LG David Baas left the game yesterday with an ankle injury. No word on how serious that is. Safety Michael Lewis has a quad strain—no word on how serious that is (though I suspect it’s not bad).

Look to Justin Smith and Aubrayo Franklin up front. Franklin is have a Pro-Bowl year at NT and Justin Smith provides our best rush on the defense. Patrick Willis is the best defensive player we have. I firmly believe he’ll be in the HOF when his career is done. Nate Clements was our second-best playmaker on defense but he’s out with an injury. The rest of them are journeymen.

Pass rush isn’t so great. Our OLB don’t have the power or moves to get in. Franklin did have an interception against Cutler last week but that’s always a fluke.

Jason Hill is a young receiver with a lot of speed. Josh Morgan also has some speed. He doesn’t get a great many passes thrown his way, but he has the speed to get around the edges. He’s used in reverses. He returned a kick for the first time yesterday and got 76 yards—I’m hoping that he’s back in there again as kr.

Regarding the win—I have no idea. Depends on which team shows up. If it’s the one that held Indy to 18 points I think we win. If it’s the one that let Atlanta score 45 on us we lose. This team is schizophrenic that way. We’re not completely out of the playoff picture yet so I’m expecting a better than expected effort from the team.

I think the sell-out record there goes back to the early 80s.

They sell out every week, but I’d imagine the 49ers buy up some of their own tickets. Although they sell out there are a fair number of no-shows at times. But they do “sell out.”

Offensive line:
Staley is our LT and Sims has come in great as a backup, but he’s been around for a long time. We need a premier LT so we can move Staley to RT. We also need good Guards. Rachal is doing ok, but Baas (LG) is a FA and I don’t think we resign him.

Secondary:
Safety—our pass coverage is pretty bad. We need a good safety to help in the run and pass game.
CB—We need good depth here as well. The starters we have are merely adequate.
OLB—Haralson and Lawson play OLB. They do a pretty good job, but in a 3-4 they need to provide the pass rush and they don’t get it done. We need an outside rusher with quick lateral speed.

Some people still aren’t sold at the QB position—I think Smith is doing just fine and would be great if we had a decent line.

I think we can fix the line issue through FA. I’d love to get Berry in the draft if he falls to us but I don’t see that happening.

Worst in the division—used to be the Rams but they’ve been so bad the past few years that it’s hard to hate on them. If I had to choose someone now it would be Arizona because we always seem to be fighting them.

Before the season I predicted that we would go 10-6, or 9-7 at the worst. 9-7 is still possible for us and if we do it I’ll be a happy camper as that will be the first winning season for us in 7 years. The nice thing about playing in the NFC West is that a 9-7 or 10-6 record can get you into the playoffs depending on the other teams. Right now AZ is looking really good so I don’t think we’ll make it unless Kurt Warner’s injury is really bad.

I became a Niner fan in 1984 during their Super Bowl year (I was 7). I’ve been rooting for them ever since. I think Steve Young is the best QB we’ve had bar none.

but he’s getting there. His biggest strengths are his route running and his strong hands.

He’s the most talented “receiver” at this point. Vernon Davis is solid as a receiving tight end, but I see certain receiving skills in Crabtree that not even Davis has. Davis has shown speed and ability to take a hit, but Crabtree is on a whole other level. It’s now a matter of a) showing some of the deep ability and b) putting this together on a consistent week-by-week basis.

I haven’t been to very many games at Candlestick. I much prefer watching from the comfort of home or a bar. I’d say checking craigslist (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/) as that’s become a decent secondary market.

Otherwise, just head over to ticketmaster. The second deck will certainly be the cheapest.

That’s interesting because Balmer continues to not see a whole ton of playing time. It seems like he’s spending more time on special teams over anything else. He showed some solid signs in training camp, but he’s stuck behind Isaac Sopoaga at left defensive end. Sopoaga is playing extremely well, so I’m really not sure when Balmer will start to see more playing time.