Remember when the 49ers dominated the Vikings on Monday night in Week 1?
Was it just a dream? It could have been. It was played at a time when most people on the East Coast were asleep.
There is something surreal about that night considering how the 49ers (2-5) have performed since then. The only other team they’ve beaten are the one-win Ravens.
What’s happening this season is harder for 49ers fans to look at than the all-white uniforms their team broke out occasionally in the 90s.
During a players-only meeting earlier in the season, tight end Vernon Davis called out quarterback Colin Kaepernick and offensive lineman Joe Staley defended the quarterback. Then things got pretty heated, according to CSNBayArea via Pro Football Talk.
Kaepernick hasn’t exactly blossomed into the next-generation quarterback he looked like in 2012. His passer rating has gone down every year since then. This season, he has just six touchdown passes and five interceptions.
The blame for this mess, however, shouldn’t fall squarely on the players.
For some reason, the front office decided that it wanted to move on from a coach who sandwiched two conference-championship game appearances around a Super Bowl berth.
In Jim Harbaugh’s place is Jim Tomsula, promoted from defensive line coach. Tomsula skipped a level on the organizational chart. The only time he’s been a defensive coordinator is with the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe in 2004 and 2005.
Tomsula might be lighting up Twitter with some of his funny faces, but he just seems overmatched.
AKA the Crean face RT @TheCauldron Jim Tomsula with the look you get trying to decide on an ice cream flavor pic.twitter.com/hLKLQ3JeGJ
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) October 23, 2015
It doesn’t help that his superiors sent players packing and replaced them with inferior ones.
Carlos Hyde has run for 470 yards to Frank Gore’s 446, but since rushing for 168 yards in the season opener, Hyde hasn’t run for more than 93 yards in any game. Gore is proving he’s not washed up quite yet, averaging 4.6 yards per carry for the Colts while Hyde is averaging 4.1 yards per carry. Gore has run for more than 1,100 yards in four straight seasons. Sure, he’s 32. But the 49ers should have waited until Gore showed signs of slowing down before letting him go.
Michael Crabtree is on track for a career resurgence in Oakland. He has 33 catches through six games. Meanwhile, feast-or-famine Torrey Smith has 14 receptions for the 49ers.
It’s not surprising that the 49ers are last in the NFL with 295.6 yard of offense per game. It also shouldn’t be surprising that San Francisco’s defense is next to last, yielding 406 yards per game.
The unit was hit hard by the retirement of Justin Smith, Chris Borland and Patrick Willis. With his defensive background, however, Tomsula needs to be getting more out of that side of the ball.
49ers are in a position to truly draft the best player on their board. No quick fixes. No one player to target. @Swaggernick7
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) October 27, 2015
The 49ers’ misery has some company. Just three years ago, the 49ers and Ravens met in the Super Bowl. This year, they have three wins between them. Even the 49ers’ win over the Ravens at Levi’s Stadium wasn’t assured until the final seconds. And there’s a sense that the Ravens can bounce back from this dud of a season. Their front office doesn’t have the reputation for making the poor decisions the 49ers’ front office has made.