49ers looking for better preparation amidst 4-game skid

"Desperation" isn't a word that the 49ers like use around these parts. But after losing their fourth straight game and falling to 3-5, how else can we sum up the 49ers mood of feeling at the moment?

"Desperation is a word I won’t use," said head coach Mike Singletary. "Preparation is the word I want to use. We just have to prepare better. We have to prepare, we have to game-plan."

If that's the case, then the 49ers did not prepare well at all for the Tennessee Titans. Knowing that the Titans have the best rushing attack in the league, the 49ers could not contain running back Chris Johnson. Johnson ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Vince Young also had a 7-yard touchdown run.

"A lot of our guys in our locker room know that we can play," said running back Frank Gore after the game. "We know what we can do on the field. It just comes down to two or three plays that really hurt us. The need for two to three plays is real big and it cost us the game. That’s what’s been happening the last couple of weeks and we’ve got to fix it. We have to fix it if we want to go forward and win.”

The mood in the locker room after the game was more optimistic about things to come than I had expected.

"I feel good about the team," said tight end Vernon Davis. Davis finished with a career-high 10 catches for 102 yards on Sunday. "We have a lot of time, this isn’t the end of the world. We just have to keep getting better in practice and learn how to finish games."

The 49ers don't have a lot of time to prepare for their next opponent. The 49ers will host the Chicago Bears on Thursday night for the first of the NFL's mid-season Thursday Night games. The team is still optimistic on what they can accomplish for the rest of the season.

“We don’t have any quit in us, we are just going to pull it together and get ready for Thursday," said linebacker Parys Haralson. "We aren’t giving up on anything. We still feel that we can get accomplished what we want accomplished. That’s what we are shooting for.”

“We can accomplish anything we want," wide receiver Josh Morgan stated after the game. "Like we say every week, we just have to finish.”

Singletary said that the team has struggled to finish out games and that is the main reason for their recent losses. Even with a lead going into halftime, the 49ers came out flat in the second half. The 49ers have not played with the same intensity as they did in the first half.

"We have to finish games, it’s as simple as that," Singletary explained. "When it came down to whatever else I was talking about, it comes down to finishing football games. And that is the thing that we’re not doing. We’re not finishing football games. If you go back to Minnesota, if you go back to Indianapolis, if you go back to the game today, take your pick, we’re not finishing games. We have to finish games.”

The 49ers will have to take that mentality into Thursday night against the Bears. The Bears (4-4) are coming off a blowout loss to the NFC West division leader Arizona Cardinals. It might be a good thing for the 49ers to have such a short turnaround before their next game.

“It’ll be nice in the sense that you won’t have a lot of time to dwell on it," said quarterback Alex Smith during the press conference after the game. "You have to turn around and go tomorrow. Tomorrow will be Chicago film, and we’ll be going.”

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Thoughts on the team:

** It was frustrating to watch the game from the pressbox on Sunday. Smith dropped back to pass 51 times during the game, the highest of any quarterback all season long in offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye's offense. Running back Frank Gore only had 15 carries for 83 yards-- two more carries than last week. Had Gore gotten 20 carries, he would be sitting nice at 110 and that might have helped counter the 135 yards from Chris Johnson.

But now I look at the team and I noticed that the offense has now changed to cater Smith. We saw a lot of two tight end sets and shotgun for Smith, something he's comfortable in. Instead of running the ball more, the 49ers are now a pass-happy team. The passing in my opinion is fine. But when it takes away potential carries from the team's biggest offensive weapon, that's the problem.

Obviously the passing game didn't do so well on Sunday. Smith had three interceptions on the day. Granted that two of them came off tipped passes, but an interception is no excuse when a ball is overthrown. Smith also had two fumbles on the day. The offensive line played decent for the most part, but getting Smith comfortable in the pocket cannot come through nearly 50 pass plays on offense. The team needs to run the ball a lot more.

Earlier in the year, the 49ers tried to run the ball more and it didn't work out too well. When the team switched quarterbacks, the passing game improved, but the running game disappeared. Head coach Mike Singletary said he wanted an equal balance of run and pass on offense. That wasn't the case on offense on Sunday. There wasn't enough run to relieve the pressure off the passing game.

** Saw a lot more emotion from Singletary than I have ever seen before after the loss. When asked about his thoughts on the Cardinals going up two games on the division, Singletary was louder than ever before, exclaiming that he isn't thinking about them.

“I don’t care about the Cardinals. I care nothing about the Cardinals. I care nothing about anything else that’s happening in the NFL. I don’t care about that. The only thing I care about is this football team realizing that we can win games if we do not kill ourselves. It’s as simple as that. I don’t care about the Cardinals. Done.”

But it seemed like Singletary started to get defensive when earlier in the press conference, Santa Rosa Press Democrat writer Matt Maiocco asked him as to why the team used two tight ends in spread offense. Singletary immediately snapped back.

“You’re asking me why I did it? You’ve been asking me all week why I wouldn’t I do it. Now you’re asking me why did I do it. You know what? It’s as simple as this: we thought it would give us the best chance to win."

Well, we do have to wonder what the offense is all about when we see the offense changing so dramatically in a few weeks since Alex Smith started to play quarterback.

** There is a new change in the wide receiver position. Veteran Isaac Bruce did not start on Sunday. Instead, he was replaced by Josh Morgan and was placed as the third wide receiver. Then midway through the game, Jason Hill came in to replace Bruce. Bruce didn't play all of the second half. Hill took advantage of the opportunity by catching four passes, two for touchdowns. Hill had been complaining about his lack of playing time and opportunity in the team offense. He got his shot Sunday and helped the 49ers grab the lead at 17-10 right before halftime. No report as to why Bruce was taken out since he isn't on the team's injury list.

** On 4th & 1 near the goal line, the Titans ran an option play to Chris Johnson along the left side line. Linebacker Parys Haralson had Johnson in his grasp, but the elusive running back escaped and scored on the play. Had Haralson made the tackle, the 49ers would still be holding at 20-17 lead with possession. This play, in my opinion, was the turning point of the game.