A funny thing happened on the way to Colin Kaepernick’s ascendancy to the upper echelon of the young guns of the NFL. he pitched a ball 15 yards toward his own end zone, thus giving the Rams 8 points and new life. This of course came after retreating 24 yards only to throw an intentionally grounded pass from his own end zone for a safety. Kappy scored 8 for ther Rams, and 13 for the Niners. The Rams earned 5 on their own for the win.
Belaboring the conervative play calling may not be anyone’s idea of fun, but it has to play a part in this team trying to reach the promised land. yes, you change your look to what the defense is showing, but the Rams had the line packed most of the game, and the Niners still tried to run into in, to no avail. this game was so much a Noloan/Singletary game. With the exception that those guys may have WON this one.
Harbaugh called an option pitch from his own 17 yard line with 3:31 remaining in a game where the StL offense had scored zero points. The snap was low, and Kappy hurried the pitch, and it skipped to the 2 yard line, where Ted (Allen Rossum) Ginn pretended to try and get the ball. At best he should have knocked it OB, kicked it OB, fallen on it, or something other than the lame-ass attempt to get it that he did. Janorious Jenkins recovered the fumble on the 2 yard line. Inexplicably, and with Ginn sitting on Jenkins’ helmet after the recovery, Jenkins wasn’t ruled down by contact and was allowed to roll into the end zone for a score. Hometown call but whatever. StL converted the 2 pt conversion for the tie. The rest we all saw. Bradford scampers for a couple 1st downs with the obligatory stupid fuckup by Dashon Goldson on the hit to Bradford. For as good as he is, he continues to make some boenheaded plays at the worst possible times.
Anyhow, back to the play calling. As much as Kappy wants to pin this game on himself, and there is a large amount of resposibility that falls on his shoulders, you have to really question what Harbaugh/Roman are thinking. All game the Niners ARE playing it fairly conservative. Gore had one big run surrounded by a bunch of one yard runs. The passing game consisted of the kind of short shit that everyone blamed on Alex Smith’s limitations, not the desire of a head coach to play it safe. Kappy was supposed to assume the starting role because he brings more downfield striking ability to the table. Well, it was rarely shown all game despite the Rams packing the line and daring the Niners to go deep. They didn’t until the 3rd quarter. Again, VD was eerily silent. Walker dropped a sure TD, but there were very few downfield shots taken. Moss? He gets his 1 or 2 12 yard outs. He’s gotten I think ONE deep pass all year. It’s insane.
All that being said, the approach WAS working. The Niners had an 8 point lead with 4 minutes remaining. The D was stopping everything the Rams had. Then the fateful pitch play. If ever there WAS a time to play it conservative, it was then. Instead, Harbaugh wanted to go fucking college gimmick look-at-me-I’m-so-cool play, and boom, a gift 8 points for the Rams. Kappy did make another mistake, but it came after his 50 yard run to set up the late lead. He should not have gone OB on his 10 yard run to set up Akers’ 33 yard FG. A quibble? Maybe, but it would have forced StL to use their last time out before their last drive.
After trading punts in OT, Hekker boomed one 14 yards to give the Niners the ball at the 50. Now HERE’S where you DON’T go conservative. After converting a 3rd down to StL’s 37, the Niners ran right 2 tims for 4 yards. They tried to get the ball to the left hash mark, but the pass to Crabs was incomplete. Still and all, you don’t really want to leave your struggling kicker with a 51 yarder. Even indoors. Take at least one shot downfield. a nice mid-range pass or something. I know they were worried about a sack, but being conservative pretty much sealed their fate. I think about 95% of the Niner fans out there knew what was coming.
Forty Niners Forever 
7. Oh I give up, you get the point.
Harbaugh’s a risk taker. The local press is in awe when he pulls it off and pounce like “crazed jackals” when it goes bust.
Everyone was screaming for Roman to call some plays against the Rams pressure and this was one. To mitigate on Roman’s behalf is the fact that he put Kaep in his old familiar pistol on a play he’s pulled off a hundred times.
