FanHouse San Francisco 49ers

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland Raiders have decided they like the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum enough to reach a tentative agreement to remain there through the 2013 season.

The Raiders' lease with the Oakland/Alameda County Coliseum Authority was set to expire at the end of the 2010 season. Considering the city of San Francisco and the South Bay city of Santa Clara have been offering stadium locations and are competing for the 49ers' services, the future home of Al Davis' franchise was very much in question.

While the lease agreement must still be formally approved by the Joint Powers Authority, the City of Oakland, the County of Alameda and the NFL, it's a foregone conclusion that the Raiders -- love 'em or hate 'em -- aren't going anywhere. At least for the time being.

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Every week FanHouse looks at some aspect of NFL line play for the weekly Between The Lines feature.

Because of bye weeks, most teams are halfway through their season even as we're getting ready to watch Week 10. The halfway point seems like as good a time as any to roll out complete sacks allowed stats.

These stats were culled by watching each and every sack that has occurred in the NFL this season (with the exception of a couple of minutes of a Redskins-Chiefs game that was lost because of a broadcasting problem). In going back and watching every sack, I timed the time from the snap to the initial hit on the quarterback (then rewound it and timed it a couple of more times to confirm the time) and tried to assign blame to the person responsible for giving up the sack.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Mike Singletary didn't exactly hand it to his old team. That didn't matter - Jay Cutler handed the desperate San Francisco 49ers a much-needed win.

Frank Gore ran for 104 yards and a touchdown, Cutler threw a career-high five interceptions with his last coming in the end zone on the game's final play and San Francisco snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Chicago Bears 10-6 on Thursday night.

Get. Excited. The NFL's Thursday night schedule is back and, well maybe not better than ever -- the Week 10 combatants, Chicago and San Francisco, have lost seven of eight combined -- but it's certainly back.

Both teams could desperately use this one. The Bears (4-4) find themselves three games back of the NFC North-leading Vikings, and quite frankly, have been extremely mediocre lately. Chicago lost at home to Arizona last week, 41-21, and it's only win since a Week 5 bye came against Cleveland. San Francisco, meanwhile, has fallen hard since an impressive 3-1, capped by a home loss to Tennessee last Sunday. Despite winning in Arizona earlier this season, the 49ers are two games back of the Cardinals in the NFC West.

Thursday night's game kicks at 8:20 PM ET, and we'll be here just prior to that -- 8:15 -- for our live chat. Join us, won't you?

After the quarterback-challenged 49ers (3-5) lost to Tennessee last Sunday at Candlestick Park, the reality of a four-game losing streak began to sink into the booing, frustrated crowd at the stadium by the bay. Fans in San Francisco have seen these collapses and experienced this disappointment all too often in recent years.

So have too many 49ers players. And that could be a problem for Mike Singletary, whose fiery rhetoric may lose its steam if the Iron Mike style of coaching and leadership doesn't start producing victories.

Mike Nolan (18-37 as the 49ers head coach) lost his job to Mike Singletary in 2008 on the heels of a four-game losing streak and a Week 7 loss to the New York Giants.

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It's often said that a team with two quarterbacks really doesn't have any. With that spirit in mind, FanHouse will keep you updated weekly on NFL teams facing potential quarterback controversies.

After weeks of embarrassing, historic, and somewhat hysterical futility under the guidance of Derek Anderson, the Cleveland Browns have finally completed their quarterback cycle.

It's often said that a team with two quarterbacks really doesn't have any. With that spirit in mind, FanHouse will keep you updated weekly on NFL teams facing potential quarterback controversies.

Some teams are entirely too stubborn. Not only will they leave bad quarterbacks in to take mental and physical beatings, but they'll insist on running offensive plays that don't seem to take the team's strengths into account, oftentimes leaning way too much on a struggling quarterback to make plays. As the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns (among others) have now learned, this is a recipe for disaster.

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When San Francisco right tackle Adam Snyder gave up five sacks in the first two weeks of the season, the 49ers were glad they had a Plan B.

Former Jaguars tackle Tony Pashos stepped in to replace Snyder and provided mediocre pass blocking. He wasn't good, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Snyder either--giving up three sacks in five games. For a team with a very leaky right side of the offensive line, that was actually an improvement.

But Pashos is now done for the season with a broken shoulder blade, which means that Snyder is back at right tackle. And what that means is new starting quarterback Alex Smith better be mobile.

Alex Smith's return as the 49ers' starting quarterback in the second half of Sunday's 24-21 loss to the Texans at Houston's Reliant Stadium produced career numbers for the former No. 1 overall draft pick. And it may force a philosophical change for a 29th-ranked San Francisco offense that had been sputtering under quarterback Shaun Hill's direction.

Trailing Houston 21-0 at halftime and going nowhere under an increasingly sack-prone and inaccurate Hill (6-of-11 passes, 45 yards, two sacks), 49ers coach Mike Singletary made the switch to the more mobile Smith in the second half and saw immediate dividends.

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The San Francisco 49ers waited through training camp and the first seven weeks of the regular season for their first-round draft choice, wide receiver Michael Crabtree, to make headlines for something other than his contract demands.

The 10th overall pick did just that Sunday, supplanting starter Josh Morgan and sending two other key 49ers receivers -- Brandon Jones and Jason Hill -- to the inactive list at Houston's Reliant Stadium. That gave Crabtree a starting assignment in his NFL debut, and the former Texas Tech star showed he was worth the wait.

Lined up wide, often opposite veteran Isaac Bruce, Crabtree caught five passes for 56 yards, many of them coming against the Texans' press coverage. Three of his catches resulted in 49ers' first downs.

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