Niners a better team? That's a big lie.

SAN FRANCISCO

After five games in 2007 the 49ers’ record was 2-3. After five games in 2008 the 49ers’ record is 2-3. So, here’s what I want to know: Is this year’s 2-3 better than last year’s 2-3?

If you answered yes, I give you the buzzer and eliminate you from this quiz game, and you don’t even get a consolation prize. There is no way the current 2-3 is better than the former 2-3. Truth be told, it’s not even as good.

But, OK, I know why you think this year’s crummy record is better than last year’s crummy record — and, believe me, 2-3 with two losses in a row is crummy.

You think the current crummy record is an improvement because J.T. O’Sullivan is a better quarterback than Alex Smith. That may or may not be true. And the 49ers certainly have a better offensive coordinator in Mike Martz than the poor sap they had last year. And although coach Mike Nolan isn’t doing any better when you actually get down to the nitty-gritty of results, he seems more determined than ever and he talks in a serious voice.

I’ll tell you why this year’s crummy record is a form of regression and backsliding. Actually, if you saw Sunday’s game against New England, I don’t need to tell you — the Niners unable to stop the Patriots with their own beginner quarterback and the Patriots’ defense making the Niners’ offense — hello, Mike Martz — look rinky-dink. But it’s more than just one game. It’s the big picture that’s scary for San Francisco.

The 49ers were supposed to be new and improved.

They were a team, we were told, that had made significant progress. But the 49ers haven’t made progress, and now they’re a year deeper into the current football administration, into this coach, into this new program. And there is no progress and time is passing and you wonder if this bunch ever can get the Niners where they need to go.

Or will someone else — yet another new coach and another new staff — have to come in and start all over once again? One thing is clear. When the 49ers recently had a record of 2-1, you could feel euphoria in the air.

There was a belief — unfounded, it turns out — that the Niners had turned an important corner.

Euphoria is a funny thing and it evaporates in the harsh light of reality. Sunday represented the harsh light of reality. We learned about the 49ers. We learned they cannot compete with a top-level team like the Patriots. They couldn’t beat New England if they played each other every weekend for 16 weeks.

They can’t beat New England minus Tom Brady.

The 49ers are a middle-of-the-road team or less. They may be a bottom-rung team. I think they are.

When Nolan came to the postgame press conference, he looked tense and worried — it was the first time I ever had seen him that way, the constricted throat, the eyes darting around. I bet he doesn’t feel so euphoric anymore.

The players, of course, don’t say they’re worried.

They’d probably get fined for admitting that and, anyway, players are programmed to tell the big lie. Center Eric Heitmann mouthed the big lie after the game. He said, “This one hurts today because I felt like we really had a chance to win. It hurts.”

Heitmann believes the 49ers had a chance to win because he’s a good guy and a good teammate, but he’s wrong. The Niners never had a chance to win. I asked if the Niners are, perhaps, not as good as he once thought.

“I wholeheartedly believe we have an extremely good team,” Heitmann said in all sincerity. “I’m sorry we lost today. It’s upsetting. But I’m encouraged about this team.”

Encouraged? That’s a prime example of the big lie. And remember, players don’t tell the lie only to others. Mostly they tell it to themselves.

Maybe you’re feeling sorry for Nolan right now, and maybe you’re feeling sorry for the 49ers.

You’re feeling sorry because people like me write bad things about them. The Patriots don’t feel sorry for the Niners. The Patriots, minus Brady, have their own problems. No other team feels sorry for the 49ers. Every team has its own problems, and if the 49ers can’t rally, can’t improve, they’ll get more of the same — opponents pushing them around like New England pushed them around on Sunday.

Next week the Eagles will push the Niners around and beat them, and then the Giants will beat them in the Meadowlands. Come on, the 49ers do not stand a chance against the world-champion Giants.

The 2-3 Niners are looking ahead to an almost-certain 2-5 record. And then they play the Seahawks before the bye week, and don’t kid yourselves, they could lose to the Seahawks.

I’m saying 2-6 is a distinct possibility for the formerly euphoric 49ers. After eight games in 2007, they also were 2-6. Which 2-6 is better?

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.