The Rams were in a 3-3 nickel front I believe and had corners over on Moss and Crabs with a safety in the slot to blitz along with Finnegan who lined up over Crabs.
Both blitzers closed on Gore when Kaep faked and Kaep just blew the pitch out to Ginn. But for a bad pitch and Moss’ no-block block on the corner it could have gone for a big chunk. To his credit, and as the putative leader of the team, he placed all the blame on himself.
Smith’s devoted fanclub has a hard time seeing the safety gift, the sixteen play drive from our 1 to their 5 that burned off 8 or 9 minutes. The defense’s failure to get off on the Rams drive that followed or the easy two-pointer or Walker’s drop of a perfect TD pass, etc.
Like the last time we played the Rams, we lost that game five ways, but Harbaugh crossed the press’ red line by replacing Smith and he’ll damn well pay for along with Kaep whenever possible.
NF, to lateral inside your own 20 is dumb, it’s a live ball. Roman called it, Harbaugh signed off and relayed it and one bad snap and worse toss and completely missed block later they are back in the game. Kudos to the Rams for getting the 2 point from the 7 yd line.
After this series of bad plays Kap drives the length of the field. No lack of composure there Twin, I said to my buddy on the stool next to me that now we will see what he is made of and we did indeed see.
Harbaugh’s accurate, he put the team in position to win twice.
Funny stuff, 12.He gave them 10 points,and probably the game winning FG when he ran out of bounds, saving them a TO. And you migth recall the previous Ram game when he went braindead and threw to Kyle when a reception would have lost the game. He did some good things yesterday but more than anything, he put them in position to lose. And so they did,This was a game that if played at home, with Smith playing as Kap did, Alex would have needed security to get off the field.
12th man, I hated the call. I said so yesterday a few times. Of course they know it’s a risky play, too. And that was the point of the post. I can say that I for one would have probably called it gutsy if it had gained the few yards for the conversion or maybe even a great call if it had put us in FG position or scored.
It’s hard to knock Harbaugh for conservative game plans and knock him again for taking some chances. It’s the flip side of the same coin.
fan1, you’re probably right about the fans booing Smith if he’d done the same, but it’s not Smith’s third start. He’s done much worse in his time here. And I didn’t see Kaep throwing any pick sixes.
Maybe your’e looking at it glass half empty Twin. There was no doubt a young inexperienced QB will make mistakes, it’s how he responds to them. After making errors on that scale he responded with what should have been a game winning drive and did it again in OT. You can take the negative plays if you like, I will take the good and the bad and am very happy to see this kids grit in adversity. If the play calling improves so will Kap’s game. They have gone into ball control offense on steroids placing a cart behind a race horse. I don’t get it.
Harbaugh and fellow coaches are on a steep learning curve while the rest of the league dialed in the Niners attack. They got some learning to do how to use the new hot shot flamethrower, how to run an efficient O, how to stop playing cute college games. Agree with Man here:
“If the play calling improves so will Kap’s game. They have gone into ball control offense on steroids placing a cart behind a race horse. I don’t get it.”
I knew you’d come back with that. When you replace a guy playing at the level Smith was, you have to at least play at an equal level. Harbaugh put him there, no slack for either guy.For his first two games, Kap was performing well, well enough to justify the switch.Yesterday he did not.
Kap made serious errors Twin, no question. He also played well enough for the team to win both before and after those errors and that is in spite of some hideous play calling, he did enough and Harbaugh knows it.
And I knew you’d come back with that. Those are your standards. Impossible standards, as you’re well aware, put in place to justify your never-ending criticsim of Harbaugh’s move. Until he throws three pick sixes, it could be argued, he’s the better choice.
There is, unfortunately, no way to judge what a QB will do in a game situation until he’s in it. How any times have you seen Smith seeing an unblocked rusher closing in give up on the play, pull the ball down and take the sack? I didn’t see that tendency yesterday, for one example that argues for Harbaugh’s move.
