Season Recap - 2010 San Francisco 49ers

Final Record: 6-10

Finished: 3^rd Place in the NFC West

2011 Draft Position: 7^th

Preseason Ranking:  10 

Preseason Letter of Misfortune:

A season full of promise, potential and opportunity awaits the boys from the Bay area. Coach Singletary and his assistants, among them Tom Rathman, a longtime 49er fullback, are preaching toughness to their players. Rathman has built successful running games everywhere he has coached and Singletary, anything but a finesse coach, will gladly pound the ball down opposing teams’ throats if he has the chance.

With the sudden retirement of backup running back Glen Coffee the 49ers have brought in aging Philadelphia star Brian Westbrook to add depth to their corps of runners. Though concussions and a string of other injuries have hampered Westbrook’s effectiveness in recent years, he should still be a solid contributor to the 49ers offense.

The 49ers ran away with a 37-17 victory in their preseason opener against the Colts once Peyton Manning took a seat after putting the Colts up 10-0 early on. However, the victory for the 49ers was anything but a solid outing. Alex Smith managed to only get the offense two first downs and completed a miserable 3-of-9 passes. His backup, David Carr, proved to be more accurate, hitting 9-of-11 passes against the Colts’ backups, but was sacked three times and chased around the pocket quite a bit.

The NFC West is ripe for the taking this season. There is no one team that stands out as the de facto division champion as Arizona has in years past. San Francisco, following the retirement of Warner, has nudged ahead of the other teams in the division and should be the champion by the end of the season. Despite their early difficulties against the Colts, the 49ers played physically and forced Indianapolis into numerous mistakes. All good signs for a team that is still very raw and developing.

The 49ers are scheduled to play an interesting combination of games their first four weeks. Three of them will be on the road (at Seattle, at Kansas City and at Atlanta) and one game will be at home against New Orleans. If the 49ers are going to take control of the division this year they need to start the season right with a victory at Seattle followed by a solid game against New Orleans. By week 5 we’ll have a pretty good idea where the 49ers rank in the NFL.

Once the regular season starts, teams won’t be benching their star quarterbacks. If the first quarter against the Colts was any indication, this team is not yet ready to reclaim their place among the elites in the league.

Week 1: Lost at Seattle Seahawks, 31-6

Ranked – 27

Ouch.

Week 2: Lost to New Orleans Saints, 25-22

Ranked – 26

Taking New Orleans to the wire last night begs the following question - what the heck happened in Seattle two weeks ago? Good teams don't lose games like that, even on the road. 

Week 3: Lost at Kansas City Chiefs, 31-10

Ranked – 28

Offensive coordinator - GONE! Personally, I'd look at the defense. Yes, the offense hasn't scored much, but the defense has allowed 31, 25 and 31 points in three straight games and the saddest part of those scores is New Orleans only scored 25. Allowing Seattle and Kansas City to both ring up 31 points on the aggressive, Singletary-masterminded defense is just outrageous.

Week 4: Lost at Atlanta Falcons, 16-14

Ranked – 28

Man, the 49ers had that game until they lost it - literally. Losing in the last seconds after a big mistake will devastate this shell-shocked team more than the 30 point losses they've already endured this season.

Week 5: Lost to Philadelphia Eagles, 27-24

Ranked – 30

Five straight losses to start the season. Who gets fired this week?

Week 6: Defeated the Oakland Raiders, 17-9

Ranked – 29

So this is what it feels like to actually win a game. I guess nobody gets fired this week.

Week 7: Lost at Carolina Panthers, 23-20

Ranked – 32

Blow them up. This team is not going anywhere this year, even in the pathetic NFC West

Week 8: Defeated the Denver Broncos, 24-16

Ranked – 28

Way to get off the losing track by beating another terrible team. The victory moves the 49ers up a bit in the rankings, but they are still Forked.

Week 9: BYE WEEK

Ranked – 28

St. Louis leads the division at 4-4. With 8 games to play, the 49ers, even at 2-6, are by no means out of it and have the only legitimate shot of all the Forked teams to make something of their season.

Week 10: Defeated the St. Louis Rams, 23-20

Ranked – 23

With seven games to play, the 49ers can only blame themselves if they can't overtake the Seahawks for the division lead by the end of the season.

Week 11: Lost to Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 21-0

Ranked – 27

Seriously? The 49ers couldn't even manage a field goal at home against the Buccaneers. That's quite pathetic. Are we looking at in-season coaching change #3? Singletary better start winning soon. His team at least still has a decent shot to win the division.

Week 12: Defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 27-6

Ranked – 26

At 4-7, the division is right their for the taking. How sad is that?

Week 13: Lost at Green Bay Packers, 34-16

Ranked – 25 (ROCKY WEEK!)

Announcer #1: Do you have any predictions on this game? How do you see this contest going?

            Announcer #2: Well, I feel that strength would have to go to the Seahawks, while experience and the WORLD'S HARDEST HEAD would HAVE to go to Mike Singletary!

Week 14: Defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 40-21

Ranked – 21

At 5-8, the Niners still have a shot at winning the division title. If they can get past the Chargers on Thursday night, they might actually have a chance.

Week 15: Lost at San Diego Chargers, 34-7

Ranked – 27

At 5-9 this team can still win their division. Part of me wants to see this actually happen. The 49ers will have to get by the Rams this weekend to have a chance.

Week 16: Lost at St. Louis Rams, 25-17

Ranked – 26

Finally the 49ers do something right. Singletary should have been gone weeks ago when San Francisco still had a chance to make the playoffs. Once they were eliminated, why even bother making the in-season change?

Week 17: Defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 38-7

Final Rank - 23

Tomorrow, the 2010 Tennessee Titans...