Well, the Niners proved, in front of a national TV audience, that they can hang with the big boys by thoroughly pounding the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers into the Candlestick turf. At least when Big Ben is a little off time. His ankle was pretty balky, and that resulted in some errant throws early, to the tune of 2 picks in his first 2 drives. They were actually moving the ball well on both their inital drives. The Niners had struggles of their own early. Alex was off target on some big plays that would have given the team an early 14 point lead, but they settled for FGs, and a 6-0 halftime lead. They burned a ton of clock however, and did keep the ball out of Worthlessberger’s hands in the 1st half.
The 2nd half started out shakily on offense as the team continued to stop themselves with penalties and missed opportunities. Pittsburgh was able to sneak in a 51 yard FG to close the gap to 6-3 in the 3rd quarter. Then, on perhaps the biggest drive of his career, Smith guided the team to a huge TD by going 5-5 for 89 yards. 3 of the 5 went to the oft-maligned Vernon Davis for 53 of the 89 yards, including the TD. The best part of the drive was play action on FIRST down. Something this team tries to do too often is pound it down close. The play action worked to perfection, and the Niners scored easily.
Pittsburgh then went no-huddle to try and get a quick score, but the defense held, and Suisham missed a 48 yard FG attempt. Harbaugh went a little too conservative for me here, and ran 3 times. The kicker being a 5 yard loss on 1st down. At this point he was really leaning on the defense. And it was at this time (the start of the 4th quarter) that the defense really took over. Aldon Smith had been close all game and had an early sack wiped out by a terrible illegal contact call that would have set up a 3rd and 32. As it was, it didn’t matter. Smith and McDonald finally broke through with a sack and caused a fumble that Justin Smith recovered. With the help of a leverage penalty on yet another FG attempt, Frank Gore ran off left tackle for a 5 yard TD, and the game sealer. The 49ers added 2 more sacks by Aldon Smith, and a nice pick by Tremaine Brown on a deep ball.
All in all, the game went about as well as can be imagined. The offense, after some fits and starts, came through in crunch time. The defense was spectacular in that they shut down Pittsburgh’s vaunted deep passing game. Their running game was nonexistent. Pittsburgh did gain a lot of yards through the air by going underneath, but most of the time Pittsburgh was starting drives from inside their 10 yard line. All World punter Andy Lee pinned the Steelers deep repeatedly, and Pittsburgh rarely got into scoring position.
The only negative was Ted Ginn’s ankle sprain. It looked pretty bad, but the x-rays were negative. The bigger deal was Harbaugh giving Braylon Edwards the night off as a healthy scratch. He said Brett Swain was fine as the backup guy. There’s a ringing endorsement for Braylon. I’m sure Ginn will sit the Seattle game out, so one would think Edwards should be ready to play.
Forty Niners Forever 
I say that a QB who could achieve a QBR of 80+ under Raye isn’t a good QB, he’s a fucking God.
Well, a neighbor stopped by with a Xmas package..
And yes, I AM the only blogger who knew that Smith would be a top QB in this league. I credit Harbaugh for wisely seeing what I saw..
Well, Braylon Edwards may be not long for the Niners, or for the league for that matter, but here’s a good article on him. While he’s been pretty much a dud for SF, whether all due to injury or not, I’ll give him kudos about doing some good for others. http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/12/20/braylon-edwards-helped-send-79-kids-to-college/?tsp=1
As for whether Harbaugh has helped Alex improve, the answer is obviously yes. The main thing he’s improved on is not making idiotic turnovers and mistakes that turned field position around regularly and disastrously. The argument as to how much of his total improvement is attributable to Harbaugh is kinda lame. Whatever. But, now, instead of a turnover machine, he’s become a decent, middle of the road talent QB in the league, and will be seen as such unless and until he wins a playoff game…
Coached him up means made him? Well, sure. Some folks can make that assumption. coached him up usually means coached.
Just let it go. Smith (and the entire team) has gotten an offensive-minded coach to help him for the first time in his career. Fangio has built a defense from the bend-and-break shambles of the Manusky
What is flabbergasting to me is this team one year ago looked like a total fucking disaster, from Jed York to Singletary to Manusky on down to the fucking water boys. Singletary is screaming about rats on the ship, Eddie D is yammering that there are too many chiefs in the front office, you have me screaming about spreadsheet boy Maraage, and there are no lines of effective communication, and the team overall is looked upon as one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL front-office-wise. They add Jim Harbaugh, and everything magically changes to peace, love, and granola . . .