Just for fun Twin, Alex in 06, his good season under Norv Turner, against NO in the Superdome:
http://www.footballdb.com/boxscore/2006120311
And that “terrible” defense that Kap beat in NO had been good enough to win 5 out of 6 until it ran into the Niners.
I don’t need to defend the kid, he is doing that with his play, it’s just fun to compare 2nd year QB Alex and Kap, against the same opposing QB Brees and see what happened.
Second year Smith didn’t have *quite* the team as second year Kap does , that’s a fucking joke.
Agreed, it is a joke, it was tongue in cheek.
Fear and 12, I don’t want another series of battles with you. I don’t think Colin played well yesterday and I don’t think that kind of performance will do in the postseason. If you do, fine.
My opinion is he made mistakes and made game winning plays, both. I lay the majority of the blame for the loss on the coaches play calling. Harbaugh today says Roman called a good game, sure he did. 2 times in 3 weeks we found a way to not beat the Rams when we had the chance to. That’s not good enough this close to playoffs. Kap had his part to play no doubt. The loss is as one of your fav beat writers Maiocco said belongs to the coaches.
Haven’t heard anyone complaining about 11 penalties for 97 yards and the plays some of them nullified.
Heretofore that has been something held up as proof of a coaching failure.
I know, I know, we NEVER had that problem before Kaep was named the starter.
Same result in 2010, in fact Alex has never beaten the Saints in the dome. Another fact is both Kap and Alex have the same record against the Saints, Alex won at home in the Stick by 4 points and Kap won in the Superdome by 10 points.
A frivolous exercise? Yes it is.
You guys gonna watch 2 All-Pro QBs in the 4th quarter, or what?
One of them beat the Niners in the NFCCG last year. I’m trying to scout them both.
Not sure RG3 has earned “all pro” yet RT but he is on his way. Good to see the Giants drop a game.
Oh yeah, he has IMHO.
Mike Shanahan, OC Kyle Shanahan and a great young QB who isn’t afraid to take chances.
Kappy wasn’t ready before. He’s lost and now what we see what we have in a QB.
twin said: “When you replace a guy playing at the level Smith was, you have to at least play at an equal level.”
Now this is a statement I can get completely on board with because it doesn’t have to do with wins or losses being attributed to one player…..
And you’re dead right with this comment. If JH is going to make this huge bruhaha move near the end of the season, replacing a QB who was performing at the elite level AS was, then you damn well better be AT LEAST as good.
And Twin is right about something else: Kap’s performed worse each successive game he’s started…..
It’s all fantastic theater to me, I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds…….
The problem with saying “Kap has to be at least as good as Alex” is we will never know if Alex would have been better or worse in the same situations. Same goes for “would Alex have beaten NO in the Dome”? or “would Alex have beaten the Bears”?
Impossible questions. All we can judge is how the QB plays in any given game.
That’s absurd. You can say the same about any QB then. We do know the level Alex was playing at.You’ve tried that lame bit before. You’re positing that however bad his replacement might be, well my gosh, Alex mighta been worse.
No that your version of what I said.
It’s the Alex and Cappy show. Twin, you seem to have the excuse train rolling at full tilt. Smith gets leeway up the wazoo. Cappy gets none. Granted, he screwed the pooch on the pitch, but again, play calling has something to do with that. Hey, he scored 21 of the 29 points by himself.
What I have is Smith at 20-6-1, Kap at 2-1
Kap should get 2-1-1 since he played more than half the game right?
Gay smiley face just for you Twin.
Well, thanks, 2-1-1, is worse.
Glass still half empty Twin, that’s half a win to me and half a loss to you. Or in other parlance Kap took over a losing game and got it to a draw.
The only thing I read Harbaugh said he might change is evaluating what is a reasonable distance for Akers to make a kick from, possibly being more aggressive to get closer. If he was being honest in saying Roman called a good game I guess we can look forward to more of the same.
I fucking hope the fuck not!
JMNS humble O
First: I noted the play calling yesterday and today- I didn’t like it, mostly because it was not suited to Kap’s assets.
