With the Niners sinking like John McCain's Presidential campaign, the inevitable finger pointing has begun. After all, the team has not gotten better, but actually regressed from last year and you could argue that the team has regressed even farther to 2004-2005 levels of suckitude. So the question being asked is who the heck is to blame.

The inevitable target? Mike Nolan.

He's actually a big target. A big, fat, painted bull’s-eye, "Kick Me" sign target. It's his team, his players, his philosophy, and pretty much his everything. Since taking over, Nolan has overseen everything on the team, from players and drafts to cheerleaders. Well, maybe not cheerleaders but you get the point and if we were a coach, we'd think about doing that.

There are various theories out there explaining all the recent Niners problems. One of them is just that he's a horrible talent evaluator, especially on the offensive side. Alex Smith just might not be that good and those Wide Receivers he brought on this season have done absolutely, positively nothing. Another theory is that as a defensive guy, his basic philosophy is offense schmoffense. Thus the boring, conservative, yawn-worthy offense. Then there's the idea that he takes on just too much work and that if anything, somebody needs to step into a GM/President role to relieve Nolan of doing too much.

Let's see, what else is there...the Betting Fool wonders if Nolan is too tightly wound and as a result, the team is starting to chafe under his tight-ass ways. And, finally, there's just this... he's just a plain old lousy coach. Which could actually be true.

In all honesty, we don't know what's up. The debate right now seems to be over whether to get rid of Nolan now or give him one more year. We’re thinking keep him for one more year, but with less responsibility, but what do we know? Damnit, Jim, we're a blogger, not a football owner.