Well, 12 of those sacks came in the first two games (4 in Week 1 and 8 in Week 2). He definitely had a problem holding onto the ball too long in those first two games. I recall several times in the game thread where people were getting furious with him on those plays. One would imagine a precision offense like Martz is not as open to creativity by the QB. For some reason this past week, the Lions did not bring a total pass rush but rather went into some sort of read and react defense. Also they were missing some key pieces of their defensive line so that certainly helped O’Sullivan.

One of the problems last season was the abysmal play of the offensive line. Some changes were made and while the line struggled early, I actually think they’re starting to settle in as a unit. Joe Staley moved to the blind side and after some early struggles seems to be coming together. Center Eric Heitmann broke his leg in 2006 and never seemed fully recovered last season. This season he’s probably been the best lineman on the team. Jonas Jennings struggled before dislocating his shoulder so Barry Sims, signed in the offseason is filling in pretty well for him.

I think it’s been a combination of three things. In my eyes, 1) the pass blocking has been a distant second to the run blocking so far this season, 2) the Martz offense is designed in a way that has traditionally left the quarteback open to abuse, and 3) O’Sullivan as shown poor pocket presence and, in the first two games, a debilitating indecisiveness.

It’s not ALL on O’Sullivan. I think that, particularly in the first two games, the pass protection has been poor. But I also think that JT has played himself into quite a few of those. At least half the sacks in week two came on plays that he tried to extend too long or plays where, instead of stepping up away from pressure, he stepped back directly into it.

But I don’t know how much I would read into it. Each week so far, I’ve had some pretty strong criticisms for JT, and the next week he seems to have magically solved 90% of them. His accuracy, decision making, and pocket awareness have all taken huge steps forward from week to week. I still have no idea which version the real JT is, or if he’s just going to keep getting better, but based on the progression of his play so far this season I wouldn’t set your expectations too high on watching the guy make the same mistakes. He really seems to be responsive to his faults, and a master of the quick fix.

Based on his improvement from year 3 (32 rec/363 yards) to year 4 (59 rec/686) it’s understandable that most people would expect continued development. Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that the 49ers were god-awful those years and didn’t have a lot of receiver depth (Antonio Bryant and Battle were it and Bryant was released before the end of the season).

Now that the team has actual receiving talent, Battle is settling in as the #3 guy. I think having so many receivers now (Bruce, Johnson, Battle, Morgan, Davis) and also the RB/receiver in Gore, Battle’s numbers might end up less than spectacular. Battle has quickly developed into one of those guys who is a great football player, but not a great fantasy football player. He makes huge catches for the team, but not enough to be as much of an impact as he was when the 49ers stunk. Arnaz Battle remains a fan favorite because of the fact that he does the little things.

As a 49er fan, I have not given up on Arnaz, and he’s easily one of my favorite players on the team.

On the other hand, I’m really not a representative sample. I imagine that if you asked a random sampling of 49er fans, they wouldn’t have any strong feelings for the guy.

I wish that he’d be getting more of a chance in the new offense, as I think he’s a very good fit for Martz as a guy who runs crisp routes and has great hands, but he’s being boxed out by more naturally gifted players the same way he has been his entire career. The guy was never going to be a number one. He doesn’t have the speed, the strength, or the separation for that, but I do think that he’s better than he’s being given that chance to show.

That said, I wouldn’t have him on my fantasy team.

If I was a betting man, I’d take the Niners and the points.

It feels recently like it’s been the reverse. The Saints, and particularly Reggie Bush, have cleaned the 49ers clock recently. The spread for this one seems tough to call. Although 6 (down to 5.5 last I checked) makes a bit of sense. It makes sense that the Saints would be expected to win. They’re not a bad team and they’re playing at home. Under a TD makes sense I suppose.

Smith has not lived up to expectations. I am a bit biased, as I have never liked him from the get-go, but he is inconsistent, inaccurate, and has lost any kind of self-confidence he once had. A lot of this probably was a result of going to a crappy team for 3 years, but O’Sullivan is no great QB and has done a bang-up job thus far. I see them going after a QB with one of their first picks in the draft, or going after a QB via free agency after this year.

