One upside to the 49ers struggles this season is that the 49ers have decided to freeze season ticket prices for 2009 "in appreciation of the steadfast loyalty from the 49ers Faithful."

“It is our obligation to provide our season holders with the highest value for their investment of time, money and emotion in our team,” said team owner Jed York. “All of us at the 49ers --owners, coaches, players and staff -- share a common goal of returning this franchise to its position at the top of the NFL. We will do everything in our power to get there.”

“We know what our fans want, and more importantly what they deserve,” said York. “I want and expect the same thing. I am committed to making the 49ers a Super Bowl champion again.”

I'm sure there are plenty of snide comments to be made, but I'd say they deserve kudos for this because they certainly didn't have to freeze prices.  Given the nature of the economy and the on-field troubles of the team it's probably a good idea from the PR persepective, but also in doing what they can to fill seats and avoid potential blackouts.  Words has spread that the team has had to buy up tickets to avoid blackouts, so this might even save them money from doing that.

If you don't have tickets but have thought about getting them, would this tip you into buying them?  If you'd thought about giving up seats because of the on-field performance, would this convince you otherwise?

A little under two months ago the 49ers faced the New York Giants in a game that did not end well.  Prior to that game, the New York Times football blog, The Fifth Down, did some quick preview stuff with 49ers bloggers.  For those that remember, we were able to get several contributions posted.

Now that the 49ers are facing the Jets, this same opportunity has arisen.  I meant to get this up earlier in the week, but today will have to do.  For those that don't remember, I'll explain things again and here's a link to that post as well.  Each contributor would need to provide 100 words or less about the 49ers and then a prediction of the final score.  Here's how the NY Times folks described it:

What I propose is for you (and however many of your blogging cronies want to play along) to analyze the game in about 100 words or less, and then pick the score.
For my idea, you’d start first with a sentence or two that introduced yourself, and your blog. Just as a means of promoting yourself and your blog. Then you write 100 words about the game. Most ask a question and then answer it, but you can do whatever you want. When you are done, you pick a score for the game. And call it good. O.K.?
Your introductory stuff and your prediction do not count against your word count. And, to be honest, just get close to 100 words. I am not going to trim you to fit; 110 would be fine, 150 would not.

I'll submit as many entries as I get in the next 36 hours as I need to email the submissions by Friday afternoon.  Again, look at some of the entries as examples in the comments of the previous post.  Any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or email me.

Alright folks, we officially have a month left in the prediction contest.  We are starting to see some separation after the top 8.  The two teams tied for 8th are 4 points ahead of the next team and looking to add further separation this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, there are some monstrous games all the way into Monday night.  I might venture to say this would be the type of weekend ESPN would coin "Separation Sunday" or some nonsense like that.  The Bills and Dolphins square off in a must-win for both teams.  Dallas currently sits just barely on the outside of the wild card looking in and has to go into Heinz Field Sunday afternoon.  And then of course, our very own 49ers are looking to trip up the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets playoff plans.

So, let's get to the games:

49ers vs. NY Jets - Sunday 12/7 1:05pm

Tampa Bay @ Carolina - MNF 12/8 5:30pm

Washington @ Baltimore - SNF 12/7 8:15pm

Atlanta @ New Orleans - Sunday 12/7 10:00am

Miami @ Buffalo - Sunday 12/7 1:05pm

Dallas @ Pittsburgh - Sunday 11/30 1:15pm

Best of luck to all as we continue to wind down the regular season.

What's happening Jets fans?  This is Fooch from Niners Nation.  We're exchanging FanPosts so feel free to fire your questions away and I'll do my best to answer them.  Also, I'm going to encourage my own readers to come over and answer your questions as well, just to give you a more diverse set of viewpoints.  If you get a free moment, feel free to head over to John's FanPost and discuss your Jets.

Before I start answering questions, I thought I'd give you guys a quick update on where the 49ers stand this season.  The team is 4-8 and only barely in playoff contention (Arizona has to lose out, 49ers have to win out).  Mike Nolan was fired and the promotion of Mike Singletary has brought a bit of a spark to this team.

The promotion of Singletary led to the promotion of Shaun Hill as starting QB, following J.T. "Just Turnovers" O'Sullivan's less than stellar performances.  Hill brings less of the high reward, but he does bring a lot less of the high risk.  The offense has shown improvement under Hill as they've become more consistent.  They'll certainly need that when Brett Favre comes to town.

