Singletary hits boiling point

With Mike Singletary, care should be taken with questions asked of him in moments of stress and displeasure. Otherwise, you just might get the query slammed back in your face like a lemon-meringue pie laced with roofing tacks. After his team stirred up a bubbling cauldron of bile in the head coach's mouth by committing four turnovers that the grateful Tennessee Titans converted into 24 points, Singletary was asked about the 49ers' prospects for the rest of the season, trailing as they do Arizona by two games in the NFC West. Coming minutes after San Francisco's 34-27 loss to the Titans on Sunday at Candlestick Park, Singletary was a study in barely controlled civility. "I don't care about the Cardinals! I care nothing about the Cardinals!" he said, his eyes shooting laser beams of contempt at his inquisitor. "I care nothing about anything else that's happening in the NFL. The only thing I care about is this team realizing that we can win games if we do not kill ourselves. It's as simple as that. I don't care about the Cardinals. Done." The truth is, the Potsdam Maroons could be leading the division by two games and Singletary's response would have been the same. The point of the question was to get his take on his team at the midpoint of the season, at 3-5, loser of four in a row and five of its last six games. Asked if the 49ers still can accomplish their goal of qualifying for the playoffs with eight games remaining, Singletary said, "Absolutely." And then he left the podium ... presumably to stew over the fact his team led 17-10 at halftime, only to fritter away the game with three turnovers in the second half that the Titans used to score 17 points. "It's definitely frustrating to be at this point, but we do have eight games left," he said. "As long as we continue to fight, we have a chance if we take away the stupid stuff." On Sunday, the stupid stuff mitigated whatever good the 49ers managed to create, such as coming out with a new-look offense that featured Alex Smith in shotgun formation much of the time, with two tight ends, two wide receivers and Frank Gore as the single back. "I think the mix helps," Smith said of the new look. "You're really giving multiple things for the defense to think about. It's nice, especially with some of the runs we had out of the 'gun. Those are all things that can help us." The alignment gave Gore more room to run 83 yards, 5.5 per carry and enabled Smith to take advantage of Gore's receiving skills seven receptions, 75 yards, but the turnovers stamped a big fat VOID! on all that and put San Francisco's defense in an untenable situation. Smith was the architect of all four turnovers, but they were not all on him. He lost a fumble when the helmet of a Titans pass-rusher hit his hand as he drew his arm back to throw and two interceptions came off tipped balls. The last turnover came on such a tipped ball. Smith threw for Josh Morgan, but safety Vincent Fuller came over the top on Morgan and got his hand on the ball and tipped it up for cornerback Cortland Finnegan to grab it and return it 39 yards for a touchdown and a 34-20 Tennessee lead with 2:51 to go. "I don't drop passes that were in my hands," Morgan insisted. "The DB got his hand in. It's not the quarterback's fault, it's not my fault. It's a good play by the DB. We ran that route right." Smith completed 29 of 45 passes for 286 yards and tossed two touchdowns to the utterly forgotten Jason Hill in the second and fourth quarters, but his three interceptions dropped his passer rating to 69.3. Singletary seemed OK with the overall quality of Smith's play, with "Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" as the ultimate qualifier. Singletary's players were left with a sense of solemn resolve despite not having won a game since Oct. 4. They get another chance Thursday night against Chicago in a short week that won't allow for much wallowing on this game. "Right now, we're making it hard on ourselves, but it's still there for us," linebacker Patrick Willis said. "We still have a lot of Football out there. You never know what can happen at other places." Like Arizona, for heaven's sake. "Man, we've got to turn bad into good," cornerback Tarell Brown said. "We've got to fight that much more. Right now, we're like a dog in a cage. Our attitude is always good. This is professional Football. It's how you bounce back." 49ers schedule

Date	Opponent	Time/Res.
9/13	at Arizona	W, 20-16
9/20	Seattle	W, 23-10
9/27	at Minnesota	L, 24-27
10/4	St. Louis	W, 35-0
10/11	Atlanta	L, 45-10
10/18	Bye
10/25	at Houston	L, 24-21
11/1	at Indianapolis	L, 18-14
11/8	Tennessee	L, 34-27
11/12	Chicago	5:20 p.m.
11/22	at Green Bay	10 a.m.
11/29	Jacksonville	1:05 p.m.
12/6	at Seattle	1:15 p.m.
12/14	Arizona	5:30 p.m.
12/20	at Philadelphia	10 a.m.
12/27	Detroit	1:05 p.m.
1/3	at St. Louis	10 a.m.