Here we sit, the 49ers 1.5 games up on Seattle, a recent pounding of the Bears in their rear-view mirror, and an apparent first round bye if they keep up the strong play. The offense is clicking along, the defense has been getting tons of pressure (Aldon Smith leads the league with 14 sacks), and the special teams (minus a couple fake punts) has been getting better. All these great feelings however have taken a back seat to a seemingly self-made quandary which has the airwaves burning, and the bloggosphere absolutely incendiary. The quandary of course is the instant QB controversy that sprung up out of the concussion to Alex Smith in the Ram game, and the subsequent dismantling of the supposedly impregnable Chicago defense by Colin Kaepernick.
The stupid thing to me is this could have been averted by Jim Harbaugh. All he had to say was Smith is getting one more day off to make sure he’s good to go down the stretch. Cappy gets the NO start, and things go back to normal. But Harbaugh seems to be the one holding the gas can at this point. He has baited the fans by calling them drooling idiots who don’t care if they win or lose, called the press liars, and left it to his starting SS Donte Whitner to say Cappy was starting. Which Harbaugh then denied. Alex Smith’s status is still unclear at this point, although it seems that he’s good to go. That his health even matters is up for debate. Cappy played a great game, but it was one game. OK, 1.6 if you include the 2.5 quarters of the Ram game. Even still, based on that, you usually don’t make a quarterback switch based on a handful of quarters.
The point being, there was a whole shitload of unneeded thrash around the team this week. Now if this was Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, I’d certainly understand the impetus to get one’s team in the news by any means. But for all intents and purposes, this is the buttoned-down San Francisco Forty Niners. The classy team finding its way back to relevancy and the top of the football pyramid. Not a grandstanding hottdogging look-at-us kind of team. Harbaugh is really alienating everyone who is a fan of the team, and has made a chilly press relationship even more cold with his recent statements. For no other reason than apparently to leave the Saints in the dark regarding who starts.
So, I don’t get it. I also don’t expect the Saints to be pushovers as some think, due to their poorly ranked defense. They show a bunch of different looks, disguise blitzes, and have been playing better in recent weeks, and are always tough at home. Besides, the Niners are the agents of a lot of their recent problems. The Niners beat the Saints in the playoffs last year in one of the best games in NFL history, Gregg Williams was fired for his singling up on VD in crunch time in the playoffs, Williams was then suspended indefinitely for statements he made (knowingly taped) prior to that playoff game, and the whole Bounty-gate deal.
So, there’s certainly enough on NO’s plate to want to knock the Niners off. Who knows? Maybe this is Harbaugh’s way of getting the pressure off the players. Then again, what do I know. I’m a drooling idiot.
Forty Niners Forever 
Alex Smith’s career as a starting QB for the 49ers is over. Done. Fini. He’s kaput. He’s dead.
Williams – knee (not good)
Hunter – ankle
Walker – hip
Ginn – wrist
Davis – broken finger but played through it
This win didn’t come without consequences.. Hopefully Coach finds the right weapons to plug in there.. It’s football after all.
Jesus Christ- who gives a shit about coach killing? WTF is Kappy doing to his weapons?
lol
throwing the ball at them, they are not used to it yet.
I was wondering if my sarcasm meter was broken.. I need to spend more time here, apparently.
BTW, nice to see you, Chico. I don’t want to get you in trouble here, but you’ve always been one of my favorite commenters.. 😉
Ha! Gotcha.. 😉 Much respect TF…. As always.
lol
To address Fear’s issue,well, one of them- Smith has handled this with class, as he does want to play in this league again. But I think he doesn’t realize that there’s not a coach, GM, or any other decision maker who would lose respect for him if he ripped Harbaugh a new asshole., It has not escaped me that Jimbo could be the most disliked coach in football; Pro or college. He’s a fine coach but a “brilliant” asshole..
My fellow Cal fans HATE him with a passion (other than a few that root for the Niners), but they do respect him as a coach. Shit, we called him ‘hairball’ for years until he took the Niners job.
OK, I’ve been lol-ed to sleep. Nighty.
Looks like Alex has been Wally Pipped, barring injury. Unless Kap craters the next few games, there’s no way the Niners pick up Alex’ next year deal that is something tlike $8M and s $10M cap hit, per radio reports/ Looks like it will be Kap and Tolzien #1 and #2 into 2013…
It looks that way and where he lands is already a hot topc on the web..AZ, KC, and the Jets seem to be most mentioned.
