49ers - Rams: 10 Quarters and No Wins for SF

That was a terrible performance across the board in St. Louis a few minutes ago...

Colin Kaepernick single-handedly gave the Rams 10 of their points. Each time the game was his to control, he failed. And Jim Harbaugh was woefully outcoached for the second time this season against Jeff Fisher.

Aside from taking that awful grounding penalty that gave the Rams their first points of the day, the Niners screwed themselves on four key plays down the stretch. Satisfactorily completing any one of them would have saved the day and given San Francisco an ugly road win against a divisional opponent:

• Leading by eight late in the fourth quarter against an offense that hadn't scored ALL DAY, the Niners inexplicably tried a fancy flip-lateral to Ted Ginn deep in their own territory. Kaepernick's toss was totally off the mark, the Rams pounced on the ball into the end zone, and a two-point conversion tied a game that the Rams had no business being in.
• On the following drive, facing third-down inside the two minute warning (and following the rare "dropped TD and holding call on consecutive plays" by Delaney Walker to cause the sputtering offense to drive backwards after getting into the red zone), Kapernick rolled to his right to gain a few yards, then stepped out of bounds to save a final timeout for the Rams so they could drive down the field and tie the game on a 51-yard field goal. 
• On the Rams' tying drive, Dashon Goldson performed his customary "personal foul at a crucial moment" maneuver to give the Rams 15 much-needed yards.
• David Akers, remembering how much he enjoyed shanking a game-winner field goal in the previous tie with the Rams, delivered an encore performance by missing another game-winner from (a very makeable indoor distance of) 51 yards.

Naturally, the Rams took possession of the ball following the Akers miss and drove into 49er territory just deep enough before time expired to nail (another) long field goal to win the contest.

Game. Set. Match.

"Who's got it better than us?" Why don't you just tell us who still has the "hot hand" instead, Harbaugh.

Fortunately, the race for the NFC's second seed is still in San Francisco's hands. But if the Niners find themselves playing in the wildcard round during the weekend of December 5 instead of enjoying a first-round bye, they can thank their ineptitude against the Rams (twice) for their lack of rest.