The defense has gotten a lot of flack, but they really stepped up against the Bills last week. They bent a considerable amount but absolutely shut down the Bills in the red zone.  Two missed field goals certainly helped, but keeping the Bills out of the end zone was of equal importance.

So, the 49ers may not appear to be playing for much, but in reality, Singletary needs some Ws to get the full time job.  The players have responded to him and should bring a stiff challenge (that's what she said) for the Jets.  Brett Favre had quite a bit of success against the 49ers while in Green Bay, so we'll see if it carries over to this Sunday.

So with that, I open the floor for your questions.  Fire away.

  vs. 

The 49ers return home following an impressive victory at Buffalo.  At 4-8, a win over the Jets would equal last year's win total and improve Mike Singletary to 3-3 as head coach.  Maybe there aren't many playoff implications (please let the Cards lose again!), but a win would mean big things for Coach Singletary and the team.

The San Francisco 49ers host the New York Jets this weekend in what will be the 11th meeting between the two teams. The series dates back to 1971 and the 49ers hold a 8-2 overall advantage over the Jets. The last time San Francisco faced the Jets was in 2004 in New York, with the Jets winning the contest 22-14. Prior to that game, the 49ers had won five straight games over the Jets.

The 49ers enter this week’s game following a 10-3 road victory against the Buffalo Bills. In that game, QB Shaun Hill completed 14-of-23 passes for 161 yards with one touchdown for a passer rating of 96.5. It marked his sixth career game with a passer rating of over 95.0 in eight games of action with the 49ers, including six career starts. He now has a 4-2 career record as a starter. WR Isaac Bruce led the team with 66 receiving yards on five catches, which included his sixth touchdown reception of the season. The Bills defense entered the 49ers red zone on four occasions, but San Francisco’s defense held tight and was able to limit Buffalo to one field goal on the day.

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I forgot to run the Approval Rating last week so all we have as a baseline for this week is the 97% rating from 2 weeks ago.  It would have been interesting to see what Singletary's rating would have been after a loss.  Such is life.

So, we move to Singletary instead coming off a big road win at Buffalo.  The team seems to be rallying around the coach and really wants to step up their play for him.  Things were ugly at times last Sunday, but a common refrain in the comments was that this was a game Mike Nolan would have definitely lost.  I would have to agree.  There were enough moments where poor game management would have screwed the 49ers and game management was not a strength of Nolan.

Although it might not be wildly important (or maybe it is), a big difference has been the simple fact that the team actually has managed to hang onto their timeouts for much of the game.  In the second quarter, the 49ers forced a Bills turnover that led to 3 points.  While they couldn't move in for a touchdown, they did have two timeouts to burn in case the situation required them.  One blunder that did occur in that sequence of events was using timeout #2 with 16 seconds left, instead of letting the clock tick down to 3 or 4 seconds.  A subsequent squib kick put the Bills in great field position, but fortunately they couldn't capitalize.

The important thing is that Singletary seems to learn from his mistakes.  As seen in the Golden Nuggets, Mike Singletary hired an ex-NFL referee to be in the replay booth.  Although the Cardinals debacle occurred after that, it's still a smart hire by Singletary.  It's little things like this that make me feel better about him as head coach.

The win over Buffalo certainly helps in Mike Singletary's bid for the full-time head coaching job.  This coming weekend against the Jets will be an even bigger test.  Even though the 49ers won on the road against Buffalo, the Bills have been struggling for the last month.  I think it's a good win, but I can certainly see why people might take it with a grain of salt.  The Jets are coming off a tough loss to Denver, but one could argue it was more of a let-down game following their upset of the Titans.  Barring something ugly, a win over the Jets might very well be enough to secure the 2009 head coaching position.

So, the question then is how you feel about Mike Singletary at this moment.  Vote, and if you're so inclined, throw out reasons for or againat approval of Mike Singletary.

Well that was quick.  Linebacker Ahmad Brooks has been added back to the 53-man roster.  To make room for him, the 49ers waived wide receiver Chris Hannon. 

