Lowell Cohn: Lack of preparation dooms 49ers from the start

SEATTLE - Why is Chip Kelly better than Jim Tomsula?

Excuse me for asking a rude question but, really, what did Kelly bring in Seattle that was any good? What did he show us?

Not much.

Tomsula was capable of getting his brains beat out up here. Lost 29-13 last season, his only season as 49ers head coach before they ran him out of town. For being incompetent. For being a clown. For being The Butcher. So, Kelly lost 37-18 on Sunday and showed nothing. What does that make him?

Maybe he did better than Tomsula. I don't know. I do know the Niners scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter when the game was already over - it ended in the first quarter. Honest, it did. The Niners had three points through three quarters. It was one of the least-competitive 49ers games I ever covered. And Kelly is an offensive genius. Turned NFL offense on its head.

Seriously?

Maybe Tomsula was a genius, too.

One thing I do know for sure. It's about the first play the Niners ran from scrimmage. This play was an all-timer. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert handed off the ball to Carlos Hyde. A typical first play. Certainly acceptable. Except Hyde wasn't there. Not where he was supposed to be. He lined up at wide receiver. Can you believe that?

Gabbert had to run the ball himself, ran for one yard. Go, Blaine.

I must point this out. Every coach scripts the first 20 or so plays. That first play was part of the script. Everyone including the ball boys knew the play. The Niners practiced it all week. And screwed it up.

Does the word “pathetic” do justice to the situation? That play was a symbol for the game. Total lack of preparation. unprepared. I'm sorry, but the 49ers never were in the game. Ran seven offensive plays the first quarter. Got blitzed in time of possession in the game. Phoned it in.

Jim Tomsula could have done all that.

I'll go further. Kelly has a better team than Tomsula ever had. Kelly really does. It's fashionable to blame general manager Trent Baalke for all the Niners' faults. Or Jed York. I give neither of them a pass. But Kelly is the new ingredient, the genius ingredient. And he has a better offensive line than Tomsula had, and first-round pick DeForest Bucker, a stud at defensive end. And Arik Armstead and Jimmie Ward are a year older. And Hyde is excellent and is not hurt.

Not saying this team will be great, but the talent surpasses the Tomsula Niners. Does Kelly surpass Tomsula as a coach?

Kelly needed to bring something new to the table. He certainly did not. He did not bring a better defense - the defense got trashed. He did not bring innovation in the passing game. With the Niners, we saw innovation once upon a time.

Kelly did not bring a better passing game. I'll get to that in a moment. Did not bring a better run game - not when it counted. Kelly gorged out on running yards in the fourth quarter when he needed to pass to compete. It's like he ran out the clock for the Seahawks. The run game ended up with good numbers. So what?

Tomsula could have done that run stuff, and people would have called him dumb.

But I want to discuss third downs on offense. The Niners did not convert a third down in the first three quarters. Were “0” for three quarters. Lamentable no matter who you're playing against.

Here is Kelly on third-down futility, Kelly talking fast, Kelly rushing through his words, Kelly nervous. “Well, we're running man routes, so (Gabbert is) trying to throw to the guy that's open. You're hoping it's a catch-and-run situation where you can catch a ball and knife up the field. You throw short of the sticks. (The receiver has) got to get that ball and take it past the sticks. They're not going to let you throw it past the sticks.”

Which means Kelly was blaming his receivers for not taking it past the sticks. They were supposed to catch those silly, dinky, nothing passes from Gabbert and be heroes and get first downs on their own. No. No. No.

Gabbert is not accurate. On Sunday, he hit one receiver in the back, another in the helmet. Honest he did. A coach cannot ask THAT quarterback to throw precise passes that lead the receiver correctly. Joe Montana you can ask. Not Gabbert. And then you can't ask the receiver to make the first down when the defense knows that's exactly what you're trying to do.

Seattle coach Pete Carroll took that junk away from Kelly all day. Carroll must have been laughing his head off.

Oh, there was another beauty. There were so many beauties. Late in the second quarter, the Niners took over on offense. And held the ball 14 seconds. This may have been a land-speed record.

It comes down to bad game planning. Bad game planning by Chip. It comes down to other things, too, like a crummy roster. Of course it does. But Kelly does not seem to know his players. Did not design plays to help them succeed. As I've written, he is a system coach. Runs the same stuff no matter who plays.

How did that work for you in Seattle, Chip?

Players saw what happened. They mouthed the line Kelly fed them. “The Seahawks were a better team than we were today.”

Today?

Players saw Kelly's game plan. Saw how poorly it worked. Players are smart. Know the score. Know when a coach has it and when he does not. A few more games like this and Kelly will lose the team.

Joe Staley stood at his locker in the losing locker room. The Niners lose so often up here. His face was sad. Sweat dripped down his face.

“Discouraging,” he said.

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