We're back for the latest round of the Mike Singletary Approval Rating. I haven't had the Greg Manusky or Jimmy Raye ratings up recently, but I'll try and get them going again in the next couple days. It'd be nice to have a bit of a base when we head into the offseason and start assessing what went down in 2009.
In the meantime, the roller coast that is the Mike Singletary Approval Rating continues. Last week, following the big win over Arizona, Coach Singletary's approval rating skyrocketed from 67% to 96%. The team dominated on defense, did enough on offense, and had everybody in a very positive mood. Of course, as has been the case, the team followed the win up with a loss, likely meaning another drop in the rating. The 49ers have alternated wins and losses for the last seven weeks and it has certainly been rather maddening.
Coach Singletary acknowledged in his press conference that the team had some problem areas, but he also made a point to say:
I think it's a good situation to have when I can't just sit here and go, ‘Oh, we've got a problem here. We've got a problem there.' I think we've got to sit down and look at the film and, as a staff, kind of go through it and really look at we have to address this issue and that issue and move on."
He discussed how he thought the offensive line was improving, as well as the defensive secondary. Given Adam Snyder's performance on Sunday, I'd hope he can recognize the problem. My guess is that he's just not looking to throw players under the bus at this point. Maybe it turns out to be misleading, but for now I'm fine with that. He's a players' coach and it seems reasonable to want to avoid bad-mouthing players to the press. Back when the team was starting to tinker with the offense under Alex Smith, Singletary specifically mentioned how when Smith came to him, Singletary listened and then directed him to Jimmy Raye. He's spoken about players being men and handling their problems directly. I'd assume that's part of why he won't come out and talk about the specific problem areas of the offensive line.
After the jump, I had a thoughts on the ESPN approval ratings...
ESPN rolls out their weekly coaches' ratings and Singletary currently sits around 64%. I was looking over the rest of the rankings and for the most part not too surprised. However, there are two specific ratings I wanted to bring up. First is Norv Turner, who sits at the top of the ratings at 90%. San Diego is playing well, so it's certainly not surprising that Turner's rating would be high. The Chargers have won 9 games in a row so that has allowed it to continually rise each week. The issue I have is that this is Norv bleepin Turner. Is it just a matter of waiting for the inevitable postseason collapse?
What I find a bit more bizarre is the fact that the Colts head coach currently has a rating of 75%, even though his team is 14-0. His rating is lower than the likes of Mike Smith (Falcons 7-7), Jeff Fisher (Titans 7-7) and Tony Sparano (Dolphins 7-7). Caldwell's weekly ranking is actually incredibly bizarre when you look at weeks 11 and 12. For some reason, Caldwell's rating was 23% those two weeks. I don't know if it was somebody stuffing the box for some bizarre reason, but either way it's odd.