Lowell Cohn: A new Jim Tomsula meets the media after win at Chicago

SANTA CLARA - Trying to reorient my thinking about Jim Tomsula. Hard work doing that. Feels like moving all the furniture in my mind - and the couch weighs a ton.

Assumed he would be one and done. Out after this season. A defensive-line coach posing as a head coach. And who knows, all that may be true. I sure have trouble believing in the guy.

But something felt different Monday at his news conference. He acted like a man with a future, a man who finally believes in the future. I will get back to Tomsula and the future in a moment. First this.

My gut tells me Tomsula is in more solid than general manager Trent Baalke with owner Jed York. York must notice Baalke repeatedly flunked the draft and put together a bad roster. None of that is Tomsula’s fault.

York could make the case Tomsula is doing a not-so-bad job with the crummy players Baalke gave him. If this is true, Baalke is a marked man, next to walk in front of the firing squad after Paraag Marathe got his the other day.

You even could surmise Marathe got his because of Tomsula. I’m speculating here. But Tomsula had a strange absence from the Niners facility before Marathe got sentenced to minor-league soccer. The rumor is Tomsula and Marathe clashed over the role of analytics in football - i.e. Marathe was pushing his program on the head coach and that led to a fight and the coach won.

This we know about Tomsula, who still has a million things to prove. He is 2-2 with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback. He just beat Vic Fangio and Adam Gase, two men many observers, including me, said would be worlds better as 49ers coach than him. It’s like he announced to York, “I beat Fangio and Gase and that certainly proves I’m for real.”

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

Tomsula can brag his team is playing fairly well without Carlos Hyde and all those stars who defected or retired. Those defections and retirements are more on Baalke than him. He can brag, in spite of all his bad players and bad fortune, the team plays hard for him and may be improving.

I’m not saying it is improving. If Robbie Gould makes that field goal the Niners are 3-9 and we’re not addressing today’s topic. But Gould missed and a win is a win and Tomsula gets credit.

The Niners could finish the season 5-3 in their final eight games, not great, but it doesn’t make you sick to your stomach - they are 2-2 in their past four. Kind of amazing. They ought to beat the horrible Browns next Sunday and they could beat the inconsistent Lions and should beat the horrible Rams the final game. You figure they’ll lose to the Bengals. A 5-3 finish could convince York Tomsula is the guy although, honestly, if I were the owner I’d need more convincing. But I’m just a scribbler.

I had this dialog with Tomsula on Monday. I said, “Your team is competing very well lately. Could you name some specific areas in which the team has improved?”

Here is an edited version of Tomsula’s answer. It was long and I don’t want to run out of space. Look at what he said. Look at how he said it.

“Defensively, I will say that with the scheme and the techniques and playing together in some of the zone defenses and where the guys are and understanding where the other guys fit around you, I think that’s an area that we’ve really improved on. That you would expect to improve on. We’re still not as consistent as I would like us to be in the run fits. You’ll see us come out for a game and it’s solid and it’s good. I know we had a couple of guys go out of the game and we had to bring people in and things like that, but we‘ve got to keep hammering that. That’s still too much up and down. But, there is improvement.

“Offensively, I would say the operation of it, understanding your route combinations on where you are to where the other receivers are and the quarterback’s reads, and the guys (are) just working together at it. The offensive line I have seen moving forward.

“I thought our punter (Bradley Pinion) that was the best game this year. That’s what we know Bradley can do and he can change the field for you and he was able to do that.

“Defensively as a whole, not being in favorable field position in a couple of areas where they got the ball and either getting a three-and-out or making it be a field goal, that was good to see. Stepping up to the plate there, playing the complimentary football with the offense, the defense and special teams. I hope I’m answering your question, but those are the areas I see it.”

I understood Tomsula’s main point about defense. His guys were patched together. Hard to play zone defense when you don’t know where the other guys will be, when no one knows where anyone will be. The 49ers are learning each other. The 20 points they gave Chicago are the fewest points they’ve allowed on the road this season.

Progress? I don’t know.

I noticed something about the way Tomsula spoke. Tomsula never will be articulate. But his prose was cleaner than usual. Maybe he likes to talk about positives. Maybe he felt he got a reprieve by winning on the road the first time. He sure was a different person from the sad man I usually encounter. He answered expansively, generously and kept smiling.

Maybe he believes he will keep his job. Believes he gets another season. But York should make him earn it.

Finish strong, Jim. Finish 5-3. Show us you’re special, smart, a leader. Just show us.

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.