After last night's mess of a game and mess of an ending, I thought it seemed appropriate to whip out the Golden Nuggets again.  The 49ers did a lot of good things and a lot of bad things.  It's been hard for me to wrap my head around this game because of the crazy dichotomy of good and bad.  Personally I think the team did take a step forward, but it was a difficult one.  After all, when you shoot yourself in the foot, you end up having to draft that foot forward.

Also, before anybody puts up a Shaun Hill FanPost, I'm planning on going over just his plays on my TiVo of the game later this evening after school.  I saw a lot of good and a lot of bad so there should be plenty to discuss.

Gwen Knapp sees some silver lining in that the team at least gave a serious effort.

The Chronicle recap sums it up quite well: You never want to run out of gas in the middle of the desert.

The Niner Insider might have said it best: What Are They Thinking?

Scot McCloughan discussed the possibility of Alex Smith returning next season.

Mike Sando looks at the silver linings of every loss and saw several...particularly the arrival of the Rams next week.

The piling on of Mike Martz is continuing...no big surprise.

Our first Chilo Rachal sighting...impressive in limited play.

The 49ers might be stumbling and bumbling, but at least it's in the right direction.

The Cardinals had no intention of respecting the pass on that last play.

The general thought, emphasized by Maiocco, is that Singletary looked like a true leader after the defeat.  I caught part of his press conference on ESPN and you could see him trying to avoid blowing up too much.  He even said he was holding it in.

Maiocco's grades from the game.

The Chronicles grades from the game.

Dan Brown's Merc grades from the game.

Matt Barrows threw out some of his own silver linings, including the young receivers, Shaun Hill and the emotion the 49ers brought.

Singletary really seems to like Chilo Rachal.  I'd imagine each week will see him get more and more playing time.  This, I like.

The 49ers came up oh so short - The Sac Bee recap.

This is from earlier yesterday, but it's clear what kind of team Mike Singletary wants to lead.

This guy thinks the 49ers should go after either Derek Anderson or Tim Tebow.  I'm not sure I want to read his column anymore.

Allen Rossum had the quickest score in 49ers history and also the second longest kickoff return.  I'd say that signing has worked out alright.

Feel free to throw in any links of your own you might come across.  I'm sure I missed plenty.  Also, as this is a link dump off topic links are certainly allowed.  Just make sure and point out that it's off topic.  And as I mentioned the previous time, I'm still looking for someone who might be interested in handling the links on a more regular basis.  Leave a note in the comments or feel free to email at ninersnation@gmail.com if you're interested.