Hannon was originally promoted from the practice squad due to all the injuries at wide receiver.  To make room for him then, Brooks was waived.  It's like musical chairs.  Now we'll see if Brooks ever gets an opportunity to make some plays.

I started thinking about this issue during the Bills game and a little more when someone suggested in a FanPost packaging Gore in a deal to get Tom Brady.  The 49ers have a young, major impact player on offense in Frank Gore and on defense in Patrick Willis.  The question is who is more valuable to the team.  When a team is 4-8 it's probably a little difficult to assess "most valuable," but I think it's still worth doing.

One other reason for doing this is to get an idea of fan attitude towards the two of them.  Frank Gore has struggled at times this season and some people have been quick to jump on him and suggest changes.  People here recognize his abilities, but sometimes people can forget about the good thing, particularly when the shiny new toy, Patrick Willis, comes along.  So, I thought I'd look at the arguments for and against each guy being more valuable.

Frank Gore
I start with Gore because he is the longer tenured 49er.  Gore has certainly struggled at times this year, but he's still managed to put up some rather impressive numbers.  Considering how poorly the offense has been at times over the past couple of years and his numbers are all the more remarkable.  This season he's sitting at 926 yards and 1,280 total yards.  If Gore puts together a decent performance this Sunday, he'll become the first 49ers running back to rush for 1,000+ yards in three straight seasons (not even the great Roger Craig did that).

So, why is he more valuable to the 49ers than Patrick Willis?  Well, when he's on his game, he is an unstoppable force of nature.  He's not the biggest guy on the field but he's got the ability to run guys over like nobody's business.  He has shown a combination of shifty moves and an ability to break arm tackles with the best of them.  Just as impressive is the fact that he's led the team in receptions the last two years and is tied for the lead this year with Isaac Bruce.  FInally, when he's dominant, Gore can seemingly single-handedly win games on his own with his running and receiving performance.

Why is he not as valuable?  Often times if the offensive line is struggling, Gore can really struggle to get going.  His numbers are solid but his yards per carry has been down a bit this year and last.  Physically, he lacks the breakaway speed that the great running backs seem to have.  He doesn't need to have Devin Hester speed, but when he gets into the secondary he sometimes lacks that next gear necessary to break the 50+ yard touchdown runs.  He can make solid plays, but not always the big, huge plays that can completely change the momentum of the game.

Patrick Willis
Bamm Bamm has been in the NFL for less than two full seasons and already predictions of the Hall of Fame abound.  He led the NFL in tackles as a rookie, set a single season record for tackles with that number, was defensive rookie of the year and made the Pro Bowl.  In his second season, Willis is #2 in total tackles and leads all linebackers in pass deflections.  Last season saw the highlight of him running down Sean Morey to save a touchdown and this year saw an amazing interception return for a touchdown.  Needless to say there has been NO sophomore slump for Bamm Bamm.

Why is Patrick Willis more valuable than Frank Gore? He brings a dominant athleticism that allows to make huge plays no matter how poorly the rest of the defense is performing.  As bad as the defense has been at times, it seems like he makes a huge play every game, more often than not seeing him streak across the field to make a tackle in the back field.  When he's not getting large tackle totals, it's often because teams are scheming away from him.  And even then he still makes an impact.  In week 1 he only had 5 total tackles, but he also had two pass deflections.  This past week saw him garner 14 tackles, one forced fumble and a pass deflection.

Why is he not as valuable? One could argue his high tackle totals are simply due to a poor defensive line that allows ball carriers through for easy tackles.  Of course, tackling a running back is no easy task, so that might not be saying much.  Also, it's debateable whether a single defensive player can impact the entire defensive game on his own.  Of course, tell that to Lawrence Taylor, Champ Bailey or Deion Sanders.

Going into this post I was thinking I could find sufficient reasons to vote for either Frank Gore or Patrick Willis.  After posting the reasons and trying to think of additional reasons, I don't know how I could argue anybody other than Patrick Willis. He is approaching that level of being a guy who can single-handedly impact a game on defense like some of the all-time greats.  Given that he's only a second year player, the sky really is the limit for him.

Now this definitely not a knock on Frank Gore.  Gore brings so much to the table and I would obviously not be looking for a new running back.  Rather, it's more a matter of Gore's dependence on the offensive line and the rest of the offense in his performance.  He's put up great numbers for some bad teams, but I'm not sure he's at the level of impact that Patrick Willis has so quickly reached.

