Tom Rouen

Hey everybody, this is Fooch from Niners Nation, the SB Nation 49ers blog.  Our squads are squaring off in what should be an interesting battle between scuffling teams.  It's certainly even more intriguing given Mike Singletary's history with the Bears.  I can only imagine the reception he would have received had this game been played in Chicago. It's a short week so things are a bit truncated, but I thought I'd throw together a FanPost and...  

Only a month ago, the 49ers sat alone in first place atop the NFC West standings and were thinking playoffs.  

In Part I of an exclusive three-part series, SFIllustrated.com’s Craig Massei and BearReport.com’s John Crist begin their back-and-forth interaction with five questions from John to Craig. What has changed for the 49ers with Alex Smith at QB? What stands out about RB Frank Gore and LB Patrick Willis? How will the Niners keep Jay Cutler and Co. in check on Thursday? These Q and more inside.  

Quick Note: I wrote this article prior to this past weekend's heart breaking loss to the Titans.  The fact that we are 3-5 doesn't mean we should give up on the season, and focus on the offseason, I just wanted to get some names out there that we can track through out the remainder of the season. Things can't get much worse (at RT) in Ninerland with Tony Pashos being out for the season.  While Pashos didn't get a lot of time to get comfortable...  

SANTA CLARA -- Only a month ago, the San Francisco 49ers sat alone in first place atop the NFC West standings and were thinking playoffs. And why not? They'd already beaten the defending division champion Arizona Cardinals and Seattle in consecutive weeks.