Thursday Night Football - Week 15

San Francisco 49ers 7 @ San Diego Chargers 34: You have to love the 49ers. It's either one extreme or the other with them, never a middle ground. Last week Alex Smith did ok in the passing game. A week later and the 49ers have rushed the ball just 14 times (15 if you include Smiths scramble). They just seem to completely lack any sense of balance. Rather the 49ers seem happy to throw their lot in with whatever hand is hottest after the previous week and hope that all pans out nicely. Well predictably it didn't. Smith threw 19/29 for 165 yards and an interception. His leading receiver was Josh Morgan, who finally appears to be fulfilling all the promise and potential he's been keeping under wraps for the last two years. It was nothing however compared to the link up of Philip Rivers and Vincent Jackson. Rivers was 19/25 for 273 yards and 3 TD's. Vincent Jackson caught 5 of those passes for 112 yards and 3 TD's. Then the Chargers rushing game kicked in as well with Mike Tolbert (17 carries, 46 yards, 1 TD) and Ryan Matthews (17 carries, 56 yards) helping to keep things ticking over and to burn away some clock. Then add six sacks from the Chargers defense who sparsely get mentioned when compared to the raving reviews of Rivers. All in all the 49ers are probably their own worst enemies. They can't seem to pin down that smooth mix on offense that the Chargers have. They can't protect their QB the way the Chargers do. They can't cover on pass defense like the Chargers. And they can't get to the QB as often and as emphatically as the Chargers front seven (especially not when Justin Smith gets ejected from the game for what was a thoroughly harsh interpretation of "pushing an official"). It sucks to be a 49ers fan. But it could be worse. I could be a Panthers fan... I hate the Panthers. I'll be back tomorrow to start breaking down picks for this weekends action, but till then, Have a great day everyone.