On Monday, former 49ers quarterback Steve Young said that he thought the current 49ers team was “broken” in the wake of their 13-10 loss to the Rams in Week Nine.
Young got no argument from the team’s general manager. During his weekly radio show on 95.7 The Game, Trent Baalke agreed that “there are some things broken” with the 4-4 team.
“What I mean is, when you’re 4-4 there are certain things you have to do better. The only thing we know how to correct it is to go back to work. You can’t keep doing the same things over and over, can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over,” Baalke said, via Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News. “There’s no room for error at this point. The separation between us and the division gets bigger with every lapse in our performance. Right now our backs are against the wall, and when backs are against the wall, you find out a lot about yourself.”
Baalke didn’t delve into specifics about the things that are broken, although he did say that he didn’t think the team’s offensive struggles, which include no rushing touchdowns in the last five weeks, could be pinned on any one person. Baalke also said that the team is considering spending a week in Youngstown, Ohio between their road games against the Saints and Giants in the next two weeks. That’s something they did in 2011 and 2012, both of which were more successful seasons for the franchise than this one is shaping up to be at present. A loss to the Saints this week is going to make a similar outcome more difficult regardless of their travel plans.
