Nolan's sideline rant could define his era with 49ers

Tim Kawakami , MEDIANEWS STAFF

MARK IT DOWN: Mike Nolan's last stand and public passion play began midway through the second quarter of the 49ers' 12th game of this morose 2007 season. Please note that the 49ers had just given up a 73-yard interception return for a touchdown, and they trailed the woeful Carolina Panthers 17-0. Remember that Nolan gathered his entire team around him, then screamed, gestured and raged, until his face flushed and his eyes looked like they were ready to pop all the way to the South Carolina border. Make sure it's noted that, at first, the 49ers responded -- holding steady for the rest of the quarter and jumping back into the game with two touchdowns in the third quarter.

But let it be recorded that the 49ers eventually stalled, inevitably collapsed, and repeatedly blundered their way to yet another defeat, this time by a 31-14 score to a Panthers team that had not won at home in nearly a year. When the history of the Nolan Era is chiseled into stone, we are probably going to memorialize that explosive second-quarter sideline moment, and we will know one of two things:

Either that tantrum galvanized this team for the rest of 2007 and earned Nolan a chance to coach into 2008 and prove his worth once and for all ...

Or it was the loudest, reddest-faced example of Nolan fury and frothiness, signifying nothing, no progress, and certainly no 49ers' significant victories.

I know which way I'm leaning on it, but I'm also prepared to let this play out, loss by loss, interception by interception.
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