He's the King of Insignificant Late-December, which is a measure of something. Give him that.

On cool night yesterday, long after the 49ers' season had crashed and burned, the shocking Shaun Hill looked poised and the rest of Nolan's team played a sharp, efficient game.

Much celebration after the 20-13 victory over the flat and lazy Cincinnati Bengals. Giddy, singing players. Beaming, very visible ownership family. A coach floating on air.

Too bad it only lifted the 49ers' record to 4-10, and too bad Nolan still provided a couple of moments of oddball decision-making.

Why wasn't Hill playing instead of Trent Dilfer weeks ago? And what the heck was Nolan thinking when he bypassed a potential game-icing field goal and went for it on fourth-and-two?

If not for those nagging little facts, we're all pretty sure this would have proved that the Nolan Era is destined for five or six Super Bowl triumphs.

"This a never-die team," Nolan said afterward.

He's a never-die coach, absolutely, though that isn't a 100 percent good thing for 49ers fans who dream of more significant Decembers . . . and Januaries.

This victory raised Nolan's record to 5-2 in games after Dec.13 during his three-season 49ers career. The Nolan 49ers are 10-29 in games before Dec.14, and those are usually the ones that matter. And Nolan hasn't quite made it to the playoffs.

Wait, this game did have one important consequence: Since the New England Patriots own the 49ers' No.1 pick in 2008, this victory messed around with Bill Belichick's draft strategy!

Nit-picking aside, this was a night that was supposed to feature protests over Nolan's continued employment and various other signs of 49ers-fan disgruntlement.

But none was in loud evidence — no impressive banner flyovers, no big walkouts, nothing that even raised an eyebrow.

Instead, this game told us what we already know: Nolan can't get through November without frequent embarrassment, but boy, he always looks great when it's almost time to pack it up.

"There's no giving up in this locker room," defensive end Marques Douglas said. "Tonight was our playoff game."

The players do continue to play hard for Nolan, which was especially evident when compared with the Bengals' blandness. They keep chugging along.

"I think this is proof to the players, when you stay the course and go out and bust your tails, you can have games like this," Nolan said.

I'd guess that they all loved to win this game when Alex Smith was far, far away, nursing a shoulder that Nolan and the rest of the 49ers probably will never believe was seriously damaged.

So, with Hill playing like Jeff Garcia, Frank Gore chewing up the Bengals defense, Nate Clements hawking Chad Johnson and the players happy, happy, happy... Is this the kind of performance that can and should save Nolan's job?

I'll bet the Yorks are already whispering that Nolan has helped his cause enormously; I guarantee that they're thinking it'd be so easy to keep Nolan for 2008.

Hill for the new franchise quarterback! (Oops, he's a free agent.) Jim Hostler has really got that offense going now! Hugs all around!

Then the Yorks will whisper other things on other days, since there are always other days and other whispers when it involves the Yorks.

There will be anti-Nolan fodder, too, even from this Olympian triumph, and once again the featured moment came on fourth down — Nolan's bane.

With the score 20-13, instead of letting Joe Nedney try a mid-range field goal to put the 49ers up by two scores with 6:21 left, Nolan had the offense go for it, and fail, on fourth-and-two from the Cincinnati 24.

That gave the Bengals the chance to tie it with a touchdown, which almost happened. But it didn't. Nolan was triumphant. Screwy, but triumphant.

"Our guys had confidence, our guys were playing well," Nolan said. "And when we go for it — whether we convert it or not, it's not significant — we typically have won the game."

OK, Mike, do you see what Hill did Saturday and maybe regret you didn't play him sooner?

"You can always second guess, yes," Nolan said.

You can't second-guess him in late December, however. They won this game. Yes, they did, just like they beat Denver and Seattle late last year, and St. Louis and Houston in late 2005. All of which led to . . . nothing.