SerpentVenom -- Nolan Nixed by Niners

Nolan Nixed by Niners

by Michael

I've been waiting to type that headline all season. Nolan's management of the team has been a joke practically from day one. His handling of Alex Smith should ensure that he never get another head coaching gig in the NFL. You don't draft a QB at number one, start him before he is ready, change offenses on him every year, and provide no receivers for him to throw to, and then blame him for playing poorly.

Nolan should have been axed last season. The team underperformed and his way of dealing with the poor performance was to blame the players. Granted the team didn't have a lot of standout players, but he used the same excuse the year before AND the year before that. Nolan was the one drafting and signing these guys. At what point does it become his responsibility?

I liked Nolan when he first came to the team. My impression was that he would bring discipline and install a strong defense built around a strong corps of line-backers. But that never happened. Instead the defense kept falling behind. The line had trouble putting pressure on the QB without the blitz. The defensive backs provided little to no coverage on WR's, constantly giving up big plays on third and long. So much for his defensive expertise.

Nolan also had a hard time managing the clock in close games. How many times did the half end with the Niners moving the ball and one or more timeouts on the board? How many bad replay challenges did he make that cost the team precious time-outs? Who could he blame for those lapses?

So now the Niners have to start over. I don't know if Mike Singletary will be kept on after this season, and I don't envy him having to take over under such circumstances. Who knows? Maybe the team will play hard for him. Maybe not. At least they didn't put Mike Martz in charge. The guy may know offense, but he's really no better than Nolan in managing a team.

Posted under Sports in Mind on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 15:49