Was it a Week 15 hangover? Was it the 12th man, or was it a combination of both? No one really knows for sure—the only thing we do know is that the 49ers were not on top of their game on Sunday Night Football.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was average at best, running back Frank Gore never had the opportunity to get in a rhythm and Vic Fangio's defense looked overmatched the entire game. Yet, one bad performance shouldn't allow fans and media members alike to write the 49ers off going forward.

San Francisco still holds the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff picture and is 10-4-1 on the season. Heading into Week 17 the 49ers will host the 5-10 Arizona Cardinals at Candlestick Park with the hopes of bringing home an NFC West crown for the second-straight year.

Before we look too far ahead, let's take a look at the good, the bad and everything in between from Week 16.

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By the sounds of it, the ruling of Richard Sherman's four-game suspension should be coming down this Thursday. The ruling would come three days before the Seahawks final regular season game against St. Louis, and depending on the validity of Sherman's appeals argument, he may not miss any playing time going forward. 

According to Sherman's Twitter account, he claims that the tester mixed his urine sample with another urine sample. He also claims that the tester has had a history of errors during his sixth months of employment with the NFL's drug testing program.

It's unknown how Sherman received this information, but in this tweet, he says six other of the tester's tests have been thrown out due to poor testing procedures:

Here's the full rundown of Sherman's defense in the case, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN:

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After going 5-0 with the nation watching against the Lions, Seahawks, Cardinals, Bears and Patriots, the 49ers streak has come to an end thanks to the Seattle Seahawks. Without question tonight's game at CenturyLink Field turned out to be a beatdown in the worst possible way, but if anyone writes the 49ers off after one game they are dead wrong.

The fact of the matter is, this team is better than they showed tonight. Turnovers and a lack of execution on both offense and defense cost the 49ers the game tonight. For starters, Greg Roman's offense was out-possessed 35:09-to-24:51.

That eye-opening stat takes me to San Francisco's inability to sustain drives and convert third-down opportunities. By game's end the Seahawks were 11-13 on third down and the 49ers were 3-11. Moreover, the Seahawks managed to pick up 22 first downs to the 49ers 17 first downs. 

The only way to shorten the game and put points on the board is to get in a rhythm. Yet, it's pretty hard to get into any kind of rhythm when your offense only has nine offensive drives all game long. Not to mention of those nine offensive possessions, Colin Kaepernick and company only had two drives that spanned more than eight plays. 

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Everyone and their dog thought this week's game against the division rival 49ers would become an instant classic. It became an instant classic all right, but not because it was a dog fight—it was an instant classic because Russell Wilson and the Seahawks put it on San Francisco in a big, big way.

After putting up a 108 points of total offense over the course of the last two weeks, there was no way I thought the Seahawks had it in them to do it all over again. Tonight's 42-13 victory means the 'Hawks have now outscored their opponents 150-30 from Week's 14-to-16:

Thanks to the offensive surge, Seattle is now the hottest team in the NFL. No one has had an answer to Darrell Bevell's game plan and Wilson's execution. Four games ago it was the zone-read option that sunk the Bears; last week No. 3 ran for three touchdowns and now tonight it was a combination of the pistol and the zone-read option.

The lengthy use of the pistol was a new wrinkle that they must have added in this week, because they had maybe used it a handful of times before tonight's game. A part of me thinks Pete Carroll used the pistol out of spite because it had been working so well for Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick.

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After two defensive touchdowns last week, the Cardinals cruised to a 38-10 victory over the Detroit Lions. Today, it was the opposition who did all the cruising—Beanie Wells fumbled six points away in the first quarter and Ryan Lindley gift-wrapped the Bears another six points with a poor third-quarter throw that Charles Tillman took to the house.

Fourteen points from the Bears defense would have been enough, considering the Cardinals' offense only managed six points on 14 offensive drives. Lindley played poorly enough to get himself yanked after his pick-six, and Brian Hoyer looked like a guy that they had just picked up off the street on December 10th.

Yet, in a two-week crash course, Hoyer actually played better than the rookie out of San Diego State. At times, he looked poised and under control of an offense that has seen awful quarterback play since Kevin Kolb departed in Week 6.

When he left during the Bills game he had eight touchdown passes and three interceptions. Since his departure, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and Hoyer have combined for two touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. It's hard to win many games when the quarterback position has brought a whole new level of futility week in and week out.

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Josh Freeman tossed four interceptions and cornerback Leonard Johnson had a fumble of his own as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had five turnovers. It signaled the second week in a row where Tampa Bay gave the ball away five times.

Jeff Fisher's club did everything in their power to put this game away early in the second half, turning Tamp Bay's turnovers into points. Of the St. Louis Rams' 28 points, 21 came off of Freeman's interceptions, and St. Louis scored all four of its touchdowns in the second and third quarter.

Cornerback Janoris Jenkins recorded the only defensive touchdown of the game, taking his second-quarter interception back 41 yards for the score. His pick-six was his third of the season.

It was also his fourth defensive touchdown of the season, which moved him into second place for the most touchdowns on the team.

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By the sounds of it, cornerback Richard Sherman will be in the starting lineup on Sunday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers.

Obviously by the sounds of his last tweet, from less than an hour ago, the hearing for his impending four-game suspension went well. Head coach Pete Carroll echoed the same sentiment Friday after practice. "I'm anticipating we'll have him," Carroll said (h/t Lindsay Jones, USA Today). "We know nothing else at this point."

He's right, we don't know anything else at this point. The only thing we do know is that he will be in the starting lineup with rookie cornerback Jeremy Lane opposite of him. It will be interesting to see where Sherm lines up to begin the game. Last week he started his first game of the season at right cornerback and Lane was at left cornerback.

In the 23 games prior to Week 15, he had started every game at left corner. Was moving him to the opposite side an effort to slow down Stevie Johnson right away or did it allow the rookie out of Northwestern State to feel more comfortable in his natural position?

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The Seahawks' defense hasn't seen many changes through the first 14 games—until now. The suspension of Brandon Browner threw a wrench in the defensive secondary and, now, the knee injury to defensive lineman Jason Jones will thrust younger, inexperienced players into action.

Following last week's game against the Bills, it was reported that Jones was dealing with some knee soreness, but by no accounts did it seem serious enough to think that he would miss Sunday night's showdown against Seattle's most hated division rival.

Jones did not practice on Wednesday, but to most, it was just a sign of early week rest in order for him to return to as close to 100 percent as possible. Young guys like rookie Greg Scruggs, Clinton McDonald and Jaye Howard will be relied upon to do their best to pick up the slack in Jones' absence.

Here's what rookie seventh-round pick Greg Scruggs had to say yesterday when asked about a potential expanded role:

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