Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll meet once again on opposite sides of the field as the San Francisco 49ers head north on I-5 to play the Seattle Seahawks in the latest incarnation of the “What’s you deal?” bowl. These guys have been butting heads since 2007, when Jim Harbaugh was hired by Stanford after his stint coaching the college powerhouse, the USD Toreros. Harbaugh’s Cardinal of course beat USC in 2007 as 41 point underdogs, one of the greatest upsets in college football history. And the fight was on. The Cardinal lost in 2008, but 2009 gave us the 55-21 trouncing of the Rubbers in LA. Harbaugh’s 2 point conversion on the last TD led to the title of this thread.
Harbaugh ended up 2-1 vs USC, the only college coach to have a winning record vs Pistol Pete in the college ranks. Pete came to Seattle in 2010, and went 1-1 under the previous 49er regime. But, enter Jim Harbaugh in 2011, and Pete is once again winless in Seattle vs Harbaugh. Jim is a perfect 3-0 vs the Hawks, winning 33-17, and 19-17 last season, and a hard-fought 13-6 win earlier this season.
Much of the gravitas of this upcoming game was doused when the 49ers took care of New England, and thus still have a 1.5 game lead with 2 to go, so Seattle can’t take the west lead with a win, but Seattle is still fighting for their wildcard lives. At 9-5, they control the top WC spot as of now, but there are 5 teams at 8-6 who could easily slide in to take their hole. Seattle still has a slim chance to win the West, albeit at the hands of SF losing to AZ at home, which is highly unlikely, but the crux of this game lies in the hands of these coaches. At least that’s the compelling storyline.
A 49er win would pretty much lock up the #2 seed for the Niners and get the coveted 1st week bye. Green Bay has the Titans at home (win) and Minn on the road (probably a win), so the Niners need to beat Seattle to take it. Damaging Seattle’s playoff hopes is extra gravy for the biscuits. Much as a Niner loss would be a big feather in Pete’s cap as it would likely kill the Niners shot at the 1st round bye.
Forty Niners Forever 
Did what to a pig, Chuck.
I was in a pig called the Kingdome once.
And I actually bought tickets and drove up to that garbage dump.
Saw it once. Watched it get blown up on the internet. Yeah, that was a shit hole. Great city. Crap stadium. They did it right the 2nd time.
The way to quiet that crowd is to come out and attack. We can take them out of the game just like we can take the Seahogs. This very well could be the toughest game of the year for us. It is personal. We don’t know what is being said in the locker rooms but my guess is that this one means a little more than the rest did.
Yeah, I expect this one to be a dogfight.
Seattle is tough, and they play chippy and mean. There may be a brawl, or at least some extracurriculars…
I want the Niners to win the next two, because if they do, I think they might host the NFC title game again. I’m not convinced Atlanta will win their first PO game. If they lose, I want the Niners to be in position to host the title game again, and this time no muffed punts…
What’s worse?
Watching that meaningless December Titans v. Jets snoozefest, or a Royals vs. Indians tilt in August? I’ll go with last night as the suckier choice, essentially because I’m more of a baseball guy. But, that football last night was baaaaad. I’d easily rather watch a De LaSalle game…
Poor Mark Sanchize. Tenn tried to hand him the game about 12 times, but he wouldn’t accept it.
2 turnovers in the last minute? And they had a shot at the playoffs.
I hope Goodie Goodell was watching. Because expanding the playoffs guarantees dogshit teams like the Jets get into the playoffs.
Double fuuuuck that.
Winder, that’s YOU I’m playing in the Champ Game???
Good luck my man.
I posting this on Skeebs blog because you have earned bragging rights.
Yeah that’s me RT, I haven’t won one of these things yet in either league. I’m not holding my breath on this one either. I was in this position one other time and my team took a nosedive. O’well lots of fun. And, Thanks for running the show again Dennis. Your a good man and I know you hate Dallas just as much as I do.
The UFO coyotes barely won and barely lost nearly every game this year.
Good luck to you my friend.
My team took a dump when Gronkowski went down. He was a solid 40 points a week.
And yes, Dennis, autopick is for pussies, but I did pretty good with it this year.
