Neil Rackers made his only field goal attempt

That's because Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson played his heart out, and DL Darnell Dockett showed why he should be in Hawai..errrrr, Miami in January. Each had an interception, and Wilson put himself in position to pick off at least one or two more. Niners QB Alex Smith did nothing special, but the defense did allow him to complete a few third down passes that extended drives. Its unfortunate that their solid play in keeping the game within reach despite the offense giving San Francisco the ball at every possibly opportunity, wasn't rewarded with a better outcome. Neil Rackers made his only field goal attempt. But he had an important point-after blocked when Reggie Wells played matador, ushering the Niners Ray McDonald through and, in keeping with the tone of the evening, gave the 49ers much needed confidence when it seemed that the tide had turned. Punter Ben Graham only punted four times, but that's because the Cards apparently chose to either throw the ball into a defender's hands, or put it on the ground and let SF scoop it up.

It's hard to say how good the play calling is when the team constantly turns the ball over. But it's pretty clear that head coach Ken Whisenhunt didn't have his team prepared. That's not to say the players don't bear responsibility for that, because they do. But as with any other lot in life, the buck stops at the head man, the one in charge.

And when his team plays with such lack of discipline, their leader must take some responsibility for their sloppiness. The only thing that saves this disaster from an "F" is the fact that, despite doing everything they offense could to give the game to San Francisco, they were within one score in the 4th quarter. To overcome that ridiculous amount of miscues and turnovers and be in that position shows not only that there was some decent defensive play, but how average a team the 49ers are. I know 'Whiners fans would disagree, but their team didn't win this game. Maybe in keeping with the holiday spirit, the Cardinals gift wrapped this game and handed it to San Francisco. How good that is in the giant scheme of things remains to be seen in coming weeks.. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Accused swindler Bernard Madoff "simply did not realize" that mailing valuable personal items to family and friends violated his bail conditions, his lawyers said in court papers on Wednesday.U.S.