Things could have gotten worse for the Niners this weekend: The latest loss could actually have counted in the standings. But it doesn’t, so the horrible, stinking, filthy, impossible to watch mess that the Niners were on Saturday is already old news.

Don’t get me wrong, the images of Alex Smith’s 2.8 quarterback rating (I still don’t really understand a lot about quarterback ratings, but I know 2.8 is brutal), the Niners' 105 total yards, Kaepernick's 52 yards passing yards, another offensive line breakdown, and a time of possession battle that left Harbaugh's boys completely limp.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow when you're beaten that thoroughly in pretty much all phases," Harbaugh said after the game.

We spend all year grading each performance, but Harbaugh kept it simple: "Defense wasn’t as bad as special teams and special teams weren’t quite as bad as offense."

In other words, let’s say: Defense: D, Special Teams: D-, Offense: F.

Obviously there are some things we know, things we think we know, and some things we really don’t know. We know Alex Smith is the quarterback. We know these games don’t count in the standings. We think we know the lockout had an effect on off-season planning. (We know that we won’t hear that excuse from Harbaugh).

We don’t know how much of the playbook they’re using. We know they lost huge pieces of the D in the off-season. We know Gore isn't out there yet. We know Crabtree isn't out there yet. We don't know how they'll look once the season starts. We think we know they're going to lose more games than they win this year. But we also think we know Harbaugh is a winner long-term.

They look hellish, hideous, heinous and horrible all wrapped into one. But it's too early for hopeless.

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-- JAY KLOSEVITZ
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