[SSW]

After the ugly loss against the Rams yesterday, die hard Niners fans (like me) have A LOT of cause for concern.

The Niners have NEVER looked worse on offense than they did yesterday. The defense, despite the injuries and loss of key players, did well enough holding a sub-par Rams offense to only 10 points BUT the Niners' offense has A LOT to answer for in this loss.

Clearly, the offensive line is severely deficient and the loss of the Kilgore (the starting center) last week is only one part (but a key part) of the problem. The missed snaps, the 3 fumbles (2 of them lost) by Kap and the 8 SACKS are the symptoms of a VERY serious problem with the offensive line starting w/the replacement rookie center Miller.

On the final offensive play for the Niners, they have the chance to win the game. All they had to do was punch the ball over the goal line from the 1 yard line with a quarterback sneak. Only problem was that Kap fumbled the snap and Miller got "stood up" and the Rams defense line BEAT the Niners offensive line off the ball and pushed them back (or at least held them to NO GAIN).

Frankly, from what I saw on the video, I don't think Kap EVER had possession of the football and lost possession of the ball before he ever got in. The officials thought likewise and the video was insufficient to determine other wise. Rams win.

There's a lot of blame to go around in this loss but, if you're finger pointing, I look primarily at the coaching staff and Kap. The play calling in this game was pretty questionable, especially since Gore only ran for 49 yards on 14 carries, they didn't use Gore on the goal line stand and that Kap completed only 22 of 33 attempts, which doesn't sound that bad, but his many of his "misses" for throw-aways under pressure or clear misses by Kap on the throws.

As for Kap, I've NEVER been a big fan of his. When he was winning, everyone thought he was an "elite" quarterback BUT I've NEVER thought that of him. What Kap does well is RUN and improvise on the RUN on broken or designed plays when there's no one on him; that's what made him LOOK effective and exciting. But, the Niners have not been letting (or even encouraging) Kap to run anymore. From what I've seen, the Niners have been trying to turn Kap into a pocket quarterback BUT Kap is NOT a pocket quarterback.

In fact, he is NOT a very good quarterback in general. He is slow to read and react to changes in the defense. He is slow to FIND his 2nd or 3rd options in passing plays. He's slow to realize that time's running out on the clock and has to take too many unnecessary times outs. He is too slow to realize that he's going to get sacked (while he's trying to figure out what the defense is doing and who's open) and RUN (which is what he does BEST). And, when he does run, while under pressure, he gets tunnel vision and can't see an open man to save his life, which usually results in him throwing the ball away.

Just compare his performance with Manning's in the Niners/Broncos game and the differences in the "quality" of the quarterbacks is clear. Yes, there is ONLY 1 Peyton Manning but the way Manning assesses the defense and finds the open man UNDER stress compared with Kap does is like night and day and makes clear how deficient Kap is in the position.

That said, the coaching staff (starting w/Harbaugh) ALSO has to take a lot of responsibility for the more recent loss and current disarray of the team starting w/player development and ending w/play calling. The players are required to "execute" the plays called by the coached BUT a lot of the calls in the Rams game clearly sucked. Only 4 rushing 1st downs?!! The Rams just shut down the rush and could key on the pass, which became equally ineffective because of that. What's up with that?

The Niners will be lucky now to end the season 10-6 (and even so, I don't think they'll make the playoffs) but in order to do that they'll have to win 2 out of 3 from the Seahawks (who they meet twice) and the Cards (who they meet once more) and will have to take 4 out of 5 from the Saints, Giants, Redskins, Raiders and Chargers in the next 8 games, which I think will be VERY hard for them to do the way they look now.

Frankly, after their performance against the Rams, I think the Niners may well end up just 8-8. That'll happen if they take only 1 of 3 from the Seahawks and Cardinals and only 3 of 5 from the Saints, Giants, Redskins, Raiders and Chargers -- the Giants, Redskins and Raiders being the most likely victims, which is the more likely scenario because I don't see the Niners taking more than 1 of 2 from the Hawks and, given how they are playing, I don't see them taking the remaining game from the Cards.

Even so, they have a chance to go 10-6 with wins against the Saints and Chargers, but the Saints are playing at home and seem to have a better team (even though their record is the same as the Niners') and San Diego is still a team to be reckoned with even though they have cooled off after starting off the season fast.

So my guess is the Niners will end the season no better than 8-8 and that HEADS will fly afterward.

We'll see . . .