So am I off-base with my assessment?  Two years ago Frank Gore was far and away the MVP of this team.  However, times can change and I think Patrick Willis has grabbed that title from Gore.

A running theme of the Mike Singletary era has been his reliance on 5 specific keys to victory, which he calls "49ers Formula for Success."  It's been discussed over and over again by the beat writers and was featured early in yesteday's game on Fox.  It's brought up repeatedly in practice so clearly these are things he strongly values.  Singletary's keys to victory are:

1. Total Ball Security
2. Execute
3. Dominate the trenches
4. Create great field position
5. Finish

I'm thinking that as long as Singletary is running things (and as long as he doesn't change them), the morning after a game will involve a run down of his 5 keys to victory and how the team performed in each area.  I'll even throw out arbitrary grades.  Feel free to do the same.

Total Ball Security
Given the weather, ball security figured to be a big issue.  In the end the 49ers fumbled the ball four times and the Bills fumbled twice.  The good news is that the 49ers only lost one of those fumbles.  Given the nasty, rainy weather it's not surprising that there were ball security issues.  At the same time, one problem that continues to appear is on the center-QB exchange.  This is at least the third game where Heitmann and Hill have had an issue.  For the most part they've been able to recover the ball, but it's something that needs to be addressed.  I'd say all things considered, for Total Ball Security, the team probably deserves about a B-.  It'd be worse but I'll give them a pass becaus of the weather.

Execute
As Barrows wondered, what does this mean?  On offense the team executed quite impressively on their opening drive but struggled to execute much of anything the rest of the way.  Nothing really got going for them so I'd suppose that's not "executing."  The defense gave had issues with bending, but in the red zone they absolutely executed.  The 49ers have done fairly well in not giving up touchdowns in the endzone.  That proved huge given Rian Lindell's field goal struggles.  Special teams certainly executed as Nedney drilled an important 51-yard field goal and Andy Lee continued to drop punts inside the 20.  All in all I'd say offensive execution is probably a C+ or B-, defensive execution gets an A (the red zone defense makes up for Marshawn Lynch running wild in my opinion) and special teams execution gets an A+.

Dominate the trenches
On the offensive side of the ball, there was not a whole lot of domination.  Frank Gore simply could not get going, averaging a mere 2.8 yards per carry.  Given what Gore has proven he can do, I consider this as much an offensive line issue as anything else.  Shaun Hill was sacked 3 times but on the scoring drive he was provided enough time to make some big throws.  Offensively I'd give the team a C+.

On the defensive side of the ball, the 49ers didn't get a ton of pressure on the QBs, but they definitely got it when they needed it.  It certainly helped that Losman more or less created the pressure for the 49ers by running around when it wasn't necessary.  Marshawn Lynch had a big day running the ball, which would indicate poor performance in the trenches.  The good news on that front though is that when the Bills got into the red zone they couldn't punch the ball in.  Once again, the red zone domination of the trenches more than makes up for the earlier struggles in that regard.  Defensively I'd give the team a B.

Create great field position
Since losing Allen Rossum, Delanie Walker has done a decent job on kick returns but nothing spectacular.  Nate Clements is back on punts and had one small return.  Clearly the team misses Allen Rossum.  Hopefully he'll be back for the Jets game.  The 49ers started inside their own 20 twice and in Bills territory twice although that was due in part to turnovers and not due to the return men.  All in all, I'd give the team a B-.  Nothing special but no mistakes.

Finish
In winning the game, this section brings kudos to the defense.  The defense bent quite often this game, but always finished things when the Bills got into the redzone.  More importantly, the Bills got the ball three times late in the game with a chance to score and the defense stepped up big time.  The first time the Bills drove to the 49ers 7 and turned it over on downs thanks to some timely pressure.  The second time the Bills started on the 49ers 25 thanks to a big Parrish punt return and a personal foul.  A 3 and out later and the Bills missed a field goal.  The third time was the Bills final possession in which Losman faced a ton of pressure and couldn't make the necessary plays.

Again, the defense's red zone performance is what makes this an A performance.  The offense struggled, but for the most part they didn't do anything too stupid.  In a knock-down, drag-out battle sometimes thast's all that's necessary.  The offense will obviously need to put points on the board against the Jets, but as long as they can avoid turnovers, I think better weather will lead to improved offense.

