49ers need help to make playoffs

Associated Press

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

The San Francisco 49ers have hit the desperation stage of their season.

If Seattle and St. Louis both win this weekend, the Niners’ slim playoff hopes are officially gone.

Because, the Seahawks and Rams face off in the final game of the season in Seattle — which means one of them would wind up with eight victories and the division title in the awful NFC West.

Even if San Francisco (5-9) wins at St. Louis next Sunday and home against Arizona on Jan. 2, it might not be enough. The 49ers need help.

There has been plenty of speculation that 49ers owner John York and his team president son, Jed, will be searching for a new head coach come January. Coach Mike Singletary still has two years left on his contract.

“My future depends on the St. Louis game that we’ve got coming. To me, I take it one week at a time and I don’t really worry about all the other things,” Singletary said Friday. “But right now my focus is on St. Louis.”

And, after an embarrassing 34-7 loss at San Diego on Thursday night, Singletary is contemplating yet another quarterback switch from Alex Smith back to Troy Smith.

Alex Smith was sacked six times and San Francisco was outgained in total yards 374-192.

Nobody was in much mood to talk about it Friday. In fact, of five players stopped during the open locker room period — many had already headed home on a rainy afternoon following meetings — all declined comment.

“I ain’t talking today,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “Everything I had to say I said yesterday.”

After the game, he vented, “The most frustrating thing is to know we had an opportunity to be sitting in the driver’s seat after tonight and we [poured] it down the drain.”

Spikes and fellow linebacker Patrick Willis each played with bulky black casts on their broken right hands.

Spikes needed assistance removing his uniform and socks after the game.

That’s the least of the 49ers’ troubles, however. There could be major change in a hurry if San Francisco’s playoff drought reaches an eighth straight season, even after Jed York declared his franchise would rebound from an 0-5 start to win the division and make the postseason.