“Maraage”?
Harbaugh gets Coach of the Year just for making stories about Paraag disappear…
LQTMD . . .
Yeah, it’s hell having a guy to effectively manage the salary cap..
YOU drop it. You and Flavoro are like fucking hyenas.
BTW, what was Harbaugh’s Stanford record before Luck? Seems that QBs help make HIM, too..
Andrew Luck didn’t go to Univ of San Diego now, did he? Oh yeah, line Josh Johnson up for the Hall of Fame.
Hyenas? Yer a remora. AKA, suckfish.
I’m out for a bit. NinerDog, keep seinging the pics to my Niner FB page.
Answer: 9-16.
Still going with this, huh? Look fuck, the Cardinal were 1-11 the year before Harbaugh took over. Do you know anything about college programs? I guess not. When a program is in disarray the incoming coach has to use the players he’s been given–there aren’t any free agents or trades going down. Get it? Walt Harris had completely fucked the program into a million pieces. The fact that his first year at Stanford they were 4-8, with Harris’ fucking shit players, and then 5-7 the next year is a testament to what an amazing coach he is–
and if you listened carefully to anything but your blowhard self, you would see that Smith attributes his success this year to Harbaugh and the coaching and teaching he’s done. Smith has been saying it all year in interviews, I don’t need to re-post anything other than what I posted earlier today.
Then we get this pearl of wisdom from you:
“But I’m sick of the fiction that Harbaugh “coached him up”. That doesn’t diminish what Harbaugh has done- he’s installed a new offense and trusted Alex to run it and grow in it”…
I don’t see anywhere in there where you do anything other than suggest Harbaugh hasn’t done shit other than install a new offense and run Smith out there.
Now, do you want to say that YOU misquoted yourself? Because that would make more sense than anything you’ve said today about this topic………
Harbaugh attributes it to Smith, fucktard.He said what I’m saying when he took over.And again, do I REALLY have to tell you that the HC coaches?
And yeah, Andrew Luck had nothing to with the record at Stanford. Harbaugh made HIM, too.
Don’t have much to add to the food fight but like what snarkk said about AS:
“As for whether Harbaugh has helped Alex improve, the answer is obviously yes. The main thing he’s improved on is not making idiotic turnovers and mistakes that turned field position around regularly and disastrously…. … now, instead of a turnover machine, he’s become a decent, middle of the road talent QB in the league, and will be seen as such unless and until he wins a playoff game…”
We are going to find out shortly just how good Alex and the 9ers have become. Meanwhile the drive killing turnovers are way way down and our wins are way up.
No one said he was God dipshit. He wasn’t ever going to turn Tavita Pritchard into an NFL QB. What he did at Stanford in his first 2 years with those shit players was almost as amazing as what he’s done this year. Anyway, your crooked posts have indirectly given me an opportunity to point something else out: If Harbaugh stays at Stanford Luck wins the Heisman this year. Luck was pretty static this year–Harbaugh would have helped him take another step……..
And really, this isn’t a blog fight between you and me. Any person who understands anything would agree with me on this and see the influence that Harbaugh had on Smith this year. You can fantasize that this was all about to happen with or without JH but all you’ve got is that fantasy. Meanwhile, Smith is the one pointing out everything Harbaugh has done for him this year. And Harbaugh’s comments are what you would expect from him–he’s all about building his guys up, He knows that half of Smith’s problems were confidence issues (the other half were issues JJH fixed this year). What, you think JH is going to say “Yep, I fixed him, turned him into someone he never woulda been if I hadn’t been hired.” What an ass he would look like if he did that. But it’s true………….
Installing a new offense and running Smith out there is significant. The two most important decisions he’s made. And if you choose to ignore Smith’s improvement before Harbaugh, I can’t help you. You’re in full “fuck the numbers” mode . Now I’m done with this.
Of course, almost everybody will agree with you on Harbaugh and Smith- Alex was the most vilified 49er in history. It’s impossible for most to admit they were wrong, so they attribute it to all to Harbaugh. Now goodnight.
so when Smith himself agrees on it you don’t give that any cred either? You are so consumed with your own hubris that you think your vision of what you told us all this guy would be is the only thing that matters? The fact is, I told you what Harbaugh would do for this dude when he was hired. And he fucking did it–it had nothing to do with your support and misguided hubris about the guy. He became the QB he is today because of Harbaugh. And that’s why I busted your ass on this today. Goodnight………
They might be the two most important DECISIONS he’s made but he has been coaching the shit out of Smith this year.
