A lot of numbers have been bandied about here since Shaun Hill was named our starter. Some have said we are doomed without Bradford, or that we should bring in Sanchez or Brett Favre. Once before Hill was named the starter of a team - the 2009 49ers. If you have NFL rewind you can go back and watch the Six games of the season before Hill was benched in favor of Alex Smith. Here is what I saw when I watched these games.
1) The 49ers had NO offensive line. They could not run the ball or pass protect. Hill was pressured or sacked on almost every pass play. This is not an exaggeration, he was pressured at least 70% of the times he dropped back.
2) If you think Schottenheimer's scheme is a little lackluster, Singletary was running a watered down college offense. This was not a professional offensive scheme, or, perhaps, it was a scheme from the 70s.
3) THe Defense was much better than the offense, but this was still a work in progress that made a lot of mistakes and allowed big plays.
4) Receivers were not good. Vernon Davis was coming on but Crabtree was, well, Crabtree and Isaac Bruce was clearly past his prime. Drops, missed reads, and poor play abounded.
5) When the Niners entered their sixth game of the season they were 3-2. Almost unbelievable they had won 3 games and lost a very close game to the Vikings. How? Defense and Shaun Hill just grinding and grinding and grinding. Hill can make the throws. He has a weird motion and a low release which may lead to some tipped balls at the line, but he reads the defense well and can make the throws. More importantly, he just stands there and makes the plays that need to be made.
Why was he benched? Because Mike Singletary had no business being a head coach. They could not run the ball and special teams had made repeated mistakes so, they bench Hill. He was something like 7 for 10 when he was benched at half-time. Think about that, they had only thrown the ball 10 or so times in a half and they absolutely could not run the ball. After he was benched, the Niners lost the game. Alex Smith went on to lose a bunch more games and the rest is history.
The Rams have a better O-line, I know this is hard to believe, but watch the film. We will have a much better running game and our special teams are superior. Our defense should be better and we certainly have a lot more weapons at WR. We can win a lot of games with Shaun Hill.
Don't believe me, though, watch the games. Hill was not losing those games, he was doing everything possible to keep them competitive when their personnel and scheme were subpar.
Watch the film folks and you will feel better about our chance.