The San Francisco 49ers season didn't officially end on Sunday with their 24-13 loss to the Oakland Raiders, but for all intents and purposes it's done. All you had to do was watch them go through the motions in the second half to see it. Everything that made them one of the most feared opponents in the NFL the last three seasons has disappeared, discipline, hard nosed offense, tough defense, heart, all gone.
With a loss next week in Seattle the 49ers will officially be out of the playoffs, and Jim Harbaugh and most of his staff will be out too.
Let's get to the answers for the 5 burning questions that I asked on Wednesday.
1) Can Colin Kaepernick bounce back? - No. With the season on the line Kaepernick imploded. He threw an interception on the first play from scrimmage. Sure he bounced back with a touchdown throw a couple drives later, but for the most part he was awful for the second week in a row.
Over the last two weeks Kaepernick is 4-24 for 76 yards and 4 interceptions on throws 10 or more yards downfield for a rating of 0.694.
The silver lining is Kaepernick's performance will help save the 49ers $2 million in cap space for 2014.
2) Can the 49ers get the running game going? - Yes. Frank Gore averaged 5.3 yards per carry and looked as though he was ready to carry the 49ers on his back. He carried the ball only 12 times and was in for only 57% of the offensive snaps. More on this in a minute.
3) Which wide receiver will step up? - None of them. Michael Crabtree was targeted a team high 13 times and responded with 9 catches for 56 yards. For the most part Crabtree's contributions were limited to quick screens on the outside with a couple quick screens underneath.
Anquan Boldin wasn't much better. He was targeted 9 times and came away with only 4 catches for 54 yards.
Stevie Johnson and Quinton Patton were targeted a combined 3 times, and Bruce Ellington was in for a fake on a fly sweep, something they do about once per game when he is active but they never give him the ball so it's wasted motion.
4) Can the offensive line protect Kaepernick? - The 49ers gave up 5 sacks, but most of those came in the second half when it was evident that they didn't have to worry about the run any longer and could just pin their ears back.
5) Can the 49ers defense force Derek Carr to beat them? - Yes. And beat them he did. Carr was terrific throughout the game, especially in the second half when he completed 12 of 14 passes for 161 yards and 2 touchdowns. There should be no argument who the better quarterback was on Sunday.
* Back to Frank Gore getting only twelve carries on Sunday. Gore has been the heart and soul of the 49ers for most of his career in San Francisco, and he knows that his time is coming to an end. He wanted to go out on top and looked like a guy running for his life against the Raiders yet Roman and Harbaugh took him out of the game, and in turn the took the heart and soul out of their football team.
* Colin Kaepernick is easily the most unlikable 49ers quarterback of the last 35 years. There have definitely been worse quarterbacks who have started during that time, but none is the absolute dud that Kaepernick has become.
For all of his shortcomings, at least Alex Smith would stand up after the game and try to explain why he played poorly. Same goes for every other quarterback that I can think of. Kaepernick comes off as a petulant child who didn't get his way.
Kaepernick's facial expressions after making a poor play are starting to rival those of Eli Manning.
* Only three teams have scored fewer touchdowns than the 49ers this season: Oakland, Jacksonville, and the New York Jets
* I think the 49ers will not win another game this season and finish 7-9. Kaepernick has already proven he can't win in Seattle, and this team is abysmal at home.
