Reporting from spa-side in Santa Ana, it's your American Football Spectacular preview of the next rung of pain on the agony ladder that is the 49ers' '07 season....

After staunching out the Arizona Cardinals last week, the Niners head to St. Louis to try to get ahead at the expense of the reeling Rams and claw ahead in the NFC West race....

The Oakland Raiders' 2006 slog of a season continues this Sunday at the Coliseum with their Week 15 scrap with the St. Louis Rams. Plenty of good tickets still available for the game. Well, there must be tickets, since the NFL is blacking the game out on TV....

Training camp. Whether you're fans of the Chicago Cubs, the Arizona Cardinals, the Boston Bruins, or even the Golden State Warriors, it is a time of hope. A time to believe. A time to go all in with the Karma chips and think the unthinkable. A time to take a flyer on 125-1 odds that the hometown squad can rise up and revel in the glory of a championship.

So yes, both the Niners and the Rai-duhs lost yesterday in typically awful fashion. But we don't think this is such a bad thing. Not a bad thing in all. In fact, we think it's a good thing: it’s just a matter of how you look at it. Take the Niners for instance; they’re now 2-10 and owner of the second worst record in the NFL. On the other hand, they're still a game......

For perennial doormats like the Chicago Blackhawks, snakebit franchises like the Arizona Cardinals, and irrelevant standings stuffers like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, hope springs eternal in the preseason. So it is, yet again, with this year's East Bay ballers. For about the fifth year in a row, the Warriors' marketing department is trying to hype us on the upcoming season as one of promise and playoffs. To quote Jim Mora, "Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs?"...

The 49ers have now matched their worst-ever performances from the late seventies by beating the woeful Arizona Cardinals, 31-28, but are still officially the worst team in the league. SFist has never liked Dennis Erickson -- always one step ahead of the NCAA investigators during his college coaching career, the man has never coached a successful NFL franchise. We wonder why on earth he's still even working. Oh, right, the ineptitude of the 49ers' front......

Recap of the weekend's football action....