Golden Nuggets: The Moral Here is That a "Victory" is Still a Loss

Jim Tomsula is doing his best. I'm not talking about being a coach. I'm talking about being a spin doctor in front of the media, but he's not much better at it than squeezing wins out of his team. There was no sugar coat to another bad loss to recent NFC West nemesis Seattle, so why does it seem like that the loss is not as demoralizing as previous losses? Maybe it's because the team has nothing better to play for now than draft position. Maybe it's because the expectation of a loss is so great now that the new focus is to "remain competitive" or look like you're not losing as badly as you really are. I'm not sure what to make of this.

What we do know is that using the eyeball test (since we have such a small sample size), is that Blaine Gabbert can do a little bit more with this dysfunctional team than Colin Kaepernick can. Gabbert was able to take advantage a few times of the Seahawks main weakness which is guarding Tight Ends downfield. Those few big plays were more than I can remember getting against the Seattle defense in quite a while. Don't think that this offense is anywhere being good under Gabbert, but the point is that it is no longer quite as atrocious. And for the moment, we will have to satisfy ourselves with "not atrocious" because there isn't much that can be done right away.

This is officially Gabbert's team now, and I'm hoping that he will be serviceable enough to at least keep things entertaining until such time that a long term solution at quarterback can be found once more. Now here are our links:

Game Recaps

49ers lose 29-13 to Seahawks, and it's every man for himself in Santa Clara (BASG)

49ers fall 29-13 to Seahawks despite Gabbert's solid encore (Inman)

Gabbert impressive in 49ers' loss to Seahawks (Maiocco)

Thomas Rawls runs over 49ers on way to 29-13 win (PFT)

Post-game Analysis

What We Learned from 49ers at Seahawks (Emerick)

McDonald catches first TD; Boldin plays through leg injury; Dawson extends streak; Tiller starts at RG (Inman)

49ers run defense surrenders record 209 yards to rookie Rawls in 29-13 debacle (Inman)

49ers unwilling to take risks on or off the field (Kawakami)

Thomas Rawls' breakout performance leads Seahawks (NFL)

Spotlights

Jim Tomsula Comments on 49ers Performance in 29-13 Loss to Seattle Seahawks (Price)

49ers Bowman: ‘We prepared for 24 (Lynch) and 24 didn't play' (Inman)

Blaine Gabbert Discusses Week 11 Loss, Future as 49ers Starting QB (Emerick)

Gabbert shows poise, toughness in 49ers' loss (Maiocco)

Kaepernick trade will be complicated by his contract (Florio)

Dorsey scheduled for MRI; 49ers fear significant knee injury (Maiocco)

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