By SCOTT OSTLER, San Francisco Chronicle

Jim Harbaugh and Bill Belichick -- did they blow it?

The complaint against Bad Call Bill is pure nonsense. Tedy Bruschi said if he were still a New England Patriot, "I would look at this decision (not to punt) as a lack of confidence in our ability as a defensive unit to come up with a big play to win the game."

The Golden State Warriors are a joke until they unload Stack Jack (Stephen Jackson).

The situation was dicey at best anyway, and now Team Jackson has gone on what I call an Eric Dickerson Offensive.

And it is offensive.

The Oakland Raiders quite possibly are setting up coach Tom Cable to walk the plank.

That would fall into the category of zany Raiders' hijinks, like the kind in which coaches get fired by the light of an overhead projector and assistant coaches attack filing cabinets with their jaws.

But we have entered a new territory: "Creepyland.''

Random observations of a Wednesday-morning quarterback ...

-- San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary will start Alex Smith on Sunday because Smith "gives us the best opportunity to win the football game." Has there ever been a more cotton-candy cliche?

Keeping up with the developments regarding football concussions will give you a headache.

And really, who gives a spit ... unless you're a player at any level, a parent or friend of a player, or a fan?

The New York Yankees always skim the cream of the free-agent pool, but this is ridiculous.

Now they've landed Kate Hudson. Remember when Hudson helped inspire the lowly Golden State Warriors to their greatest (and only) NBA playoff series victory in the last 15 seasons, as part of Baron Davis' Hollywood posse?

The mother of unnecessary-roughness penalties continues to hang over the heads of Tom Cable and the Oakland Raiders, like the sword of that old Greek guy who threatened people with his sword.

San Francisco Giant Juan Uribe's salary is $1 million. Shortstop Edgar Renteria averages $9.25 million.

Imagine Uribe's surprise one recent payday when by mistake he was handed Renteria's bimonthly check.

Uribe held up the check and whooped, "America is a great country!"

Remember all the terrible things people said and wrote about the Oakland Raiders during their wild, rocky preseason?

Those people (OK, I'm one of them) were way wrong. Or were we?

Are the Raiders really back from the dead, rescued from the abyss of slapstick? Or are they headed for another disastrous season?

The shock of the Richard Seymour debacle is not the realization that Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis has lost his magical aura.

The shock is the realization that Davis doesn't realize that his magical aura has ceased to exist.

Can he be that out of touch?