Cohn: Singletary one year later, work in progress

Mike Singletary has coached a full season. Do the math — nine games last year and seven this year, and that equals 16. Which brings us to an important question: How has Singletary done in the equivalent of one full season?

Let’s take stock, and remember the team he inherited was not particularly talented, so he’s had a disadvantage.

The 49ers play hard for him. This is partly because he’s an inspiring coach, partly because he himself was a great player and the 49er players respect that.

He has shown himself to be adaptable — more adaptable, frankly, than I expected. Last season, he observed J.T. O’Sullivan, realized he wasn’t a good quarterback, and made the switch to Shaun Hill. This is a sign of a decisive coach, and decisiveness is a bottom-line requirement in Singletary’s line of work. This season he realized Hill’s limitations and made the change to Alex Smith during a game. Again he was decisive and did not hold himself prisoner to his prior plans.

He gets high marks for keeping his mouth shut during the Michael Crabtree holdout, for staying out of the way, for not saying anything stupid. This showed wisdom. A foolish coach would have bad-mouthed Crabtree and made things personal. Singletary went out of his way to praise Crabtree and say there was a place for him on the team whenever he signed a contract.

After Crabtree showed up, Singletary made him a starter because his only goal is to win games. And you win with your best players and only a silly coach would penalize the team by putting Crabtree in the doghouse.

Because of Singletary’s combination of discipline and tough love, Vernon Davis turned into a real football player.

Singletary’s team has played three very good games this season. One was the opening-day win over Arizona, but the other two were the losses to Minnesota and Indianapolis. That’s right, the Niners did well in losses to highly talented teams, didn’t fold or play horribly. They competed. This is because of Singletary.

He still has much to accomplish. His one-season record is 8-8 — not bad but not good, either. It is average. Admittedly, average is much better than what the 49ers used to be — a joke. But average is merely a transition point on the way, hopefully, to something way above average. And Singletary knows that — or should know.

He is a good motivator but sometimes he seems like Harry High School, calling that timeout and exhorting his team on the sideline and not having a timeout when he really needed one. He needs to refine his technique and understand he is coaching professionals.

He is adapting his offense to a new quarterback, Alex Smith, and that is praiseworthy. But the concern lingers that he endorses a run-first, power-wins, Neanderthal offensive philosophy which cannot succeed in the long run. No way. I’ll remind you of something Bill Walsh once told me. He said a power team eventually meets a more powerful team, and then the power team must have a PlanB. Singletary needs to find a PlanB and fast.

He is limited by his quarterbacks. If Smith turns into Peyton Manning, that limit is gone. But he may not become Manning. Singletary must find a way to win with Smith, or he needs a better quarterback. Singletary always has been sparing in his praise of Hill and Smith. With good reason. He knows what they are. If things don’t work out with Smith this season, Singletary and Scot McCloughan must get a quarterback or be condemned to mediocrity.

Singletary’s record this season is 3-4 and he’s riding a three-game losing streak. No one is accusing him of being Mike Nolan just yet. His next two games against Tennessee and Chicago are winnable games and he must take advantage of those teams.

We will know more about Singletary and Smith at the end of this season. Both are still works in progress and “progress” is the operative word. Singletary has shown many positives. Finally, he must show how far he can take this team.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.