It's not so much hand wringing occurring in the Bay Area the morning after Seattle tromped through town so much as a collective dismissal. Take San Francisco columnist Ray Ratto's piece:

The news from Candlestick Sur-la-Mer seems bleak, even hopeless, but let's be fair here: That's way too optimistic. The 49ers very well might be what we in the philosophy department here at Eton like to call screwed.

Youch. The lead to the game description was just about as dour.

In the first month of the season, the 49ers have gone from lucky to plucky to just plain yucky.
There's little to indicate it will get any better.

That was from John Crumpacker, who wrote the game account.

Different paper, different targets, same overwhelming pessimism.

Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News: "Sunday's glaring lesson: Alex Smith is not the problem with the 49ers' offense." The rest of his column is here.

Tim Kawakami said Alex Smith's separated shoulder will doom the 49ers because his backup isn't any good. Here's the set up: "Alex Smith is hurt, and the 49ers are doomed." The rest of his column is here.

Hmmmm. Wasn't this the hot-to-trot preseason pick? The one that went out and had one of the best draft days in the league, choosing linebacker Patrick Willis -- who appears to be a legit star. They went out and signed Nate Clements as part of a defensive restocking. They beat the Seahawks twice last season and sunny days were supposed to be here again in San Francisco.

But the 49ers lost offensive coordinator Norv Turner and that unit has progressed this season as if it were treading in molasses. Very. Very. Slowly. But here were the Seahawks, the team they ran over last season. Just bulldozed them.

And the explanation for why yesterday's game was so lopsided was found up front. The 49ers offensive line couldn't handle Seattle's front seven. They gave up six sacks in the first half. They were responsible for seven of San Francisco's nine penalties in the game between false starts, holding and even a tripping penalty. At one point, Craig Terrill was clean through for a sack and the Niners resorted to tackling him from behind.

We spelled out the size difference in the blog on Friday. The 49ers are the ninth-largest line in the league. Tackle Jonas Jennings is 335 pounds, guard Larry Allen is 325 and the Seahawks are the ninth-lightest based on Week 3 starting lineups. But what happened on Sunday showed not only that size isn't everything but that the layman's explanation that Seattle gets bowled over up front simply doesn't apply. Not in Cincinnati's Week 3 loss in Seattle when the Bengals brought in the heaviest line in the league and their starting tailback proceeded to carry 13 times in the first half for negative 3 yards. And it certainly didn't apply in Week 4 when the Seahawks went out and treated the 49ers offensive line like the Maginot Lines and stormed around them en route to the quarterback.

Analyzing run defense is tough. You ask the players and they start talking about things like gap discipline and tight fits and manning your responsibilities. Every player in that front seven is responsible for a certain alley or gap on the field. Get pushed out of that spot and you were blocked out of the play. But sometimes it's not the blocking that removes the player from that spot, but his own attempt to make a play elsewhere, anticipating where the ball is going and trying to get there. That can be especially true for a defense like Seattle's, which has more speed than some teams. That speed and reaction can be bent back against the Seahawks and is one of the reasons why they were so vulnerable to cutbacks and changes of direction last season.

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