Re-Read the blurb I posted earlier form the NY Times: “He coaches the quarterbacks hard,” Smith said …Asked about the ways Harbaugh has helped him from a technical standpoint, Smith’s description does not even reach the point where he releases the football.
“From your stance under center, to your mechanics under center, to your mechanics of taking a snap, to your mechanics of getting away from the center — nothing is off limits,” Smith said.
And you think this all started with Mike Fucking Johnson? Laughable. Harbaugh hasn’t just fixed his confidence–in fact, Smith success this year is what fixed that. He has clearly addressed every single technical issue with Smith all the way from his mechanics under center to the way he throws the ball (though he didn’t even get to that in the article since he spent so many words discussing all the teaching that has gone on BEFORE the fucking ball is even hiked). I’m sure he’s helped him read defenses too, something that was likely hindering his success earlier in his career……
But to you it’s just install a new system, pat him on the ass and send him out there. Truly hilarious………
Meow. . . .
Okay let;s talk about A, Smith fer a minute. NO not that A Smith, that’s been beat to shit right here in River City… He is what he is, we got what we got, can we we move on for just a few minutes? Maybe, it’s been beat to shit but refuses to die. Aldon, Aldon the other one. In case you missed it Steve Young spoke about AS (Aldon Smith) recently on KNBR. I quote extensively because it’s easier than analyzing and I’m thinking the blog could use a bit ‘o fresh air…or perhaps my brand of smog: Yahar…Chuck (and I) recently compared Haley to Aldon on this blog…
Young:
“I’ve got to be honest with you. I’ve got to apologize to Aldon Smith because I hadn’t really seen him in person all year. And I apologize, because I had no idea how great he really was until I saw him in person. And that’s what matters. Hearing about it, watching it on TV and then seeing in person – all different visceral relationships you have with something, and it matters. So around the league when everyone watched the 49ers kind of beat up on Ben Roethlisberger, don’t let him score, call a couple big touchdown drives, and they hear about the defense, they’ve watched Aldon Smith play and (laughs) whoever doesn’t think these guys are for real is kidding themselves.”
Q: Anything else strike you about Aldon Smith?
YOUNG: “When Charles Haley was young – he reminds me of that, and that is a tremendous compliment by the way, because Charles as a young player was a phenomenal football player. In many ways you can make the claim that he tipped Super Bowls one way or another. And that might be right. He was a dominant player, and Aldon reminds me of that. It doesn’t matter the tackle he’s going up against, and the way he closes it just makes your eyes blink. You say to yourself, ‘I’ve got to watch that again because I didn’t…how did he get there so, how did he close that gap so quickly. Watching him, that guy is going to be one of the all-timers, and that’s just a fact.”
Q: So if you’re in Seattle’s offensive line meeting this week, is Aldon Smith so dominant that they’re asking themselves how to block him?
YOUNG: “No question. I would. I would say that this is an issue. We’ve got to chip him. We’ve got to double team him. You can’t just single him up – he will make you look foolish. I’m sure he’s going to get better and better. He’s just young. But to be able to do the things that he did – I watched a long time – those are rare qualities, rare. You don’t see that. And there’s a lot of good pass rushers, and then there’s guys who can singlehandedly get to the quarterback, and he’s one of them.”
Q: In other words, he can just beat you one on one.
YOUNG: “Right, like Derrick Thomas….Look, I’m not saying, ‘This is Derrick Thomas,’ or, ‘This is Charles Haley,’ I’m just saying, my eyeball test was that was different than other things that you see, significant enough that if you just play that out over time and he gets better and better, that’s where he’s heading.”
End Quote.
Yeah we got our Haley who was the second coming of Fred Dean. We Know how that all ended (very well) This is high praise and very heady stuff – but it won’t mean Jack Shit if we have to play da Saints in NO. We can solve that problem by beating Carroll’s men on Saturday.
I think we will 20-10. In part because we got the third coming of FD in AS (Aldon, Aldon Jezzus) and the D that the first 49er dynasty was built on.
20-10 Niners phil fan “we got Haley. I mean Aldon Smith…”
Well, it ended pretty badly with Charles Haley. He took a crap on Steve Young’s car, and took a piss in Carmen Policy’s office. He wanted out. A Smith doesn’t look like the whack job that Haley turned out to be, so . . .
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