By Morris Phillips

If 2015 devolves into rebuilding campaign for the 49ers—and officially, it hasn’t yet–don’t expect the franchise quarterback to get a pass.

Colin Kaepernick was an obvious target again on Sunday, as the 49ers fell to the Packers, 17-3 at Levi’s Stadium.  Kaepernick misfired on 12 of his 25 pass attempts, and the 49ers amassed fewer than 200 yards in total offense.  The Packers’ front seven repeatedly took advantage of the 49ers’ porous, offensive line, totaling six sacks, and disrupting the running game.  Sam Shields also picked off Kaepernick, as he left too little air under a deep pass attempt targeting Anquan Boldin.

On the other side, Aaron Rodgers, the best player on the planet, made a fire with matchsticks, leading the Packers to a touchdown on their opening drive, and compensating for Green Bay’s numerous injuries on offense by stinging the San Francisco defense with a bushel of big plays.  Rodgers endured a challenging day, attempting 32 passes to gain just 200 yards, but not an unsuccessful one as the Pack made do courtesy of his vast skill set.

As expected, the scoreboard and the variance in quarterback play brought out the Santa Clara boo birds.  Fox’s Skycam and its intrusive microphones added to Kaepernick’s burden, catching Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews reminding Kaep that he “ain’t Russell Wilson” after a designed run in the fourth quarter with the 49ers’ already trailing by two touchdowns ended with the quarterback sliding down for a one-yard loss.

Among Kaepernick’s numerous issues on Sunday, a number of Packers players and coaches were in town still smarting from that 2012 playoff loss in which the 49ers’ quarterback passed for 263 yards and ran for 181 more in San Francisco’s 45-31 win.

The numbers did the rest to Kaepernick.  The 49ers had just eight first downs—one in the fourth quarter— they were killed in time of possession, and ran just 50 offensive plays.  And from ESPN’s stat machine, this revealing look: on passes thrown at least five yards past the line of scrimmage, Kaepernick completed just 3 of 12.  In his last two games on passes downfield, he’s completed just 31 percent and thrown all four of his picks.

Afterwards, the questions came fast and furious, and the answers brief and curt.  Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News asked the obvious.  Should a quarterback change be considered?

“Won’t even go into that discussion,” Coach Jim Tomsula said.  “It’s not on my mind.”

Has Kaepernick lost his confidence?

“That’s not the way I would term it,” Tomsula said.  “But, we’ve got to, collectively on offense, we’ve got to have 11 people going in the same direction, at all times.”

Kaepernick didn’t say much as usual.  Can’t fault him for that after an afternoon like this.  But he did offer some, brief assessment of his play, saying “the one throw I want to have back is the one to Reggie in the red zone.  He made a great move, I didn’t make the throw.  But the other ones, once again, I’m not going to throw a ball into traffic and risk this offense and this team and putting them in a bad situation.”

Is this already a bad situation?  Undoubtedly, yes.  Three-fifths of the line, center Marcus Martin, right guard Jordan Devey and right tackle Erik Pears are overmatched.  Green Bay ran a majority of their rush stunts against the trio with great success.  In the first five weeks, grading schemes that account for offensive lineman individually have all three near the bottom of the league.  On Sunday, in addition to Kaepernick having little time to throw, and being sacked so frequently, the 49ers couldn’t run.  The Green Bay front was simply better, more hostile, and didn’t matter much what good Alex Boone and Joe Staley had brewing on the other side.

“They brought the safeties down, played a zero look a lot,” Carlos Hyde revealed.  “They brought extra defenders in the box.  It’s hard to run against eight or nine guys in the box.”

Hyde had just eight carries on the day.  Just three weeks ago, he led the NFL in rushing.  That alone represents a dramatic decline.

Vernon Davis was unavailable Sunday, and while he’s far from the playmaker he’s been in the past, he’s a steadying influence in the protection game, and that was missed.  In his place, Vance McDonald drew a flag, dropped a pass, and struggled throughout.

Boldin and Torrey Smith have grown visibly frustrated, and why not?  The duo is wearing themselves out trying to catch passes from a guy who hasn’t shown the acumen to do so.  Both veterans, and Reggie Bush as well, know what it’s supposed to look like, and this isn’t it.

Among NFL teams with authentic uniforms and fan bases dying to be entertained, the 49ers rank dead last in scoring through four games with 48 points.  That’s 20 points fewer than number 31, the Bears with 68.  Beyond their gritty effort on Sunday, the defense hasn’t helped either, the 49ers have allowed 110 points, only three other teams have allowed more.

That means the product is hard to watch, Kaepernick is hard to watch.

Could Blaine Gabbert help things?  We could find out sooner, rather than later.