I put together the Golden Nuggets for this morning, and finished them up before Steve Berman's excellent article about Jim Tomsula. He talked about Tomsula getting into survival mode in his press conferences. Tomsula has talked more about execution issues, and this all comes on the heels of Joe Staley and Ahmad Brooks' comments about the team looking past the Cleveland Browns. Things are not pretty.
And they're only getting worse.
On Thursday, offensive coordinator Geep Chryst spoke with the media. He was asked about the nine sacks, and what led to the problems. He talked about some of the missed blocks, and plays that didn't work out, but he did not get into much detail about the play-calling specifically. There were execution issues, but the play-calling had areas that could have been improved. And yet, it felt like Chryst was doing whatever he could to deflect blame away from him. He acknowledged feeling responsible for the awful offensive performances, but he was still deflecting on a lot of things.
Much like Jim Tomsula's comments earlier in the week, Chryst sounded like a person desperate to save his job. He's repeatedly mentioned the turnover on the roster. On Thursday, he talked about how he was proud of the stat that the team had completed passes to 19 different players because it meant they would had worked in so many players in a short period of time.
I get that the 49ers have had a lot of roster turnover, and there have been execution issues. And yet, as this season has gone down the drain, we have transitioned to an every man for himself atmosphere. We'll have the transcript a little later today, but it is hard not to see this thing continuing to go further south than it already has.
Matt Maiocco mentioned on the Tim Kawakami podcast how the team had a bad locker room early in the season. He said it had turned around since then, but I have to wonder how long that will last. There are only three games left, and the various comments about the team's readiness for the Browns seems like a bad sign for the remaining games. Add in the fact that the coaches are holding on for dear life at times, and this is one big mess.
Locker room issues aside, I have had a feeling the 49ers would surprise us on Sunday against the Bengals. The 49ers have been better at home than on the road, and they face a Bengals team dealing with significant injury concerns. And yet, as we hear people trying their best to defend themselves, I wonder if that Browns loss will be the tipping point that sends things skidding wildly out of control. One might think the Browns game could be rock bottom, but given what we are hearing in these press conferences, it very well could, and probably will get worse.