Niners Friday: And We're Back

If I could condense this 49ers season into one evening, it would pretty much look like this this.

After a few days off to rest, and collect myself, WCO is back and will be operating in full next week.

A few thoughts on this season:

• The weight of the expectations coming in has made this 5 game slide much more excruciating.

• As has the 2-0 start and the excitement it brought with it.

• The offense is horribly boring to watch. If I did not root for the 49ers, I would not even consider watching their games.

• The defense has been hit and miss, but the last couple weeks it has looked like much more missing than hitting.

• Mike Nolan needs to get his guys up. For the most part they are all still saying the right things. But this season the 49ers have the personnel to be a competitive team. On Sundays they have not been executing. That certainly rests on the players, but a good coach will bring out the best from his players. That has not been happening as of yet.

• The veterans need to step up. Some of the weakest performances and biggest mistakes have come from the older guys on the team. Jonas Jennings and Larry Allen, I'm looking at you. Joe Nedney, you can't be sending kick-offs out of bounds.

• This season is not lost. For all the despair right now, the 49ers were 2-5 last year, and ended up very much in the playoff hunt. Especially in a weak NFC West, nothing is over.

• The Atlanta Falcons are the perfect team to play right now, if the 49ers are going to turn this around.

Being a 24 year old 49ers fan, it's difficult to have the perspective of some of the old-timers. For the vast majority of my life the 49ers have been super bowl contenders. I didn't have to live through the lean times of the Steve DeBerg era. The expectations are high, and it's extremely frustrating to have this storied franchise not in the title hunt. That said, I still think they are on the right track, and the next time they get there it is going to be all the sweeter because we're living through this heartburn inducing era.

Until then, we can still cherish the fact that the 49ers are one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, and we were lucky enough to witness it: