Earlier this week we rolled out a Jimmy Raye Approval Rating for the 2009 season. We'll get a Manusky poll at some point next week, but I thought we'd start the Mike Singletary evaluation this morning. Throughout the season I would ask whether folks approved of the job Mike Singletary was doing as head coach. It was a simple yes/no question and it was very broad. I'd imagine some people voted based on their opinion of his work in the previous game. Others voted based on how he was performing over the course of the year. And still others might have just been voting based on whether they liked him or not (no matter the team's record).
Now that we're evaluating the season that was, I thought we'd mix things up a little bit. Coach Singletary's job involves so many different tasks, that a single approval rating would seem to be a rather weak measurement of what he's done as head coach. After all, the man has been amazing in some areas, and fairly bad in other areas. To ask whether people approve of his job just won't suffice. Instead, I thought we'd break it down into several different categories. Today we start with game management. I'm not quite sure yet what other categories we'll measure, but this is one that I strongly suspect will inspire a variety of opinions.
It seemed as though throughout the season, the 49ers had issues arise quite frequently related to game management. There were times when the team would burn through timeouts like they were going out of style. There was one game where the team was on defense and burned a timeout before their opponent snapped the ball on their first offensive play from scrimmage. On the other hand, when Alex Smith took over as QB we saw timeouts being called left and right. Was this something where Mike Singletary did not have the team sufficiently prepared, or was it something that was bound to happen because of the change at QB?
Mike Singletary didn't always burn through the team's timeouts, but he certainly had his moments. Is the whole idea of "game management" something he'll improve at as he gains experience?