ESPN.com has their NFL Head Coach Ratings up and in week 2 Mike Singletary is leading with a 96% approval rating. That's surprisingly close to our approval rating from last week, which sits at 97%. 38 folks actually voted no, and I have to say I'm curious how it plays out this week. Also, last week we had 1,893 votes. ESPN's week 2 Singletary votes are at 1,918, so let's try and surpass the World Wide Leader.
Things started out great in week 1 and now they've only managed to improve in week 2. The 49ers may not have completely run away with the win against Seattle, but they did bring the punishment. The team is clearly going to be a very physical team this season and other teams best be prepared for it. Given the use of the nutcracker drill and all the padded practices, does this really surprise anybody?
What will be interesting to see is how the team holds up over the course of the season. Will they be worn down come November and December? A quick look at their schedule shows what should be two exceedingly winnable games to end the season versus Detroit and at St. Louis. Not guarantees, but games good teams win handily. Before that though the team goes to Seattle, hosts Arizona and heads to Philadelphia.
In looking at the whole physical training camp issue, I guess there are two divergent schools of thought: 1) The team will wear down later in the season from the tough start, or 2) the team will actually be just as strong in December because they've conditioned themselves accordingly. I tend to lean towards getting worn down, but maybe Coach Singletary's motivational abilities can help overcome that. I'm not really sure at this point and guess we'll just have to wait and see. I don't think the approval rating has anything to do with this issue, but I'd be curious to hear what folks have to say on this issue. It's something we discussed during the preseason, but I think it's something worth re-hashing now that the team is off to a nice start.