As we hit the weekend, I'm sure everyone is getting amped up for St. Louis.  While a win certainly won't put us in the proverbial driver's seat, it would definitely give us a nice early leg up, even if Seattle wins.  As long as the 49ers take care of their own business, everything else will work out fine.  These first seven games are huge and as has been discussed by some of you, if we can be 4-3 at the end of this stretch, I would definitely consider that a solid start.

The Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee have pieces on the passing of Frank Gore's mom.  An excellent point made by Moran Norris was that at least Gore has a time-consuming job/activity in football to keep his mind somewhat occupied.  And as mentioned before, any cards or letters can be sent to Gore c/o the 49ers Public Relations Dept., 4949 Centennial Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95054.

While it would be nice to put together complete games, playing well in the second half is becoming a staple of this team.

SF49ers.com has a few articles worth checking out today.  First off, the defense certainly looked much better once they got all the pieces out there.

But of course, a better start from the offense would certainly be much appreciated.  The talent is there and maybe it will just take some time for them to click.

Eric Heitmann will have a featured column at sf49ers.com called Center Piece.  Heitmann says the column is basically there to give an offensive lineman's perspective on each game.

Here's the updated injury report through yesterday (pdf file).  Nothing huge, but it gives you an idea of who is practicing and who is not.

The San Francisco Examiner rolls out their 49ers-Rams preview, including three keys to victory, key matchups and a prediction 23-19 49ers.

USA Today with a a third article on the 49ers in less than a week.  Gotta love the coverage.  This one is about the Rams pressing need to stop Frank Gore.  Shocking theory, I know.

Forbes rolled out their annual franchise valuation list.  The 49ers rank 30th, but a new stadium would definitely change that ranking.

Th SJ Mercury News discusses Patrick Willis's debut and the test coming up against Steven Jackson.

This article discusses Frank Gore, but also has an interesting note at the bottom.  Ashley Lelie has been in a dispute with the Broncos over some signing bonus money and the Broncos had filed suit against him.  It sounds like he always planned on paying out and recently he sent them a check for $440,000 to hopefully end this.  We'll see how it works out for him.  It's interesting because his arbitration case might apparently be used as background information whenever the Falcons and Michael Vick end up in arbitration over some of his signing bonus money.

And of course, continue to vote for Patrick Willis for NFL Rookie of the Week.  He currently leads Adrian Peterson 57% to 27%.  Just rolling through the running back like he did Monday night!

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