As to the defense Kap faced in NO. In the previous 6 games, 5 wins; the opposing QBs had 14 TDs 5 interceptions. There were 400 yard passing games twice, 300 yards 3 times, the other was 272 for Vick. It’s safe to say,they did not win those games by shutting down the pass.,.
But look- I am only asserting that Kap did not play well yesterday, or least not well enough to win against a playoff team. I’m not seeing how that could be argued.
Worse with each game? This game was bad. The Saints game? Twin’s dissing aside, was no backslide. How does Smith do under all that pressure? Who knows? Maybe he plays a game like the Giants game. No way to know, Would Smith have won yesterday? Hard to say. Smith put up 7 in the 1st Ram game, Cappy 17. Hmmmmm.
Under the same pressure Kaep faced all game, Smith would have ended the gam ein the fetal postion after throwing two pick sixes.
Smith has been among the best in football when blitzed. I gave you the numbers. Or check the Web for info.
He has it’s true but then how does one explain all those sacks?
If you hang in to make the throw, there will be sacks. The defenses have paid for them.
I gave the numbers- I could look it up again but it’s 82 throws under blitz, I believe. 12 sacks. 7 Touchdowns, 580+ yards 69 percent completion 1 INT
Uh, Kap kinda played more…
The Niners were losing when he left the game.
If fan1 is going to insist Kaep must “play better” than Smith he needs to quantify it. Otherwise it’s just bullshit.
Name the metric or set of metrics by which we can make this judgment. ESPN’s QBR? Rushing TDs? % deep throws?
The metric is Twin said so.
We’ll use what you claimed to be the benchmark until last year- W/L.
But we can each cherry pick numbers. But I said it before, then you kept at it- if you think Kap played at a level to beat a playoff team, fine. Go for it. That has zero to do with Smith- Kap is on his own there.
That can’t be true. Kaep won his first two. By your measure WAY better than Smith but you’ve been bitching since it was first announced. And in that case you’ve got nothing to complain about until Kaep loses seven games.
Fear, I think Smith is better right now.I disagree with the decision. You can spin it anyway you like- but it’s not been shown that I’m wrong. If that comes to pass, I’ll admit I was wrong. What’s astounding is that after all the years of you whining about Smith, you really don’t think he’s proved *you* wrong. Or maybe you forget what you’ve said. Anyway, let it go. The next few games, including the postseason, will tell the story.
Twin thanks for sticking with it. Believe it or not I like chatting with you even though we disagree a lot. I have to leave it at that today.
You are more reasonable than some. But I shouldn’t post here, I’m sure there won’t be disagreement on that. There’s enough room for reasonable debate without having to deal monumentally stupid shit about Smith’s production vs. Kap’s in the first Ram game as if they played the same minutes. It might take a couple days but I’m expecting to Chuck to figger out that 3 1/2 quarters to 1 1/2 isn’t equal.
Goodnight.
BTW, Chuckles- it’s very close, but Smith’s 7 points in his time in the Ram game is a whisker better than Kap’s 17 in his time. You can figger it out yourself or for a small fee I’ll do it for.
I’m kidding.About the fee. GNight.
fan1, “But I shouldn’t post here, I’m sure there won’t be disagreement on that.”
I disagree.
Half the reason I give you shit is because you get so pissed off when someone sees things differently from you or challenges your edicts.
I don’t see Alex Smith as a good QB. After eight years and an offense dumbed down to suit him he’s progressed and is doing what is asked of him as long as it’s damned little.
I don’t think he’s proven me wrong, no. I think he’s proven me right. He wouldn’t be so eagerly replaced by a guy who knows quarterbacks by all indications if you were right and I was wrong.
Did you watch the game last Sunday? What offense did they run? The same one basically that Nolan ran in 2005. Power running game. Short passes. They aren’t ‘dumbing it down’ for anyone. THAT’S IT.
Exactly and that’s what has me tearing coconut outta the ground. We’re back to that shit? Harbaugh has 1/2 the football IQ of BW, Roman ditto