On Sunday night, Alex Smith told Mike Singletary he wanted to stay in the game.
Today, Smith, perhaps chastened by his near-benching and postgame meeting with his coach, bared his signal-caller soul to a media throng around his locker.
Asked what changes he needs to make, Smith, the quarterback of an 0-5 team who has thrown an NFL-high nine interceptions, confessed to something many have suspected, but had never heard from him before.
“There are times out there that I know that I play too cautious. I think
that’s when I find myself making those mistakes,” Smith said. “It’s
funny. It’s counter-productive. You’d think playing cautious would lead
the other way … You see at times when I cut it loose and play more
fearless and the results have always been better.”
The Niners have drawn plenty of criticism for their conservative
play-calling this season, but Smith bears some responsibility for their
apparent disinterest in throwing the ball downfield. In so many words,
Smith conceded he’s been more apt to check the ball down — Frank Gore is
tied for fourth in the NFL with 33 receptions — than take chances for
bigger gains.
“In the last couple of weeks, we’ve come out in our opening drives and
scored, but I’ve gotten tentative,” Smith said. “I’ve gotten cautious,
I’ve gotten conservative in the middle of these games and haven’t been
productive and have turned the ball over.”
He said he was forced to play with more abandon with the 49ers trailing
24-10 in the fourth quarter Sunday night. He responded by completing 12
of 16 passes for 123 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in
the final 11 minutes. In a hurry-up drive that started at the Niners 20
with 1:53 left in the second quarter, Smith completed 5 of 7 passes for
57 yards to set up a Joe Nedney field goal.
His finest moment of the season — the Niners’ game-tying drive in a
25-22 loss to the Saints — was also in a two-minute situation. He
completed 4 of 5 passes for 51 yards and had two scrambles for 24 yards —
accounting for more than half of his 45 rushing yards this season.
“The two-minute situations … because we’re playing end of half, end of
the game, you’re kind of forced into that situation,” Smith said. “You
have to cut is loose. You’ve got nothing else to lose, and I think that
mindset is why you’ve seen us perform pretty decent in those
situations.”
That leads to the obvious question — would it make sense for the Niners
to employ a spread-them-out, up-tempo attack during other parts of a
game? Smith didn’t exactly endorse such an idea.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s potentially something for us to look at
week in and week out, depending on the opponent. Not totally sure … Like
I said, if that’s what we end up doing, then great. If not, then great
too. I think that sense of urgency is what I’m talking about as far as
the mindset goes.”
Smith was vague about what he and Singletary discussed in a lengthy
meeting after Sunday night’s game. He said they discussed changes that
needed to be made “moving forward” and that he left the discussion “kind
of unsure” if he would remain the starter.
Asked if a new Alex Smith would emerge starting Sunday, he said, “You
know, obviously I don’t want the same one (from) the last five weeks, that’s
for sure.”
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