At one point during the first half of Sunday’s game, Mike Singletary stopped Alex Smith as he came off the field and had a few words for his quarterback.
It’s not known what, if anything, Smith said in return. But now we have a better idea of what Smith might have been thinking as Singletary spoke.
In an interview today with Rich Gannon and Adam Schein on SIRIUS NFL
Radio (ESPN’s Mike Sando breaks it down here), Smith allowed that he
wouldn’t mind having less in-game conversation with Singletary. Of
course, Singletary spoke with his quarterback quite a bit more
forcefully during the Week 5 loss to the Eagles and Smith responded with
consecutive touchdown drives.
Gannon, who was the analyst on Sunday’s 49ers-Raiders game on CBS,
broached the subject of a head coach talking with his quarterback during
a game. Gannon, known for his hot temper during his playing days,
suggested quarterbacks would prefer less sideline chatting with the head
coach. Smith didn’t disagree.
“It’s something I’ve gotten used to at this point and I’m ready for, but
you’re exactly right,” Smith said. “As a quarterback, when you do have a
three-and-out or things do not go right, you are the first one to know.
You know more than anyone out there what went wrong and what needs to
be corrected and don’t necessarily always need to hear it when you come
off to the sideline. It’s something I have gotten used to at this point
and can deal with.”
During the interview, Smith said Singletary is more emotional than he is
during a game. Smith said he’s often looking ahead to the next series
when he comes off the field, trying to figure out what corrections need
to be made. Last week, Smith, when asked if he needed to become more
intense during games, talked about the importance of staying
level-headed and maintaining his focus.
“As a quarterback, you’re always trying to reach that level, that level
of intensity, that level of focus. But at the same time, you have got to
make a ton of decisions,” Smith said. “So you’re not trying to get out a
hand, you have to make split decisions, smart decisions throughout the
course of the game. So you can’t lose your even keel, you can’t lose
your level-headedness because the emotions of the game go up and down,
and as the quarterback, I think you’ve got to be that guy that is always
steady.”
In other words, he’s cut from a different cloth from the fiery
Singletary, who almost immediately gave up on his offseason pledge to
stop arguing with officials this season.
Based on the interview, however, there doesn’t sound like there’s any rift
between the quarterback and the head coach. Perhaps Smith could do with
less in-game counsel, but also said that he trusts Singletary and said
the Niners respect their coach’s character and straightforwardness.
By the way, here’s what Singletary said he told Smith on the sideline
during Sunday’s game, “Really, it was just keep pressing. Keep doing
what we have to do. Don’t force it and it will turn out fine.”
OK. Sounds reasonable. But it’s also reasonable to wonder if it did Smith much good on Sunday.
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