Friend of mine went to school in Oregon, and went to a boat show in the Kingdome years ago. They filled the damn thing up with water and drove boats inside the fucking place. k’dome was a dump, but how fun would that be? Waterskiing inside a dome? Cooool.
Well, they almost did the same thing in ‘Nawlins during Katrina.
Of course, down there you had gators in the water. A little extra degree of difficulty for your skiing.
Yeah, had a friend that used to work at Marine World in the ski shows when it was still in Belmont, He once skied behind a cruise ship in the bay , , ,
There has been a discussion or two here about the wisdom and the probabilities of ‘going for it’ on fourth down.
I’ve always believed that HCs are risk averse by the nature of their jobs and especially on this point. I bring this up now because of Belichick’s penchant for ‘going for it’ as he did in Sunday night’s game, and getting absolutely roasted in the press when it fails.
It’s not the play call or the execution of it that fails, it’s the fact that he didn’t punt that draws the ridicule. So what bearing do all the stats in the world have on the decision if when it fails they can’t be pointed to as a perfectly rational reason for the choice?
Seriously, how many fans pushing the Chip Kelly mentality thought Belichick made a good call there?
No the best decision for the coach is to punt near the end of the game regardless. That way if the team goes on to lose, well, they had a chance and just didn’t capitalize. I maintain there are very few HCs in the league that can withstand attacks in the press like that without a considerable hit to their standing with their GMs/owners.
it’s a similar deal with the fake punt by JH. Everyone is like, “brilliant!” but if that doesn’t work how different would it have been from the pitch-ball fiasco? Everyone says Harbaugh is conservative with his play calling and it true–not because he tries to balance the run and the pass when so many other teams don’t do that—that’s just him being smart and recognizing he has a team that can run the ball.
He gets too conservative WHEN he calls a run and HOW he calls a run— *when* he calls it seems to be consistently known by the defense. A lot of that has to do with the formation AND the fact that Kap isn’t running nearly as much as he could or shouid–so the D knows it’s gonna be Gore.
Additionally, the run formations are WAY too tight to succeed consistently at the NFL level. There simply isn’t enough room for those big guys to create by trying to move those *other* big guys the necessary distance to make a hole………
He’s done the tight formation shit since Stanford and Shaw is doing it *better* than Harbaugh did (in terms of frequency). I’ve come to accept that they accept the 1-2 yard (clouds of dust) because they do actually get a kickback there with time coming off the clock and they are waiting around for the big break run that they get every 12-15 run plays (in college it’s probably more like 8-10 run plays).
NE had 2:45 left, 2 TOs and the 2 min warning. The NE defense had stopped the Niners most of the 2nd half. It was a bad call.
“Seriously, how many fans pushing the Chip Kelly mentality thought Belichick made a good call there??”
Good question NF. I wonder if the “fan/media” reactions are accounted for in Kelly’s scheme. I doubt it. I’d like to hear Grumpy’s take on this… Hello Grumpy!
I’m not sure what the numbers would say here. The Total Football system people have statistics generated for almost every situation. I DO agree that a coach who goes for it is going to get roasted by the media. Only a guy like Belichek who basically hates the media and does not give a shit what they think would try it. Or a guy like Harbaugh, though his basic conservatism would make it unlikely he takes that kind of chance too often.
In this particular case, with the down and distance, against our defense, with our pass rush finally showing signs of life late in the game, I really thought that they would punt and play for the three-and-out and bad clock management by JH. You know Harbs is not going to get tricky on a series near midfield at that point in the game. You would just need to stop three running plays, get the punt back and try to drive with a minute and no TOs. Without a 49er FG, it’s still a one score game, and you still have Brady throwing the ball.
He must have given their chances of making it rather high, it’s just a sign of faith in their offense. It didn’t work. At least he is willing to take the heat.
On my own 20 though? Uh, no.
I’d say if I was inside the other team’s 35, I’d go for anything under 4th and 5.
Was it John Fox that did it last year in a tie game late in the 4th quarter? He basically gave the game away by going for the 1st down on his own 26 with little time left . . .
