At 0-5, style points don’t matter. And neither does the opponent.
Good thing for the Niners, whose 17-9 win over the hapless Raiders wasn’t overly artistic and didn’t offer compelling evidence that they can back up Jed York’s guarantee. Still, an ugly win is an ugly win is an ugly win.
A look inside this ugly win:
ALEX SMITH: You know how this goes. He looked awful. Then, suddenly and
rather inexplicably, he looked very good. But this game didn’t follow
the typical script. This time, there was no killer mistake — a huge
departure for a guy who had more turnovers (10) than 19 NFL teams
through the season’s five weeks.
Mike Singletary said the goal was to have every drive end with a kick —
that is either a punt, field goal or extra point. And Smith made sure
the Niners accomplished that pregame goal.
In that sense, he was flawless, but Smith began by looking horribly
flawed. He wasn’t helped by some horrific offensive line play in the
first half, but Smith was 3 of 12 for 26 yards on the Niners’ first five
possessions, drives that netted 47 yards and featured more punts (5)
than first downs (3).
At one point, he airmailed Josh Morgan on a seam route and punched the
air in frustration. Honestly, he looked lost. I recall thinking that
maybe all the talk during the week — don’t press, play more fearlessly,
don’t turn the ball over — had messed with his mind.
Of course, as soon as you think Smith’s a lost cause, he looks like a former No. 1 overall pick.
After posting a 39.6 passer rating on those first five drives, he
finished with a 119.1 rating on the final seven drives — completing 13
of 21 passes for 170 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
What if he did that for four quarters?
DEFENSE: It’s unfair to discount what appears to be a brilliant
performance — 179 yards and 10 first downs allowed — but the Raiders,
playing without Bruce Gradkowski and Darren McFadden, looked so
comically inept that it raises the question of just how much resistance
was required.
Jason Campbell showed precisely why he was benched after the season’s
first six quarters – his 10.7 quarterback rating was the worst against
the Niners since the Saints’ Archie Manning compiled an 8.7 rating in
1972. In addition, Campbell, who went 35 minutes between completions,
had the lowest completion percentage (8 of 21, 38 percent) against San
Francisco since Chicago’s Cade McNown completed 9 of 29 passes (31.0) in
2000.
Oakland’s Keystone Cops routine included a backward pass by Campbell, a
ball that clanged off Jacoby Ford’s hands and directly to Takeo Spikes
and a third-and-14, fourth-quarter pass that Campbell seemed to fire
angrily at Michael Bush, as if he was ticked off that no one was open
downfield.
Still, as Shawntae Spencer noted “they’re professionals, too.” And the
Niners had something to do with Oakland’s embarrassing performance.
Manny Lawson’s first-half interception was the type of play you don’t
expect a 6-5, 240-pound linebacker to make — Campbell called it one of
the best picks he’s seen. Spikes, 33, continues to show why rookie
NaVorro Bowman’s time will have to wait and Parys Haralson got his third
sack in his past three games after posting five sacks in his previous
20 games. Patrick Willis was, again, oddly quiet, but did share
team-high tackle honors (6) with Spikes.
ISAAC SOPOAGA: I noticed the 6-2, 330-pound Sopoaga shaking and
shimmying during a TV timeout, trying to exhort the crowd. Later, on a
third-and-2 in the fourth quarter, Sopoaga, lined up at fullback, got to
flash his moves in the backfield.
“Oh, I was so anxious,” said Sopoaga, who grew up in American Somoa. “I
was looking forward to it, but this is just fullback. I played rugby 12
years of my life. You know, rugby people — we play with no helmets and
no pads, so this is nothing. I love it, I enjoy it and I hope there is
more coming.”
Here’s Sopoaga’s thoughts on next week, “Now we have one. Next we have
Carolina. I have a great solid spiritual feeling that it’s going to get
to 2-5.”
OVERALL: The officiating was, at times, perplexing — that
intentional-grounding call on Smith seemed to fly in the face of the NFL
rulebook. But that still can’t excuse away those 11 penalties for 143
yards. Dashon Goldson had a silly personal foul (is there another
kind?), the 49ers lined up for a field-goal attempt with nine men on the
field and they had 12 men on the field during a punt return.
Those
penalties, and the woeful offensive performance in the first half, raise
questions about just how much progress the 49ers really showed Sunday.
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