Originally posted by 12b6demurrer:
Ralph would fit in on the Webzone with his irrational hatred of Alex Smith. Alex Smith isn't THE reason (not saying he doesn't play a part) why the organization has been horrible for so long - he's a symbol of a comically mismanaged football team. The 49ers' worst season after Garcia left was the year before they drafted Alex Smith after all - when we went 2-14 with Tim Rattay at the helm. In 2003, we went 7-9, which wasn't a great season either.
That being said, Harbaugh would probably stick with Alex Smith if he had a bad game. You can't constantly switch out QBs like Singletary did. There needs to be an opportunity for a quarterback to adjust. If you let Alex play out the whole season, you can count the experiment over.
Ironically, if Alex were given the whole season to play last year and still stunk it up all year, he probably would've been gone this year because the "Alexcuses" (or whatever NT likes to call rational analysis) would've held less weight. Oh well.
I don't think Ralph is too far off. IMO Alex's two biggest reoccuring mistakes are:
#1 Not being able to read defenses (including seeing pass rush and feeling comfortable in the pocket)
#2: Having poor passes in the flat or high passes that defect of receivers hands for an INT (wasn't it up to like 60%+ of his ints were deflected off teammates at one point last year)
Ralph isn't saying Smith sucks but he is saying if these reoccurring problems Alex has shown for the last 6 years here and there, flair up during a game or in 2-3 games in a row, what does Harbaugh do then?