Hey Twin – Kaep is NFC Offensive Player of the week in his fifth start. It took Alex like ten light years to get there. I seem to remember Alex being NFC offensive player of the week for the first time last year. Now all we have to do is keep Kaep healthy and Alex will never see the field again as a 49er. Why hasn’t Harbaugh designed plays for Alex like he did for Kaep when Alex was starting? I wonder….. Alex will go to the Chiefs or Jets. Montana went to the Chiefs. I’m sure there’s a parallel somewhere implying Alex is Montana-like. That oughta make you feel better, Twin, after this devastating defeat.
This coming from the guy who proclaimed Jake Locker the next Steve Young and a lock on the Hall of Fame. Oh look Jake Locker is the 28th ranked quarterback, Blaine Gabbert is rated higher.
How’s Matt Flynn doing?
Wasn’t A Smith named NFC player of the week right before his benching? I don’t get the need to constantly tear down Smith. Dude got fucked over by JH and that sucks. The team is winning and on the way to the playoffs. Tough being happy I guess.
It only seems like a need to tear down Alex Smith, dirtnrocksnomo. For the past seven years or so one had hot coals heaped on his head for every comment not in glowing support of Smith. It’s the mountains of vitriol folks that weren’t in the bag for Smith had to endure, by some more than others certainly, that some may have a bit of trouble easily dismissing and now that they feel their POV’s been vindicated they want to make that point.
I’ve always thought Alex has been one of the, if not the, things holding us back. For myself, I’m happy as hell we’re winning and happy as hell to see Alex on the sidelines.
I don’t think he got ‘fucked over’ by Harbaugh though because I don’t think he was hired as a “starter for life.” The switch happened after Kaep got his chance and took advantage of it. I’d think the coaches were wondering how Kaep’s first couple of starts would go, like any QB trying to transition to the pro game, and he shined instead of stunk so he kept the job. It makes sense. It wouldn’t have been easier on Alex to have coach say “we’re going with Kaep on Sunday” if we wasn’t hurt first anyway.
It’s a lot like politics.
Well, you do exactly the same thing from the other side, NoFear. Both you guys pretend that it’s only the other guy flinging shit around. Please.
I’m not saying he was QB for life and Smith shoulda known better after JH gave him the Manning bitch slap over the summer. I think JH planned to go to Kaeprnick this year if Smith was injured and next year for sure. That said, Smith was playing at a high level and I still think JH fucked him over. Especially the way he handled it in the media. You don’t. That’s cool. It’s a difference of opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Kaep. I recently moved form Reno to CA and followed his career at UNR. I worked with a couple of guys that played with him and they rave about his skills and leadership. I just don’t get the need to shit all over Smith at every turn. Once a real coach and system were brought in he showed he’s a player and legit QB. People can say he owes JH all they want but Smith doesn’t owe shit to JH especially after the knife in the back this year. Smith was on the field executing. JH has done what a good coach should do. Get the whole team coached up and playing well. The previous coaches haven’t sniffed a head coaching gig since they left. Not because of Smith but because they sucked as head coaches which was reflected in the 49ers shitty play when they were running the show. Anyway, like others I am tired of the topic.
It is funny how people tired of the topic are never too tired to get the last word.
You addressed my post and I responded. It’s how blogs work
Smith one the POTW award THIS year. Can anyone remember one team with two QB’s BOTH being named Offensive Player of the Week — in the same season? Probably has never happened. Probably won’t again.
The “offensive” player award always cracks me up.
Won, not “one”
aargh.
Spit’s time is limited if this is the course he takes.
You wanted McNabb for 3 years, Spit. I wouldn’t go casting aspersions around anything.
I’m so fricking tired of the Smith debate, but I have yet another Smith/Kappy thread on deck. Don;t know if I have the heart to pull the trigger.
Tired of the debate? What if…Kaep leads us well into the playoffs, maybe even the SB, then goes down with an injury while we’re down and Smith leads us to a come from behind SB win. Bwa ha ha ha ha!! Then the fans start all over again. It’s like Ground Hog day, kinda sorta, in that no matter what happens, Smith (and endless debating) never goes away.
Nightmarish, I know (except winning the SB part).
Personally, I think it’s time to put the debate to bed. It’s time to look towards the future and embrace Colin Kaepernick as our starter. If Kaep keeps beating teams like the Patriots, nobody can second guess Harbaugh. Let’s talk playoffs instead. That’s my vote. Playoffs? Playoffs?