"New Morning" - Week 4

Frank Gore looks to be an inconvenient truth for the Jets this Sunday.

By: Josh Hunsucker @jphunsucker

In case you were wondering, you can't just show up in another team's stadium and decide you are going to win without giving them a vote. Last week the Niners slept walked through four straight quarters of football and looked generally like zombies. The defense made Christian Ponder look like Madden '04 Vick.

The offense couldn't get any time of possession going, Frank Gore only touched the ball 12 times even though he averaged 5.3 YPC, and the game pretty much sucked the life out of me (the drive out of Tahoe that afternoon did not help either).

Here's the GOOD NEWS. The Niners are still the prohibitive favorite in the NFC West (despite the feisty Nards). The Niners are facing a Darrelle Revis-less Jets. Mark Sanchez is less than scary. Jesus Tebow barely gets on the field. Bart Scott is fighting reporters. The Niners had their 2.0 version of the bonding road trip to Youngstown, Ohio that was a catalyst for their success last year. So life is still good. The loss in Minny passed away quickly, and losses like that always do when the Niners are playing well.

Is there room for legitimate concern? SURE (the Vikings may be kind of good though but yes there is). Am I scared that we still haven't improved on offense since last year even though we seemingly upgraded? I will say that Mike Crabtree is finally making me smile each game. He is finally living up to my t-shirt jersey purchase, making tough catches, running hard, and generally being a man. Don't think that the change to the Jerry Rice facemask had nothing to do with it.

Did it make me sick to my stomach that a shifty guy like Percy Harvin (similar to Santonio Holmes) had a huge game against us (yes us), and was generally uncoverable? Yes, yes it did.

More good news, Mark Sanchez is considerably less mobile than Ponder and Shon Green is considerably less Adrian Peterson-y than Adrian Peterson.

If I can offer any hard hitting advice for Niners fans this week, don't under estimate the power of Jets' wideout coach Sanjay Lal, the great Miramonte WR coach of yesteryear. The Jets will be ready this Sunday and will be ready to prove that they are not the worst 2-1 team in the league.

The Niners NEED to get something cooking on offense. I'd like to see a steady dose of Frank "The Inconvenient Truth" Gore and some nice play action, which stretches the field. All of which opens up the field for our best player, VD. How is the media not talking about him in the same breath as Gronk and Jimmy Graham? Bewildering?!?!

The early start time SHOULDN'T have an adverse effect on the Niners this week. I have to believe Jim Harbaugh addressed the lack luster performance in Minny and motivated the team to forget the past and look at the Jets game as a New Morning. In classic Neo-Niner fashion, it won't be pretty but it will be a W.

Niners 23-20 and the season will again seem as bright as a New Morning.