"It was terrible," coach Jim Haslett said. "You turn the ball over three times in the first half ... and then we do nothing on defense to stop 'em. They scored every time they touched the ball except for the turnover in the first half."

Sound familiar? It should.

At least the Rams showed marked improvement over the first half of last week's Meltdown in the Meadowlands, a 47-3 loss to the New York Jets. They trailed by 40 points in that one at the half.

In Sunday's 35-16 loss to San Francisco, the Rams trailed by a mere 32 at halftime in the Collapse at Candlestick.

"The first halves have been devastating to us as a Football team, and it's tough," wide receiver Torry Holt said. "It's tough to recover, when you go in at half with a team up 40, up 35, on you."

Last week in the Meadowlands, the Jets scored on all seven of their first-half possessions.

Sunday at Candlestick Park, the 49ers scored on only five of their six first-half possessions. (Only a fumble by 49ers running back Frank Gore deep in St. Louis territory prevented it from being six for six.)

"Coach (Haslett) emphasized all week to come out strong," quarterback Marc Bulger said. "And he said it again (Saturday) during our walkthrough that we need to come out fast. We can't have a little adversity hurt us. That was our (problem) earlier in the year and it seems to have crept back a little bit."

A little bit?

The Rams did manage a couple of first downs off the opening kickoff, advancing to the San Francisco 30. But then, Josh Brown missed a 48-yard field goal, his first miss inside 50 yards in 12 such attempts this season.

"That's really not the way you want to start," Haslett said. "Move the ball down and miss the field goal. And then it led to disaster after that. It just snowballed."

San Francisco's first possession ended when Gore had the ball poked out from behind by safety Oshiomogho Atogwe at the end of a 37-yard run. Cornerback Jason Craft snatched the ball in the air just before stepping out of bounds for the Rams' first takeaway since the Oct. 26 New England game.

But starting from their 13, the Rams went three-and-out. A short and low punt by Donnie Jones was returned 29 yards by Allen Rossum, allowing San Francisco to take over at the St. Louis 34. Four plays and one pass interception penalty later, the 49ers were in the end zone. (The flag was against Craft, who was trying to cover longtime Ram Isaac Bruce.)

Gore scored untouched on a 5-yard touchdown run. Two Rams defensive linemen were knocked down on the play.

Begin snowball effect.

After a St. Louis field goal, a 42-yard pass play from Shaun Hill to Bryant Johnson set up San Francisco's second TD. (Cornerback Fakhir Brown fell down in coverage on the play.) The score became 14-3 San Francisco on Hill's 2-yard TD pass to Vernon Davis, who was strangely open in the middle of the end zone - where were the Rams' linebackers and safeties?

Now the avalanche began in earnest. Bulger was involved in turnovers on the Rams' next three possessions - first on a botched center exchange with Nick Leckey, and then throwing two interceptions.

The St. Louis defense did absolutely nothing to stem the momentum, yielding touchdowns after each of those three turnovers. A frequent sight was Rams defenders falling to the ground as one attempted arm tackle after another went awry.

"You can't explain it, you can't make excuses for it," defensive tackle Clifton Ryan said. "That's what we get paid to do on defense - to tackle the ball carrier."

And don't be fooled by San Francisco's relatively modest total of 334 yards offense. The game was lost in the first half, when the Rams' defense coughed up 259 yards - a pace that would have yielded 518 yards at game's end.

Gore (106 yards) became the sixth opposing running back to top 100 yards against St. Louis this season. Hill, making just his fourth career start, became the sixth opposing quarterback to have a 100-plus passer rating (142.3).

So it was more than just the Bulger turnovers that led to another disastrous first half. Even so, Bulger now has eight turnovers in the last three games: five interceptions and three lost fumbles.

He was uncharacteristically terse when it came to discussing the botched exchange with Leckey.

"Those things happen," Bulger said. "It's up to me and him to make it work. And I'll just leave it at that."

Similarly, Haslett wasn't very expansive when asked about a possible quarterback change. Last week, Haslett pulled Bulger out of a 40-0 game, later saying he did so because the contest was over at halftime. Why not this week, trailing 35-3 at the half?

"I just felt that Marc needed to go in there and try to score some points," Haslett said.

Did he think about switching to Trent Green against the 49ers?

"No, not at all," Haslett replied.

Will he switch to Green next week against Chicago?

"Well, we'll see," Haslett replied.