Turner actually seems to have made a mess out of two clubs when he left a comfortable job as the San Francisco 49ers' offensive coordinator for the irresistible siren song of the star-powered Chargers.

While San Diego began the season in a tailspin, the 49ers' offense has lost all the momentum Turner built during one solid season in charge. With one inept performance after another, Alex Smith, Frank Gore and their struggling compatriots are threatening to regress to their lowest point, when they were the NFL's worst unit in 2005.

Coach Mike Nolan's much-tested patience was wearing a bit thin during the 49ers' bye week for really the first time since he agreed 33 months ago to fix the league's worst team.

"We were inconsistent before we had injuries, and we were inconsistent (last week)," Nolan said. "That's what bothers me, and that's why we have to really dig down and find the answers for this thing. There's a lot of searching going on. We're going to get to the bottom of it, without question."

Nolan knew he was building nearly from scratch in San Francisco. He learned to be grateful for any sign of progress, whether it came in practice — where he instituted an award for the week's top practice player — or in a blowout loss for a team that dropped 21 of his first 31 games.

But Nolan's 49ers (2-3) appear to be worse than ever on offense, failing to gain 200 yards in four of their five outings amid injury problems, poor receiving play and an abysmal ground game behind a struggling offensive line. San Francisco has lost three straight games.

Smith, tight end Vernon Davis and left tackle Jonas Jennings all missed a 9-7 loss to Baltimore two weeks ago in which the 49ers got 65 of their 163 yards and their only touchdown on back-to-back pass plays. Almost every other play was a humiliation for the Niners, who simply couldn't move under backup quarterback Trent Dilfer.

"We're built for a ball-control offense," Dilfer said. "That's a good way to build a football team. The problem with that is when it's ugly, it's really ugly. ... As ugly as it's been, we have put ourselves in position to win football games."

That's almost entirely due to an improved defense, which has held up under deficits on the scoreboard and the time-of-possession clocks. The offense wasn't moving any better when Smith was in the lineup before he went down with a separated throwing shoulder on the third play of a 23-3 loss to the Seahawks.

Smith, Davis and Jennings all could be back this Sunday against the New York Giants.

Nolan scarcely knows where to start with this predictable, mistake-prone bunch, though he said he didn't blame offensive coordinator Jim Hostler, Turner's quarterbacks coach, whose play-calling has been roundly criticized.

"No coach in this league is God," Nolan said. "I know they label a couple guys as geniuses, but genius is a contradiction. If you were a genius, you wouldn't be a football coach."

After testily rebutting questions about Hostler's competency last week, Nolan vowed to consider any possible solution — even benching multiple starters — while his team went through practices and meetings.

"Since I got here, we haven't been able to go into a bye week and say, 'This isn't a work week,'" Nolan said. "Guys aren't sitting in the tub."

Last year, Nolan and assistant head coach Mike Singletary used the 49ers' bye week to make a few adjustments to a defense that got torched regularly beforehand. The changes apparently didn't make a huge difference after the 49ers allowed an NFL-worst 421 points, but they provided a foundation for building this season's above-average unit.

But it's little surprise the offense is lagging this season. After spending seven of his top eight draft picks over the first two years on offensive players, Nolan wagered heavily on defense in this year's draft — and he went on a spending spree, signing cornerback Nate Clements, safety Michael Lewis and linebacker Tully Banta-Cain as free agents.

All three have been solid, but the 3-4 defense took a major hit when versatile linebacker Manny Lawson was lost for the season last month with a knee injury. San Francisco still hasn't been routed defensively this season under the direction of Nolan and new coordinator Greg Manusky.

"We've got something to build on," Lewis said after his defense held the Ravens to three field goals. "We feel like we can continue to push and get even better, and hopefully we'll start winning some of these games."

That isn't likely with an offense that seems to be moving backward. After beginning the season as a popular pick to end their four-year playoff drought, the Niners know their dream is far from over. But it won't happen if the offense doesn't get better.