There will never be another Bill Walsh. JH has the insight, the good talent choice, the good plays (excepting SEA game in mud, and SB last series), BUT:
As noted above, penalties are for losers. Just look at the Raiders....perennial losers combined with most penalties....sometimes back to back yrs. But when Vince Lombardi won the first two SBs, the Packers were the least penalized team. Penalties come from inattentiveness. It is a reason that getting most of the players on the field at one time or another is a great idea, even if for one play, or several plays. Not my idea, but came from some great coach yrs ago. Penalties come from sloppiness, starting in practice and carried onto the field game day. Penalties are the hallmark of a poorly coached team, or in other words, a team that couldn't pay attention. That said, like so many others, just getting rid of Goldson will help a ton. Our other problem is OL and in part DL. Again, that is just not paying attn. It is sloppy.
And it is a coaching error. If a play is practiced on the field and Joe Blow is offsides at RT, then run it again until NO penalties. Just having great talent won't win it. Players have to be attentive , and they darn well better be warned to pay attn. when they screw up with an offsides. All penalties are self inflicted injuries.
No question Coach H knows this but...he has to have been too lax on practice field, because sloppy practice makes for sloppy game day...no matter how talented the team is.
Another weakness was a monumental surprise to me, not to mention every other 49er fan on the planet. 4 downs to go, 2 T.O.s, and he calls one before the first play( I think). Then 4 quick plays, and game ends with overthrow to Vernon.
Our coach had no idea what to call with 4 plays to go from the 9 yd line, and worse, ended up with one T.O. left over. If asked before game would Coach know what to call under those circumstances, I would have said "Hell yes". But he didn't. Coach Walsh would have had 4 great scoring plays had he had the best running game in the league, and the best run blocking OL. Amazing that Coach H would get that far and then just melt down with 1:39 left to go in the game. The greatest coach in the game today, and he didn't have 4 plays to get us in the end zone. Don't know if that was Roman or not, but Coach H is responsible, and will be in the future. You just gotta have 4 or 5 scoring plays at the end of the SB especially in close.
Additionally, cc and I seem to be more bent out of shape over this than others, but the
majority of the last half of SB, we had the best two ILBs in the league sitting on the dam bench. That is inexcusable. You have two all pro players at ILB, you play them both. To not do so shows an alarming lack of judgment in player utilization.
Probably the most infuriating thing Coach Harbaugh did last yr and the yr before, was fail to get plays in on time. It is, in my opinion, a great reason for our HC to call plays, and stick by them. OC can whisper in his ear,
but HC calls the plays and THEN...Gets them in on time. This was a colossal screw up each and every time it happened, and true, at end of yr, it got a lot better. But no winning football team can routinely get plays in late and expect to win. Yet our HC was guilty of that for most of last two yrs. He has gotten lots better, thank God.
A final note, and then I promise I won't bring any of these up again. The SEA game, played in mud, wind, rain. Our first series a penalty. Moved back 10 yrds, and then roman has Kap throw three bombs, all incomplete. 3 and out. SEA gets ball on 50 yd line and it was all downhill from there.
So a final chink in JH's armor is in game planning. And I might add, sometimes a failure to change tactics in 2nd half. This was game planning and it was inexcusably crappy. Was this all Roman with JH's blessing? No way of knowing, but the HC has to know his opponent, know how to beat him and know how and when to stick to game plan and when not to.
Here's a hint. Going long from the 10 yrd line in SEA for our first three plays is a bonafide loser. Coach H
showed it here with an icky game plan. Ok, it was horse schidt. A great coach, a SB winning coach, knows how to game plan. And here were just two instances where his game plan or the game plan roman put forward were dog meat.
So there you have it:
Penalties, not having a play for every situation, not playing your best players in the game,
not getting plays in on time, and not having good game plans for your opponent were the major and stark deficiencies of Coach Harbaugh last season. Frankly he has to improve greatly on all if he wants that SB ring.
That said, he is unquestionably the best coach in the NFL and the best GM in trent. I could not be happier with him and know he will us get more SB rings. I well remember our fall from grace with noln and worse, BM(big mike). He was like a superhero appearing after being led by the worst coaches in the NFL. So yeah, I love the guy. He is one of my all time sports heroes. I wouldn't want anybody else. He will need to improve on the four items above, however, if he is to take us to the promised land.
Good grief, I am very sorry for the length of this.
[ Edited by pasodoc9er on Aug 13, 2013 at 3:38 PM ]
