favorable schedule going forward....let's finish out well.

spread offense seemed to work again, but jax's d is pretty meh.

crabtree looked awesome, and i liked what i saw from delani(sp??) walker too.

pretty weird what happens when we get a pass rush and willis was a beast as usual

This. Also, thank you Vince Young for making it only a two game lead now by Arizona. The MNF game in SF will be huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge obv.

yea for real...cards got the vikes next week and the niners can legit win out (seahawks, cards, eagles, lions, rams). playoffs?!?!?!!?!?! im hopeful to say the least

3 and out. The 49'ers lead the league in 3 and out.

Again Smith shows that he's a lousy behind the center QB. Although not entirely his fault. The conservative play calling didn't help. A pass to Crabtree behind the line of scrimmage didn't fool anybody.
9'ers lost both starting tackles. The coach calling the plays should keep that in mind.

This is true but it can also be attitributed to many things.

First we've had injury issues: Gore, Staley, and other OL issues don't help things.

Secondly we have another new OC and new QB mid-season who hasn't play much in the last 2 seasons and doesn't have all the confidence in the world IMO.

Third, we have had holdouts to Crabtree.

Thing is I think if the team starts playing in primarily a shotgun--I think the team will succeed. Is it ideal against all teams, no. But it can and will work with this team. We have very good skill position guys especially with the emergence of Davis who might be a top 3 TE this year and the great play of rookie WR Crabtree. If this team can fix the following things--I think we can go from playoff fringe team to contender--with that being said they are things that most teams have issues with and that could take a while to fix.

1) OL: We need help through FA or whatever at RT, and both guard positions. We have been fortunate for a couple of big runs this year from Gore--but the OL as a whole has been poor other than Heitmann and Staley.

2) Pass Rush: We had a good pass rush today but Jacksonville is horrible at pass blocking and Garrard has taken a ton of hits lately and fumbles a ton. Obviously can't complain but I'd definitely like to upgrade Haralson who should be used off the bench. If we can keep our front 7 and add a real pass rusher--I think we go from a top 7-8 D to a top 3 D.

3) DBs-I like our corners but our safeties are awful. We give up way too many big plays every week. We were fortunate to give up 360 yards yesterday but only give up 3 points to the Jags. This is something that won't happen every week and needs to improve.

With that being said I like the future of this team. We have 3 very good skill position players in Gore, Crab and VD who are all young. We have arguably the best ILB in the game in Willis and he's very young. We have an excellent front 3 of the 3-4..and we have other good LBers. If we can also improve our returning--I wouldn't be suprised for us to make the playoffs this year (luck) or definitely make it next year. This team isn't far away and we have some studs to take us to the next level. If Alex can continue to play well, I think we can stick with him going forward. We have only been out of 1 game this year and have been ultra competitive with 2 of the best teams in the league on the road (@Indy and @Minnesota) and we beat Zona on the road.

If not for 2 bad halves (@Houston, @GNB) we could be in first place in our division. The team just learns to take it to the next level and play well for an entire game.

i think i'm sold on smith as the answer

ok...that was the worst coaching drive i've seen almost ever