Mike Singletary, while coaching his first game as a head coach, benched tight end Vernon Davis. He said after the game.
“It’s something I told players at the beginning of the week. I will not tolerate players who think it is about them and not the team. We can’t make decisions that cost the team, and then come off the sidelines and it’s nonchalant. I’d rather play with 10 people and just get penalized all the way until we have to do something else. Rather than play with 11, when I know that right now, that person is not sold out to be part of the team. It’s more about them, than it is the team. You can not play with them. You can not win with them. You can not coach with them, can’t do it. I want winners. I want people who want to win.”
Davis was flagged for "an unnecessary roughness penalty for slapping a Seahawks defender's head after a tackle on a 7-yard reception in the third quarter." Benching Davis is sitting well with 49ers fans.
After losing the Houston Texans, 35-6, going 0-8 for the year, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said:
"We've got the 24-hour rule; we've got to flush this bad boy because I don't think much good came out of this game in the second half. We don't have many options. Nobody is going to ride in here and save us. It's not like you've got anybody to ride in here and save you. We're going with the best guys we've got. We're going to have to find a way to get these players in the right holes and the right gaps."
In Lewis' defense (if such a thing can be done on Sunday night), what else can he say? Then again, either the players aren't getting the message, or no message is being presented.