It might have been a little ugly.  No, check that.  It was a LOT ugly.  The 49ers were 3-27 in their last 30 in 10am starts and West Coast teams had not won on the East Coast all season.  Well, that has all changed in what has to be the biggest win of the season for the 49ers.  The 49ers 3 wins prior came against the Lions, Rams and the Seahawks...not exactly titans of terror.  A win against a team desperate for a playoff spot is always a good win, especially when it comes on the road.

As many pointed out in the thread, there was a lot of bad in this game.  Shaun Hill and Eric Heitmann continue to have trouble on that Center-QB exchange.  Vernon Davis continues to make stupid plays.  Mike Martz continues to make some rather stupid play calls late in the game with the lead.  And of course, the defense continues its bending style, although there was no breakage today.

However, I think that one paragraph is enough coverage of the negatives for today.  When you get something so rare as an East Coast win, you have to be pleased, no matter how it happened.  Each unit made mistakes, but they also found ways to win this game and that should be accounted for.

Offense
Shaun Hill was not wildly impressive, but this might qualify as a Hill special: no killer turnovers and doing just enough to win the game.  Frank Gore really struggled getting anything going, but he kept on grinding it out.  He had a couple of solid runs in that first scoring drive and for the most part they did what they could to have him dictate the tempo of the game.  What's really impressive is that the 49ers were outgained by 145 yards and ran quite few less plays, but were only out-possessed by 1 minute.

The highlight of the game though had to be Isaac Bruce absolutely schooling Leodis McKelvin on the first drive, including a touchdown reception that left McKelvin holding Bruce's jockstrap.

Defense
As ugly as the defense was at times, they did enough to prevent the Bills from getting into the end zone, whether it be Balmer's pass deflection or some really key sacks of J.P. Losman.  Marshawn Lynch had a field day, but never got into the end zone.  Fred Jackson is considered one of the under-the-radar impressive guys but he really did nothing and was stood up behind the line of scrimmage on several plays.

As has been stated, if the team is going to stick with the 3-4, a monstrous nose tackle like Terrence Cody is a must in this upcoming draft.  A big guy taking up two offensive linemen would be the ticket for opening up more of a pass rush.  Thankfully J.P. Losman did that for us today.

Special Teams
Joe Nedney had a big 51-yard field goal late in the first half, but more importantly was the play of Andy Lee.  He continues to be just an absolute stud on punts.  He didn't have any particularly stand out punts (like the 80+ yarder) but I think his play deserves extra recognition.

Coaching
As Grumpy Guy mentioned late in the game thread, Mike Singletary moved a step closer to dropping that interim title.  And as everybody pointed out, and I agree, Mike Nolan's 49ers would have lost this game.  Even when things started going a bit haywire, the team maintained its composure and I attribute that in part to the veterans and in larger part to Coach Singletary.

We'd probably all prefer to see the 49ers win blowouts and take care of business early.  At the same time, there's something satisfying about your team gutting out a tough win on the road.  As much as I'd like to see the 49ers shock the world and storm back to take the NFC West, I'm not holding my breath.  The team just needs to show me continued improvements.  Even with all the mistakes, going on the road and beating a .500+ team is an improvement no matter how you look at it.

I'd like to close though by presenting game balls to Rian Lindell and J.P. Losman.  Lindell shanked a pair of field goals off the uprights and the first miss may have led in part to Dick Jauron's decision to go for it on 4th down later.  Maybe that had nothing to do with it, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it did.  Leaving six points on the board was huge.  As for Losman, he single handedly created a pass rush for the 49ers.  When Edwards was in, even though he was throwing ugly incompletions, he seemed to have time in the pocket.  Losman, on the other hand, seemed to get impatient and get happy-feet.  A few moves and he was running into his own linemen and 49ers defensive linemen much of the second half.  Whatever though, I'll take it any way I can get it.

Thanks to everybody who took part in the game thread.  It was a stomach-churner of a game, but we certainly do enjoy a win and it's always fun shanking somebody else's playoff chances.  Participants are listed after the jump and as always, check out the SB Nation NFL Hub at the link in the graphic for your up to date league info.

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