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Singletary taking a look how Niners shape up in Raiders scrimmage
By David Zizmor August 21, 2009 |
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NAPA--There is nothing for the San Francisco 49ers to fear too much in order to protect their playbook and facing any kind of spy gate sharing scrimmage duties with the Oakland Raiders in the Raiders Napa training facilities because they don't face each other during the regular season. The Niners obviously don't want to give away too much of their playbook in the scrimmages that would definitely not be helpful for the upcoming game. The 49ers playing the Raiders in a scrimmage is always good. It's one thing to go in practice to play against your own guys but you don't have the same kind of intensity as when you’re going against someone else. Definitely it's a change of pace and it definitely helps the 49ers get their juices flowing it helps them kind of figure out exactly where they are in terms of other teams how they compare. Now one of the problems is that the Raiders are kind of stinky. Comparing yourself to the Raiders might not necessarily be good as a measuring stick as you want it to be it might not actually show you if you’re really all that good or not because we all know that the Raiders aren't all that good. If your better than the Raiders that's not saying much most of the teams are better than the Raiders. Playing against different competitions is always a help if your in practice again it's a change of pace in different levels of intensity that's definitely more fun for the players. Don't worry too much about Joe Nedney: 49ers kicker Joe Nedney during practice this week missed a 51 and 49 field goal try but don't worry too much about Nedney and what goes on too much in the pre season. Nedney's job is 100% safe he's not going anywhere he's actually one of the best kicker's the 49ers have had since Mike Cofer's heyday back in early 90s. Nedney a very good kicker he has a great strong leg and can hit for distance. He's one of the few guys who is consistent from distance and has been consistent for years. Year in and year out this is a guy whose come through in the clutch. He even had a couple of streaks that were among the best in the NFL over the last few years. He does not get as much recognition as other kickers mostly because the 49ers as a team don't score quiet was much as some of the other teams that have really well known kickers. If the 49ers ratchet up their scoring this season when the overall scoring goes up indicates the kicker gets more points too, he gets more field goal attempts, he gets more extra points attempts and the more of those the more points he gets and the more recognition he gets. The Hill and Smith update: I have been saying this all along that 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill should be the starting quarterback and 49ers fans feel the same way. As much as Smith is getting a chance from head coach Mike Singletary he's just getting a chance because the 49ers need to see exactly where Smith is. Remember Smith hasn't been on the field consistently for over a year this is a guy with a series of injuries and has had a number of different offense coordinators. The 49ers want to figure exactly where he is physically and want to see where he is mentally with the new offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye. They just want to see exactly what they have now that might mean that Smith will get a few snaps more than Hill but the 49ers know what they have in Hill. They have seen Hill on the field he's really one of the big reasons that Singletary has a job because he'll perform so well down the stretch like last year winning games. Singletary is inclined to have Hill as the starter simply because Hill has proven himself over the last ten games. Smith needs to prove that he can be stable and stay on the field a little bit more just because the team needs to figure out what's he's up to where he is and where is his development. Hill is the best guy for the job and he performs the best in the game situation and he's the guy who seems to have a good grasp and if you watched last Friday night's game against Denver you saw that Hill was doing a really good job of hitting his receivers within a couple of steps of their pattern. Frank Gore: Running back Frank Gore is one of those very strong backs and a fine runner and when you run in between the tackles like he does you get banged up over and over a course of a season. The amount of times the 49ers have leaned on him as their offensive weapon of choice last year he got banged up. He was hurting by the end of the season and he really needed the off season to rest. That's what Gore did he got his rest but he also worked out. Gore got stronger, got sleeker, and he's been studying the offense that's been tailored made for him. It's the same style of offense when former offensive coordinator Norv Turner was there and Gore set a team record for 1600 rushing yards. This is the same kind of offense that Gore is going to have this year and he was excited by that prospect and he was ready to work as hard as possible. Gore is a guy who is very motivated like Singletary and he wants to prove himself and he wants to prove he's that same guy that the 49ers can trust and he's done that over the past few years. He's been the heavy lifter in that line up and he's proving that he's got some gas left in the tank and he's going to be their go to guy. David Zizmor does 49ers commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio |
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