"OK, the confetti has been cleaned up at Lucas Oil Stadium and it's time to look ahead … to next year's Super Bowl in New Orleans.

If I have the typical 49ers fan pegged correctly, their thinking goes something like this: If not for two fumbles by The Punt Returner Who Shall Not Be Mentioned, we're in the Super Bowl and we would have beaten the Patriots, who were just OK.

So, the 49ers, the coulda-woulda-shoulda Super Bowl champions of 2012, are clearly one of the favorites to win it all in 2013.

Right?

Well, not according to some of the sharks in Sin City."