I have always enjoyed Mike Nolan as a coach for the most part. His no-nonsense attitude about winning brings a good leadership to the team. However, there are a few things (combined with not winning, of course) will have people calling for his head—he is very conservative calling plays (which he’s given up completely to Martz this year, though), doesn’t communicate things very well with some players, and just plain seems to not know offense very well. I think a winning season this year may get him his job back, playoffs or not, but any kind of a losing record will surely bring a new coach to SF.

UnleashTheGore isn’t just biased against Smith, he hates him.

And a lot of 49er fans do.

Personally, I don’t think that Smith has really had a chance to succeed. Many would say that this is just me being a Smith apologist, but really, he’s been in an awful situation with coordinators, surrounding talent, and injuries, and I don’t know that Peyton Manning wouldn’t have been beaten down by that.

That said, he’s never shown enough on the field to remotely justify giving him any chances beyond this year, and considering that he won’t be playing this season because of his injury, his fate is pretty much sealed, and I don’t think that you’ll find very many people, even so-called Smith apologists, particularly bent out of shape about that. Even believers can’t wait forever just to see a guy improve on a 16TD/16INT career best season. His chance was this season, circumstance removed him from that opportunity. Too bad. No backsies. Time to move on.

I do feel bad for him, though. I just don’t feel bad about saying goodbye to him.

Nolan
I do like sense of discipline that Nolan has brought to the team. Even when the team has struggled there has usually been discipline within the ranks (Alex Smith issues related to that to be discussed below). Some of my main problems with Nolan fall under game management. For most games the 49ers seem to operate under the belief that timeouts are not allowed to be used in the final two minutes of each half. I don’t have enough fingers to count how many times they’ve used up their timeouts with more than 5 minutes left in a half.

I think this year could lead to good things because of Martz, which is ironic considering Martz’s apparent ego. Nolan brought in Martz to run the offense and pretty much has let him do his thing. From all reports, Nolan is about as hands-off as one can get with the offense. Nolan came up as a defensive coach and I think he realizes where his strengths are, which I think is the sign of a good coach. It remains to be seen how this will translate over 16 games.

Smith
I definitely think Alex Smith’s time in San Francisco is finished. He is actually still taking part in practice (minus actually performing and traveling with the team), but that doesn’t mean he wants to stick around. I definitely think he needs to hit the proverbial re-start button and get into a new situation. People compare his situation to Aaron Rodgers and I have to call bullshit on that. Rodgers sat behind and learned from a future Hall of Famer while Smith was thrown to the wolves almost immediately. Switch the situations and while Smith still might not meet expectations, Rodgers probably wouldn’t either.

The problem I see with Alex Smith is that he’s too much of a nice guy. JT O’Sullivan’s personality could best be qualified as prickly or abrasive. However, he takes control of the huddle and makes it known who’s in charge.

I really do hope Alex Smith is able to go somewhere and succeed but unfortunately it’s not going to happen in SF. After last year’s communication issues with Nolan about his injuries, things seemed headed for a rocky ending. Even if they’re communicating better now, I think they passed the point of no return. Throw in his ridiculously large salary bumps for 2009 and 2010 and even if he did come back it’d be at a drastically reduced salary. Not likely to happen.

In short, I was really excited with Alex to begin with. After the initial injury his arm strength never got back to what it was… We’ll see about a restructure on the contract (I think) or we’ll cut him. I wont look back.

And I’m a Nolan guy—I’m sticking by him through it all.

That for our all-time team, who do you have him replace: Montana or Young?

In my eyes, neither.

He’s categorized with Cody Pickett and Jim Drunkenmiller in the “also rans”

Leo Nomellini would certainly qualify as an old-timer. I’ve noticed a few older fans but not a ton. In each of our ballots I’ve done my best to include older 49ers at the very least to educate the masses. I don’t even know a ton about 49ers history so it helps me too.

We’ve slowed to a stop in the voting but when we get to the all-time coach I think it’s safe to say that Walsh will not face real competition.