Just to pre-empt it, I’m not saying the 49ers would definitely have won without the mistakes. I simply think they had a great shot at a win if JTO hadn’t turned the ball over so many times.

Boy I can’t wait to hear Martz’s presser on how the JTO’s performance was his (or battle/morgan/gore/davis/sims/staley/heitman/snyder’s) fault and how O’Sullivan is easily the best QB he’s ever had to work with.

“our defensive coaches had a great gameplan.”

“it was just unfortunate that we lost with a defensive performance like that.”

“our guys played hard, we just came up short.”

“if they were short, that’s the first i’ve heard of it. no one told me at the time.”

Also, I think this might be worth some discussion as this debacle goes on and on.

In short, it occured to me today that there is a very reasonable chance that Alex Smith could still be the most attractive starting QB for this team in ‘09. It’s not fair to write Shaun Hill off, and I’m not trying to do that, but there is a possibility that if Hill gets a chance this year he doesn’t show us anything more than JTO. The thought is simply being prepared for that possibility.

Alex Smith our best option for ‘09? It’s far too early to tell, and a little frightening, but the possibility is much more realistic than I would have thought 7 weeks ago.

i might be wrong, but i’m pretty sure the safety covered the spread for the giants. i think morgan got the line at 11.5 (-105).

So, how long until Shaun Hill gets a chance?

Not to say he’ll be for sure better, but do the Niners really have anything to lose?

…of how people who love the niners have been conditioned to accept mediocrity. starkey praises nolan for holding the giants to a below-average performance on offense. plummer praises the coaches for being more aggressive with their defensive playcalling, and says the aggression threw the giants offense “off kilter.” guys, THEY GAVE UP 27 POINTS ON DEFENSE….AGAIN!!!

Put more pressure on the Yorks to DO SOMETHING!! Anything can make this better at this point.

at JTO’s turnovers now. Somehow, I can sense when he’s going to mess up

it’s getting uglier and uglier

is that like analyzing stats with your testicles?

Since Nolan has been coach it’s been getting harder and harder to tell whether or not it’s bad play or lack of talent, or both. I thought that there has been some improvement on the level of talent, but we get the same results.

For ex, I think that there’s a lack of talent on the D-line, but when Nolan went to his big sub thing it further reduced pressure on the opposition’s quarterback. That strikes me as bad strategy, although it doesn’t mean that there’s talent there on the D-line..

Martz’ offense is precisely the wrong offense to run with a weak offensive line and an inexperienced quarterback. He’s going to get bashed, intercepted. He’s going to make mistakes. A better fit would be a more conservative ball control offense, especially when you’ve got a guy like Gore to run the ball. I know most people blame JTO, but whether he’s better or as bad as he seems to be, if he were running a more conservative offense, handing off to Gore fifteen more times a game, throwing to receivers running shorter routes, he’d be more successful. If the offense is Martz’ fault, then Martz is Nolan’s fault. And if Nolan was planning on a bend but don’t break defense, then he sure as hell shouldn’t have brought in Martz to run his offense.

The Niners are 2-5. It seems to me this is the way every year of the Nolan regime starts out. There really isn’t any reason to go any farther with him. Martz has convinced me that he isn’t the answer. I have no idea if Singletary or Manusky are the guys. But by taking Nolan out of the equation the Niners ownership will at least see how much of this clusterf*ck is Nolan’s incompetence and how much is lack of talent. It will also at least eliminate someone else on the staff as next head coach if he also screws up, or could possibly show us someone who could get the team out of this mess.

But without taking Nolan out of the equation the team goes nowhere. Forever.

Nolan just texted Cable and told him to use a time out

I was “lucky” enough to watch the game at Giants stadium. A few comments:

1) 5 minimum big fights in the stands, a lot of pissed niner fans that weren’t going to take the crap that the giants fans were dishing out. Kind of made me proud to be a niner fan.

2) What did NOT make me proud to be a niner fan was the apathetic and hectic play that Just Turn Overs had during the game. Early in the 1st (I believe it was the second possession, when we were making our first actual drive) the linebackers blitzed JTO, and gore (i think) picked up the block. However, JTO flinched very badly right before the blitz was picked up, and almost curled up and fell on his own, expecting to get whalloped up the middle. That event, and his “scrambling” skills shows me that JTO is playing scared, and that is a very bad thing to have in an offense that is all about timing and confidence in that position.

3) The only time the crowd was out of the game was when the giants shot themselves in the foot (a la plax’s personal foul for talking crap to the ref, which was hilarious to watch the build-up to) and when Clemens returned the field goal (finally earning that massive contract). The niners never scared the giants fans, who are usually easy to spook and turn against their own team.

4) nolan’s defensive schemes seemed thrown together last minute, the second timeout in the second half example to his unpreparedness and unsure-of-himself-and-his-defense-for-good-reason attitude.

Niner fans at the game took a lot of abuse, and most of us are not happy about how our team humiliated us on the east coast. Hopefully a win against seattle can instill some hope in the team that can spark a second half that gets us back to .500.

Boy, I miss Jeff Garcia.

we don’t play CIncy this year…that’s the only team that’s probably worse then us