Harbaugh has one chink in his armor.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Originally posted by DRnSFw:
did we ever find that chink?

i think the chink joke has jumped the shark

Yeah, but seriously I agree 100% with the OP. Too much prevent defense and conservative play calling can come back to haunt us. The danger is that some may point to the W-L record to support the notion that conservative play calling works. However I think we would have had more solid and secure wins if we were not as conservative.

we have absolutely controlled the last two games. we didn't go conservative as much as we went into cruise control, with a dash of extended-preseason mode where we try some new plays and give some new looks.

I'm not sure why anyone thinks a team can "score at will" on this defense the way it's playing right now. Detroit was supposed to be able to score at will. So were the Eagles. I wouldn't expect even the Packers to be able to score at will. I would expect the Packers to be favored, and you'd have to believe the Packers are better at this point, but score at will? I don't think so.

I wish people would stop complaining about the defense against the Redskins. It's simple. There was about four and a half minutes remaining with a 16 point lead. Fangio simply wanted to keep the ball in front of the defense and make the Skins burn up most of that time trying to move down the field. After the way they had played the game, he didn't believe the Skins could sustain a drive. If you continue to press, there's the possibility of a quick big play. Fangio was playing to win the game. Walsh used to do this all the time - make the other team burn up a bunch of time trying to come back.

I think people are calling Harbaugh conservative when it's actually our offense not executing. Our most cmplete game was against TB and we scored 48 points. If we executed we woulda had two blowouts against Washington and Cleveland.

Originally posted by Antix:
I think people are calling Harbaugh conservative when it's actually our offense not executing. Our most cmplete game was against TB and we scored 48 points. If we executed we woulda had two blowouts against Washington and Cleveland.

That's true. If Vernon Davis makes that catch, it's 26-3. In that scenario, Fangio doesn't really worry about the big play and stays with his regular D, Skins probably don't score again and the score stays at 26-3. Smith has another 60 yards for about 265 and two TD's and nobody is talking about squeaking out a win or even sub-par QB play.

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:
We've all seen it, we all know it to be true. Jim Hardballz Harbaugh becomes ultra conservative with a two score lead, and we've seen that cost us one game this season.. and nearly a few more. My fear as a fan is that it is going to come back to haunt us in the playoffs, against the teams with very good offenses that score nearly at will, such as the Green Bay Packers.

Does anyone else have this fear? I don't mean to sound like a complainer, it is just the one lingering fear I have about our beloved 49ers.

good topic, I feel that Harbaugh's mind set changes with the team. We did nothing close to conservative when Tampa Bay came to play. After we got them down, we stood on their necks and watched them gasp for air until time ran out. My theory is how much Harbaugh "respects" the team he's playing. I think if we play GB, we'd try to score any chance we get whether we're up 12 or 21. Teams that have players with that "comeback mentality". Yeah, we went all vanilla on Dallas, but in reality, it came down to bad play by DBs in wek two. Think about this, Dashon Goldston covering Miles Austin instead of Medieu Williams, Williams kinda cost us the game on tht play where Austin scored. He should have taken a conservative apporach and either pushes Austin out of bounds or went for the highlight hit, but instead, he tried to go for the pick. He gambled and lost big. NOt sayin tht it was completely his fault, but that was a game changing play right there. Also, it was week two, this team thats playing now would have beaten Dallas by 3 scores easily.

Originally posted by Antix:
I think people are calling Harbaugh conservative when it's actually our offense not executing. Our most cmplete game was against TB and we scored 48 points. If we executed we woulda had two blowouts against Washington and Cleveland.

If Smith hits those two long throws to Crabs and VD catches that one, both of those games are blowouts, right there. One or two plays a game can just blow it open. We were completely in control of those games and still took a couple of shots, and if they had hit, bam, those games are laughers. we were never in doubt in those games, but those plays would have changed the texture of them. So I absolutely agree with you.

When you play defense the way we do, and control the game on offense, all it takes is a couple of plays. Its coming, guys. Its coming, its all going to start clicking. And we're all going to lose our minds with the awesomeness.

Originally posted by Antix:
I think people are calling Harbaugh conservative when it's actually our offense not executing. Our most cmplete game was against TB and we scored 48 points. If we executed we woulda had two blowouts against Washington and Cleveland.

I agree. Smith's short and mid range accuracy is pretty good and we only go deep about 3 to 5 times a game soo at least a quarter of his low YPG stats go to drops. Another quarter goes to lack of deep balls(which we dont need anyway, first down only take 10yrds), and clearly the other 50% would be due to our amazing Running back, Frank "the Tank" Gore. ( or "the inconvient truth"..according to Madden games). If recievers caught everything smith thru at them, he wouldnt have recieved so much critcism on his low yards. All that matters is the W tho, soo I could careless if he thru for 50 yards or 500 yards.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
I wish people would stop complaining about the defense against the Redskins. It's simple. There was about four and a half minutes remaining with a 16 point lead. Fangio simply wanted to keep the ball in front of the defense and make the Skins burn up most of that time trying to move down the field. After the way they had played the game, he didn't believe the Skins could sustain a drive. If you continue to press, there's the possibility of a quick big play. Fangio was playing to win the game. Walsh used to do this all the time - make the other team burn up a bunch of time trying to come back.

The Redskins offense was a joke. Their quarterback was a joke. What disappointed me the most about that game was that we gave them ANY first downs at all. I agreed completely with the conservative offense late in the Redskins game because against that type of team, that is the right strategy.

The Dallas game was different because Dallas has a play making quarterback who is capable of coming back, as well as very talented WR's. I don't like what we did in the Dallas game because you can't sit on a lead when playing a team with firepower of that magnitude.
Of course you can always sit on a lead, and then blame the players for not stopping the other team, but that is not a very sound strategy. Harbaugh is not perfect, and the Dallas game was one of his few mistakes this season.

Originally posted by andes14:
And after the Tampa game, people were saying the one kink was being too aggressive with a big lead, leading to Joshua Morgan's injury.

The Dallas game came before the Tampa Bay game. The Tampa Bay game has proven to be the exception to the rule.

Originally posted by IWasWrongRubber:



1. Term "chink in the armor" is actually old English and is not racist. It is now construed to be so, but was never the original intent. Google is your friend.

2. The term: "there's a nip in the air" or "there's a little nip in the air" is, in fact, very racist. It's a reference to Japanese fighter pilots during WWII

3. This is, perhaps, the most idiotic thread I've ever seen in Ninny Talk. How could anyone post something like this after reviewing the Tampa Bay game? FACT: Harbaugh isn't going to reveal the whole ball of wax for every opponent. FACT: There's no need to do it. FACT: The D lost us the Dallas game -- not the offense. It was a rare collapse y the defense. I'll give them that. It's happened once, OK? It's never happened again.

4. FACT: You will see an epic blowout of the Giants this Sunday and the creator of this thread will not reappear to eat major amounts of steaming, hot crow.

The Tampa Bay game has been the exception to the rule, so it does not prove your argument by any means. We have a history of going conservative after gaining a two score lead thus far in the season, the TB game is the lone exception.

And why would I eat crow if we killed the Giants this season? I have been one of the biggest 49er optimists thus far.

I actually disagree. What lost us the game vs Dallas was a BS offsides penalty followed by a DB falling down + Reggie Smith being useless.

not entirely , he can do the dougie like no other.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by FILTHpigskin:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Uh dude, I believe asian american is the preferred nomenclature...

"Harbaugh has one Asian American in his armor"

kinky.

The wit on this forum is second to none.