Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
Marvin, I will take a once in a long time challenge to your viewpoint, altho not major. Getting Kap in in the last 5 games of the season was nuts(my opinion), in that the kid can't get his schidt together from a roman play call , to Harbaw, to Kap , in time for kap to read the D, change the call at LOS and then struggle to get the info transmitted to his teammates. Something has to give here. We have to shorten the time it takes to get info to Kap. My suggestions are two:
1)Cut roman out of the loop entirely. Let him help do the O gameplan then turn off his microphone. For everbody thinking he is such a wizard, my feeling is he is more a lizard. Shut him up. Let the HC be the OC , just like at stanford...and last yr to great extent....Getting the woeful roman in the way is just not working. The result as all 9er fans and all 31 other teams noted is that Kap cannot get the play in on time, change calls, and get the info distributed to his team before the 5 yrd penalty of delay of game goes off. And we saw Coach call T.O. how many times, plus kap got delay of game....unnnhhh, 5, 6, 7 or was it 8,9 or 10 times. Me, I don't want to see this hacked up game again. We looked for all the world like a team the NYG, GB, Vikes, TExans, ATL, NYG, SEA, Pats could just roll over. When that happens and we lose to SEA AND Pats, Coach is going to have to cut roman out of the loop and get plays in quicker, or he is going to have to go to the guy who could put up with this delayed call bs and call a play anyway...and that is alex.
2)Marvin, kap is definitely the better football player...but not the best for this team at present. He NEVER should have been made starter without winning #1 in PS and TC.. Learning how to get a late call in, change play at LOS, and not get a delay penalty is just too much to ask of him. Good as Kap is, he cannot overcome the late play calls coming in and sure can't get the play changed at LOS and communicated to his teammates. Only way to do this is either use alex who can do the above, or get roman out of playcalling period.
If and when we lose the playoff game with Kap, harbaw is going to get the blame and he should. NObody, no matter how talented, can learn to read Ds , change plays at LOS and then communicate to his teammates without a full yrs experience. To me the Kap experiment failed. Maybe cutting roman out of loop will help kap, maybe not. But any reference to our plays coming in late as a minor problem is way off track. It is THE ONE thing that will take this SB away from us and it is coach induced. Either roman or kap goes. If plays still can't get in on time, then we don't deserve to be in the playoffs....and right now....we don't.
I see what you're saying, but I disagree.
I like Alex. I've always defended him. I think we can all admit tho that he was limited. He played very well and I don't really like the way he has kinda been discarded, but I do agree with Harbaughs decision.
1st off, I applaud having the balls to make the move. Just about every coach in the NFL makes the "safe" choice. They don't want to overturn the cart. They don't want to put their neck on the line. Harbaugh knows that he is exposing himself to crticism and he doesn't care. I love that. Ya know who else was like that? Bill Walsh (Montana/Young). Jimmy Johnson (Traded Hershel Walker). Bill Belichik (Bledsoe/Brady). Bill Parcells (Simms/Hostetler...tho he did eventually go back to Simms). Harbaugh has a long way to go to be in that class, but he fact that he is willing to make that decision tells me alot about him as a coach.
As for the decision itself, I was on the fence when I first heard it. The more time passes, the more I agree with it. We are seeing Kaep play as a young player who is still learning and his results are similar to Alex when he is maxed out. He is taking some lumps and making mistakes from time to time, but I defy you to find a guy who is playing this well through his first 4 starts.
If the Niners lose in the playoffs, I am not putting this all on this decision. The assumption is of course that it was a poor choice and that Alex would CLEARLY have done better. Why? Why would Alex have done better? Most of the critical things I've read of Kaep lately have been checkdowns....and Alex throws a TON of those.
Kaep clock management needs work. No doubt...but what ELSE do you see that makes you so convinced this was the wrong choice.
The UPSIDE on the other hand is that he threatens defenses in ways Alex never will. He stretches them vertically and horizontally. The way these past few teams have defended him are completely different from how they would have defended Alex.
I do understand why people are a bit put off by the switch, but it's clear that Harbaugh thinks Kaep gives them the bast chance to win a SB THIS year. If he believes that, then I'm riding with Harbaugh on this one.
[ Edited by Marvin49 on Dec 10, 2012 at 11:28 AM ]