Alex would be a fool to go the Jets. KC, even Jacksonville.
Alex will be a stud as a player/coach.
Tenn too.
You blew it tonight Twin. Your cover is blown. I’ve been a huge Alex fan since JH came aboard because I knew he would coach him up. And he did. And don’t talk about the QB Rating since Jimmy Whoever left. That was just a couple of games against shitty teams. JH coached this guy up. And he’s said so in articles written about this that i’ve posted and you mocked (for some unknown reason since AS was the one quoted).
Anyway, I love AS (since JH came aboard)
I blew it with my call that this switch would fail. I was wrong.
And I’m ok with that because only a d-bag would blather away about a call and keep going with it……..
So Twin, by all means, keep going with it…………..
He improved even under Raye. More so after Raye left- 7 games, 90+ rtating, 11 TD 3 INT. Alex has been supportive of all his coaches and spoke well of all of them ( with notable exception of Nolan). He’s even being nice now, amazingly.
Whether the switch worked is not known yet. Chuck doesn’t censor his site, you can call me a douche bag, douche nozzle.
Well, if the Niners have anything to do with it, it won’t be AZ.
And the beauty part of all this is, if Xappy doesn’t make it all the way this year, we’ll never know what they would have done had Alex been there.
Right?
But it won’t stop the banter . .
If Alex took the low road and threw this team under the bus, I don’t think anyone in the football world would begrudge him a goddamn thing. Frankly, he’s got to do something more that just shrug it off. Whipping boy isn’t a good look in your starter. He’ll get a starting job next year. The Jets would be a disaster. Worse than Miami. KC? Who knows? Cassel hasn’t shown much, and I don’t know much about them. AZ would probably the best spot for him. They have a decent team that he could help. Shit, how bout them Raiders? Palmer turns the ball over way too much. Smith could help.
.
Chargers?
Complain or no, it’ll be good to have Smith backing up. I wasn’t sold on this move as well. At least not til next season, but hey, Harbaugh makes the call, and it’s a pretty ballsy move to make at this point is the season.
Miami has a good rookie QB, finally, who just needs a couple years and a better team..
Alex would start tomorrow on KC. Well, next year – Peyton’s taken control of the division this year.
A stat that the Niner radio guys gave was interesting. Kap has completed 10 passes of 20+ yards in the 2+ games he’s played. Alex has 22 such passes in his 9 games. That is a stat that the Niner coaches are really looking at, for sure. The big hit, the big pass, the big threat — that is a real thing that can’t be overlooked…
Don’t forget that durn YAC.
Harbaugh is at it again, refuses to say who starts at QB next week.
Niner special teams are noticeably worse this year than last. Blocked field goal late via bad blocking, Ginn muffed punt, Andy Lee not as sharp, Akers out of sorts, etc. If Kyle Williams is out (and I’m guessing he’s got a ligament issue, he wasn’t really hit hard at all, could be an ACL), who takes over the punts — LaMichael gets some starts along with Jenkins coming in to take over #4 WR?…
We’ll see how it goes as the season progresses- no one with a brain thinks Alex wouldn’t cut Jimbo’s nuts off with a Ron Popeil butter knife if he could get a way with it..
As far as where Alex may land, I just reported the web rumors, he could easily still be here, the Kapper still has a ways to go. He could still be a tall Troy Smith. or, well, a tall some other bust that Room B went ape shit over,
One thing I really like about Kap that will get even better with more experience is that he really extends the plays. Alex will throw a ball away, whereas Kap will extend and string the play out to the very end, to the sideline where he will make a throw to somebody to make a play. His escapability is excellent, very tough to sack him…
Please, Twin. Keep your hopes up for Cappy to fail.
I think Harbaugh is a little more adept at picking/developing QBs than Singletary was.
But yeah, go with that.
Thinking he won’t be the guy is not the same as hoping he won’t, asshole.What I *hope* is that we go into the postseason with the guy who gives us the best chance. I don’t think that will turn out to be Colin. With all the crap that Smith has gotten even with his sucess since early 2010, getting all snitty because Coiln gets a little shit is fucking funny .
Harbaugh is really on some kind of media high or some shit.
I think it’s pretty safe to say Kappy is starting vs the Rams.
Yeahh, Snarkk, I didn’t like losing Costanzo. Didn’t see the ripple effect it would have tho.
Yep, I think that was a big mistake by the coaching staff. Could it have been that much of a money issue? They’re just not nearly as sharp on special teams this year…