Unfortunately for the 49ers this weekend’s 24-30 loss to the Green Bay Packers looked much like their loss to the Texans in week 7, a very impressive second half rally that fell short due to the massive hole the team found themselves in after a miserable first half performance. Part of the Niners first half woes were due to a great first half by Aaron Rodgers who, though he would never admit it, most likely came into the game with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and he is not the kind of player that opposing teams want to give any more motivation to. Even though Rodgers showed why he should have been the number one overall pick back in the 2005 draft Alex Smith showed that given a chance to play in a spread system he would have a chance to match the great numbers that Rodgers is putting up in Green Bay.

Once again for the 49ers the first half and the second half was the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which tells me that while the Niner coaches do a good job of making adjustments they don’t do a great job in their initial planning and I believe some of that may be due to Mike Singletary’s over commitment to a team identity his team isn’t built for. The I-formation power game did nothing for the Niners or Alex Smith in the first half as he was three for seven with five yards after the first half and the Niners were down 23-3.

In the second half, however, when playing almost exclusively out of a spread formation the Niners put up 21 points and Smith went 13 for 26 for 218 yards with three touchdowns to just one interception for a quarterback rating of 101. I believe one quick glance at Smith’s numbers between when he is playing out of a base spread set opposed to when the team is playing with an I-formation base set shows that the Niners would be better served if they stuck to a spread offense, they would also be doing better by their former first overall pick by doing so.

The difference between a good coach and a great coach is a good coach knows a scheme and knows how to implement if to get results, a great coach finds what his players can do and creates his scheme based on that. Right now Singletary is trying to implement a scheme that he knows works but that his team is not built to handle, while almost ignoring the scheme that his team is not only built for but has thrived in.

The play of Smith is something that is worth getting back to though, and not just his play in the second half of this week’s game but his play so far this year. With Smith there are two ways to look at his year so far: one way is to say how is he looking for someone that is in their fifth year in the league, the other is how is he looking for a 25 year old. It is easy to forget how young Smith is because of how long he has been in the league but it is worth noting that most quarterbacks are in their second or third year when they are 25 and because of his youth Smith’s prime is still a year or two away.

Smith’s future aside right now he is playing better than many other starters in the league. In fact, there are 14 quarterbacks that have started at least five games have worse quarterback ratings than Smith including names such as Marc Bulger, Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, and Matt Ryan. On top of that, Smith is technically less than one full point from being the second highest rated quarterback in the division, and the more of a spread-type offense he runs the better his performance is going to get.

On the defensive side of the ball two things stood out to me. First, that our secondary needs more experience behind Walt Harris and Nate Clements, but with them both being out hopefully that will be one of the positives to come out of this year for the Niners. The second was a little more discouraging and that was the fact that for most of the game the Niners front seven was getting beaten by the Packers offensive line. The Niners only sacked Aaron Rodgers twice and allowed Ryan Grant to rush for 129 yards, the second most any one rusher has gained on the Niners all year. The only teams to get less than two sacks on Rodgers so far this season are the Rams, the Browns, and the Buccaneers, not exactly a group the Niners would like to be associated with. Even the lions had five sacks on Rodgers the first time the two teams played this season.

Granted the Packers had Chad Clifton back at tackle as well as Mark Tausher but Tausher is back with the club to be a back up due to injuries after he was cut and this was both players first game back from injury. I think getting a true starting caliber left side defensive end, getting rid of Kentwan Balmer, and moving Isaac Sopoaga to the backup role could help this team quite a bit in their pass rush. Sopoaga is used to being a 4-3 defensive tackle so although he does a good job of eating up blockers he does not do a great job of getting at the quarterback, and with how well Aubrayo Franklin and Justin Smith have been playing an upgrade on the left side could give the Niners a big boost in their defensive front.

After this loss the Niners are left with a very small chance of making the playoffs but can still show that they are making strides forward if they can finish 8-8 with a tougher schedule than last year. It would be nice to see some more progress from some of their young players before the year is over, namely it would be nice to see Tarell Brown turn the corner and start to make the strides necessary to be a starting corner. The Niners have had the excuse of being a young team long enough, its time for them to start being a good one.