Highly debatable.

So did Welker on a pick play...

Their draft history is hard to sustain over time.

Also, they may have kept the wrong QB.

At his age, there is no guarantee that he will perform at the same level next season.

Alex Smith has actually won in Seattle before, Kaepernick has been blown out twice and only came close in this playoff game. Put Alex Smith in that situation and I guarantee you he takes the out to VD or Patton to gain more yards and live another down or hits Boldin in the seam for a TD instead of trying to force it over a 6'3" corner who happens to be the best in the league at what he does.

I don't understand why the Niners didn't run more qb draws. The first half Kaep was moving the ball down the field with his feet. We didn't see that much in the second half.

They should trade Kraepernick for draft picks and find themselves a better QB.

Yup, trade Kaepernick for picks so they have ammo to move up in the draft to take a good QB who can actually throw the ball and read a defense.

Harbaugh has pretty much matched Reid's playoff success already.


That's pretty impressive.

This is a point I made in another thread. Greg Roman is one of the best offensive minds in the game. I'm not convinced he's a great situational coach. Maybe relies too much on the game plan or the data.

Krap had just forced a throw over a DB who had good coverage, earlier in the game on the TD to Boldin.

I think everyone in the world thought "this'll be an INT" when he released the ball, but in that case the throw was absolutely perfect, so he got away with it.

But that pass could have easily been picked as well, and it was the same mistake - trying to get the ball to a receiver over a defender who is in position to make the play. Sure, it CAN work, but the throw has to be perfect, and you won't make a perfect throw every time. A man's got to know his limitations.

His best runs come from broken down regular plays.

Or he needs to be intelligent enough to read defenses and go through his progressions... Instead of reading one target and throwing into tight coverage regardless

The throw was not perfect, lol, the defender just misplayed the ball. Thomas should have had an INT but he drifted a bit too far out of the play and so was only able to get his finger on the ball. It was a terrible decision by Kaep and he got extremely lucky.

I was thinking Harbaugh should have taken one of his two TO at :50 after the Davis first down and worked some shorter passes. Nope. Waste :20 and try to go yard for a pick. That's a pretty big coaching error IMO. Maybe he had a shorter read, but give kaep come time. The decision to throw is on Kaep and FFS throw it to the corner, but wasting 20 seconds and calling an end zone route is bad coaching.

That was all on Kaep. He predetermined that throw to Crabtree. That had absolutely nothing to do with the playcall as he had 3 open receivers to his left. Patton had an easy 6-10 yards as no one was within 10 yards of him, David had 4 yards of seperation on an out route, and Boldin had beaten his man in the seam for a sure TD. Kaep said it himself that he was throwing to Crabtree regardless of what was happening on the other side. When they asked him if anyone else was open, the only thing he said was that he would have to look at the tape.

Check out Peter King's article on Kaepernick in his Monday Morning QB blog. He is pretty spot on about Kaepernick and why he sucks as a QB.

I think it is still on Harbitch to call a TO after the Davis first down.

Cliff notes?

The Niners will be fine as long as Harbaugh stays. I have a feeling Michigan is going to throw a huge offer at him after next season, so I'll say they have at least one more good year.

If he were to leave the franchise would have a challenge to overcome. That being said, they seem up to the challenge with their front office staff. Like the Broncos, they have a front office and coaching staff that's as good at their jobs as the players are at theirs. It's a thing of beauty actually.

Something I just thought of:

This year, the 49ers went out when Krapernick turned the ball over 3 times in the 4th quarter, including forcing the last pass to Crabtree when it wasn't there.

Last year, the 49ers lost the Super Bowl when inside the 5 yard line, he threw at Crabtree on three consecutive plays and all three were incomplete.

A few of us got blasted in the game thread last night for saying we woulnd't extend Kaep at this point until he learns to play from the pocket.

Rigged. Obviously.

He's certainly got some challenges to work through, but it's difficult for QB's to find the balance of staying in the pocket and scrambling. When you have the legs and moves that he has it's all the more difficult.

With all the "new" QB's flare for running and doing all that jazz, you still have to stand in there and make plays from the pocket to win at the highest level in the league.

Defenses are too big and fast to run around all the time. Qb's need to win with their arm and use the legs as a secondary weapon, not the other way around.

With Kaep, it's not just his throws from the pocket, it's his pocket presence, or lack there of as well.

He got strip sacked with a rusher coming directly to him from his front side. He is OBLIVIOUS to pressure.

Guy is worthless.

I wouldn't call him worthless, he's extremely talented. But he's got quite a bit to learn about playing the position from the pocket.

I agree, but a pure pocket passer is hard to find, and with the protection afforded QBs these days I think it's important to take advantage of that.

While Im not the biggest Alex Smith fan, he's got good balance in the pocket-runner area.

Is it possible the Seahawks adjusted their defense to take the QB run away? To make Kaep beat them with his arm?

The first half looked like the regular season with a running QB, the second half looked like the postseason with a running QB.

In the first half he runs for 100 yards, didn't really make any mistakes, they go into the half with a TD lead. In the second half, he runs for 30 yards, turns the ball over 3 times, they score only once on 6 possessions, and they lose.

The scat QB works against the bad and mediocre teams in the league, but when you play a team with a good defense that can make adjustments and take it away, and which has a decent offense that can punish turnovers - i.e., a playoff team, you have to be able to play QB. So far, he can't.

I think the 49ers are learning that a guy like Kaepernick can win games but is only going to take you so far.

Yeah, that is what I was saying. I'm just too lazy to type all those words.

What? Amazing? He has won nothing. Lost to his brother and now Carrol. How is this amazing?

He is the only coach in history to go to a conference championship game in each of his first three seasons as HC. Three years, three NFC championship games, one SB. No one else has ever done that. And while he lost 2 of 3 and the SB they were competitive in every game. He has coached a team in the top 2 or 3 in the league every year of his career.

I'll never get you glass half empty types.

Please take what I say with a grain of salt. He got lucky that one, Alex Smith got a concussion, and two that his coach took a shot with his hand picked guy, and became a prisoner of the moment.

As a former 49er fan, nothing makes me happier then to see the two of them choke together.

Two post seasons in a row, Kap had the ball in his hands, and two seasons in a row, HE CHOKED.

While I LIKE harbaugh, goofyness on the sidelines aside. And he has done great. But, he surrounded himself with a hell of a coaching staff, Seely, keeping tomsula, his roster was loaded when he got here, and they had a hell of a first draft.

He has done well, but his team is loaded. Im not sure how much that factors into it.

I know, singletary, singletary. But singletary might of been the worst coach in the history of football.

Would you take 2 seconds for Alex Smith? :evil:

Lol. Interesting.

Being an Athletic freak is not the same as being talented. The kid has no QB instincts, that is gifted but un-talented in the context of being a professional Quarterback. He should have played baseball, he would have been far more successful.

Mr. #41 looks like a kid girl-guy....