For the record, I find Cutler to be a bit of an idiosyncratic jerk.

That being said, this entire assault on him is BS. No nuance, no 90-10, but rather 100% BS.

I listened to a lot of commentators, athletes, and worst of all: sports journalist write about him and it infuriated me... as a sports fan.

The notion that he should be condemned for not "becoming a cheerleader" is nonsense. Can anyone even imagine him doing that? That's not his style and if he tried it then, he'd be a phony and his teammates would be insulted by the disingenuous performance. Besides, he isn't the leader of that team... Urlacher is. He's the QB but not the leader, and he never has been.

The idea that he isn't tough is even more insulting as by every measure, he's as tough as they come. It's also worth pointing out that no matter how badly he gets hit, he never throws his teammates under the bus. He's an asshole, but an honorable one.

On the notion that somehow he should have tried to stay in the game unless "they took his helmet," I laugh. He was told not to play at halftime and he started the second half. He ignored the doctors. He also couldn't throw the ball, at all. I saw the game and he flat out, could not throw it. He did the right thing, the smart thing, and the best thing to give his team a chance to win.

I realize that this has nothing to do with the 49ers but I hope that we as fans will learn from this... not all players are the same. They aren't all vocal, charismatic, or even pleasant. We should treat them honestly as fans though and hopefully we'll be better fans than those ass-clowns in Chicago who threw their QB under the bus. 

Apparently he didn't reach some odd bonus in his contract that allowed him to opt out of his contract, which he did.

I'm a huge fan and have been hoping for some way to acquire the guy and this may be the time. He's only 29 and likely has at least three solid years left in him as, what I believe to be, the best cornerback in the league.

Would you go after him? How much would you pay? How long a contract?

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I've seen a lot of football in my 32 years on this earth but last Saturday against Tampa Bay was the worst I've ever seen.

It wasn't just the execution, play-calling, or ultimate performance. This was something special.

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One of the more interesting stats involving Troy Smith are those involving throws on first down:  17 of 20 for 357 yards over two games. That's nearly 18 yards per attempt, which is fantastic. Not quite as fantastic as you'd think though when you look at the rest of his numbers and the context of that impressive initial stat.

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Not to mention giving away games against Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Looking at our future schedule we have two rough road games (and given our complete ineptness on the road, it's a safe bet to assume we lose both of those) but otherwise a winnable schedule. A .500 season is looking like the best we can do and that is what makes that Carolina loss so brutal.

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Really, I do.

I feel as though I've been tricked by the organization, the talent, and even the media.

Everyone talked up the improved performance at the end of the 2008 season and what a difference Singletary made with Vernon Davis. It seemed as though he was exactly the right coach for an underperforming team. What went wrong?

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I predicted that the season was over after game one and it appears that I was correct. I'm done.

I like Singletary and I defended Smith but this just isn't working. Fire them all and let's start over.

It kills me to say that because I'm almost always in favor of letting people develop and giving them time but this is one of those times when we just have to accept that the season is lost.

UPDATE: We're officially the West-Bay Raiders now. Dysfunctional, badly managed, badly coached. An organization that no one wants to coach at or play for.

FURTHER UPDATE: Perhaps we are the West Coast Bills?

ANOTHER UPDATE: I'm coining a new nickname for Jed York: Count Crapula.

ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that the Raiders are willing to trade just about everyone, including Nnamdi Asomugha if the offer is good enough.

Considering that a shut-down corner is one of our biggest concerns and it would instantly improve both our ability to close out games as well as our pass-rush by proxy, I think we should do it.

What would you give up for Asomugha, who has an option for one more year on his contract? I'd be willing to part with a third-round pick and one of our crappy corners.

Now that week six is complete for the NFC West, our beloved niners finally have a win, and we have a pretty solid understanding of how good our divisional rivals are, we might as well take a look at what it'll take to win the division.

I think it's fair to say that we aren't as good as we'd hoped and our NFC West opponents are better than expected. So winning the division at 6-10, as many readers and pundits guessed, is unlikely. So let's take a look at each teams schedule and try to get a realistic goal other than winning all 11 games.

Every team has been soul-crushingly inconsistent and frustrating in their play. Let's start with Seattle, who I think is the most predictable.

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The man just catches the ball. That's it.

I know people love Morgan but he doesn't block well, doesn't create space well, or shed a defender well, and his hands aren't great.

Zeigler has none of those problems. I truly believe that if we combine him with Crabtree, Ginn, and Davis we might have one of the best receiving groups in the league. If Ginn develops then we might have the best total group.

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I have a couple of simple (and maybe crazy) ideas for this team:

1. Use more two back sets with Dixon and Gore. Utilize Dixon in running downs and short-yardage situations. His goal should be to punish the D-line rather than trying to gain big yardage. Ball security should be his primary focus.

Gore should be used sparsely in the first half, mostly in situations where a run isn't necessarily expected. Use him primarily in the second half when the defense will be tired and he'll be fresh, making it easier for him to break a big run.

2. Game plan for never punting. Seriously. Plan to go for it on 4th down every time. Our defense is susceptible to big plays but solid on a short field. If a team is going to drive down the field on us anyway then why not limit our defense's time on the field? Have them focus on trying to limit the opposition to field goals.

This should increase our number of possessions which, when combined with more conversions (having 33% more attempts if regularly going for it on 4th down) should allow our offense more creativity and opportunities to go down the field while also wearing out opposing defenses both physically and pyschologically.

Every 4th down failure might seem like a disaster but it really isn't.

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The rumor was that he was going to Philadelphia and while I'm glad he isn't for next weeks game, I'm not too thrilled to see him end up in Seattle.

Seattle doesn't have much of a running game and this will help them protect Hassleback and allow him to more effectively use play-action. That'll make them a more legitimate team in West and the Niners job harder when it comes to taking the NFC West.

I'm on record as declaring the season over after the first game but I'm having second thoughts.

I still think our defense is under-talented, slow, with a very suspect secondary and a weak pass-rush (even last year, the overwhelming majority of our sacks came within our division), and ultimately over-rated.

I think our offense is young (youngest in the league), dramatically under-utilized by a coaching staff that doesn't exploit match-ups or scheme well, and is undisciplined and sloppy. We also play horribly on the road.

Firing Jimmy Raye MAY help with that but Johnson is an unknown quantity and we don't yet know if he has the skill set that we need or if he'll just be different, but the same.

All of that considered, look our schedule:

It started rough. Seattle was unkown but at home where they are always dangerous which is a bad, bad way for our season to start given our struggles on the road. New Orleans matched up well for us but that was always going to be a tough game. Kansas City was also at home, where they are murderously hard to beat, and they are a much improved and legitimately dangerous team on both sides of the ball.

Atlanta at home is likely to wreck us, sending the team to 0-4. Look ahead though and things don't look so dark.

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