Smith is a Bust - Falcons 20, 49ers 16

Well Faithful, it's Sunday. That means it's time for us to dissect another pathetic loss to a mediocre team by the Impostor Niners. While I was focused like a laser on Hostler for the first several games, and recently swiveled my sights to Nolan, I think after today I need a shotgun to effectively spray blame everywhere it is due. There is not a single member of this team that should be proud of the effort today. This is a sad day for 49ers fans everywhere as the progress of the past three years has officially been wiped out. This was the last game that could be circled as "winnable" the rest of the way. There is now a stronger than 50% chance that this team will finish somewhere between 2-14 and 4-12. And the losing isn't going to be enjoyable because as you all know, we don't have the benefit of that pick, which was traded to the Pats, who clearly need it. To quote our boy Samir from Office Space, "This is a...FUCK!"

"I break this piece of shit!"

The bigger issue today is was the peak of the Alex Smith/Mike Nolan Era last season's victory over the equally mediocre Denver Broncos. During the post-game press conference, Smith and Nolan sound like a pair that knows they may not be around much longer.

I have defended Alex Smith against all kinds of abuse and insults. But after today, I'm switching sides in the debate. When he missed a wide open Bryan Gilmore for a SURE touchdown, I couldn't even utter the obligatory expletive. There it was staring me in the face - I have seen that same play and that same shit-eating smile afterward at least a hundred times in the past three years. And I'm sick of it. Tom Brady almost got into a fist-fight with the refs today and Manning looked like someone had butchered his family after a great game where he didn't have much to be ashamed, especially since he was missing Starvin' Marvin Harrison. Alex Smith has never shown me anything remotely like that in terms of competitive fire. How many times has he said "We left a lot of plays/yards/scores on the field today"? Too many and that all falls on him. I don't care if he's 23 and I REALLY don't care that he scored high on the Wonderlic. Standardized testing doesn't mean shit in the real world and especially not in football. John Ryan makes some great points that I didn't agree with two weeks ago in the middle of Dilfergatory, but now I do. Alex Smith saw his future today and it's Joey Harrington. Hopefully we can find a Jon Kitna-type to replace him.