Face it, Niners fans, you were torn last weekend. On the one hand, they had a pretty solid win over the Lambs and Alex Smith finally showed he's got a bit of game. On the other hand, they screwed up this weekend's Bush Bowl in winning. Now that they are no longer tied with the Texans for the worst record in the league, their chances of getting the man so hyped a bootleg video of his playing exploits in High School is currently making the rounds like some underground skater video have diminished. Of course, as SFist Christopher has mentioned, the Niners don't really need a RB, or at least need one more than they need a whole bunch of other players. Something Ira Miller has also been saying in the Chron.

But we'll save the draft exploration for later as even with the rain making our hair all frizzy, it's way too scant to approach Mel Kiper's. Instead, we'd like to explore just what it'll take to get the Niners back towards the Bush.

First thing they need to do is to lose. Duh. Winning the game will certainly keep them out of the running, it might even vaunt them out of the upper tier of draft picks, maybe even having a later pick than the Rai-duhs. But even if they do lose, there's still no guarantee that they'll get the pick. Currently, also at 3-13 are the J-E-T-S, the woe-be-gone Saints, and the Favres. If the Niners lose and all three teams win, that'll help the Niners chances, obvs, but we wouldn't bet money on them winning because an inability to win anything is what brought them into this conversation to begin with.

Photo by A.P.