A day after finally dusting off Brian Westbrook, Mike Singletary acknowledged the Niners might have gotten a little carried away after the 31-year-old running back replaced Frank Gore in Monday night’s 27-6 win at Arizona.
Gore, who suffered a fractured right hip, was placed on injured reserve today, confirming what had already been widely suspected: The 49ers will have to navigate the rest of the season without their star running back, a former Pro Bowler who had accounted for 38 percent of their offensive yardage in the season’s first 10 games.
In divvying up carries, they’ll have to monitor the workload of
Westbrook, who had 23 carries for 136 yards and a touchdown against the
Cardinals. It was the fourth-most rushing attempts of Westbrook’s
nine-season, 116-game career, which has been marked by a variety of
injuries, including two concussions last year. Westbrook has never
played a full 16-game season and missed 11 games with the Eagles from
2007-09.
“We just have to be careful about how we use him and how much exposure
we allow him to see,” Singletary said. “… (We need) to be careful
because of the past history with Brian, some of the injuries and things
like that. It’s smart for us to be careful about how we use him, how
often we use him. He’s a talented guy, but we want to be smart about
that.”
Funny, huh? The 49ers have been roundly criticized for not using
Westbrook, who had five carries in the season’s first 10 games. Now
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King has weighed in about what he perceived
to be an overuse of Westbrook on Monday night (click here, fourth item).
Westbrook will split the backfield duties with rookie Anthony Dixon, who
had 54 yards on 14 carries and scored a touchdown against Arizona.
Dixon’s special-teams duties will likely be scaled back given his more
prominent role on offense.
• Looking ahead to the Green Bay game, which is preceded by a short week
due to the Monday night contest, here’s how Westbrook has fared the
week after the three highest carry totals of his career.
* On Dec. 7, 2008, Westbrook had 131 yards on 33 carries in a 20-14 win
against the Giants. Eight days later, he had 53 yards on 16 carries in a
30-10 win against Cleveland.
* On Nov. 18, 2007, he had 148 yards on 32 carries in a 17-7 win against
the Dolphins. Seven days later, he had 52 yards on 17 carries in a
31-28 loss to the Patriots.
* On Dec. 25, 2006, he had 122 yards on 26 carries in a 23-7 win against
Dallas. Six days later, he had just one carry as the Eagles rested
their starters in their regular-season finale.
• Today was Roster Shuffle Day in Santa Clara as Gore and WR Dominique
Zeigler (torn ACL) were placed on injured reserve, ending their seasons.
Replacing them on the 53-man roster are RB DeShawn Wynn and S Chris
Maragos.
In addition, K Shane Andrus was waived, meaning Joe Nedney (knee) will
likely be healthy enough to handle the kicking duties against Green Bay
after the missing the past two games. OT Xavier Fulton was also waived
from the practice squad.
The 49ers have three open spots on their practice squad and one on their active roster.
• The 5-foot-10, 232-pound Wynn will be making a homecoming Sunday. He
was drafted by the Packers in the seventh round of the 2007 draft out of
Florida. He spent parts of three seasons in Green Bay, rushing for 203
yards on 50 carries and scoring four touchdowns as a rookie.
• Because inquiring minds want to know … maybe: Singletary was asked why
he wore sunglasses Monday night with the roof closed at University of
Phoenix Stadium.
“I wore them out before the game and really felt comfortable in them,”
he said. “It’s pretty well lit in there. I kind of liked them.”
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