The Vertical Pass

For the last 4 years I've wondered about something that from a 49er perspective had become extinct, the vertical pass to a WR. I used to blame Alex Smith for the lack of deep passes to WR's. He didn't look at the route. His arm wasn't strong enough. And while both of these could have been valid points, I saw the same thing when Colin Kaepernick took over.
I've watched the transformation of the 49ers offense under Kaepernick. When he first took over, team were so committed to trying to stop the Kaepernick's runs, that he attacked them through the air. Then the 49ers added the read option. Kaepernick gouged teams with his legs and the play action pass from this formation. Then teams took that away. During this time, we did not throw deep verticals to WR's. Not because we didn't have a fast receiver. We had Ted Ginn Jr. Roman and Harbaugh would rather concentrate on wham blocks instead of vertical passes.
Then something happened this season. After a win in Dallas, we played the Bears and the Cardinals. You could see the safety's sitting and waiting on Kaepernick's passes with no fear of being thrown over the top of. They baited Kaepernick into three Int's that game. The following game versus the Cards, the safety's played the same strategy.
I believe it was after these two games that the stubbornness that is Rom / Baugh finally succumbed to adding WR vertical routes. They had a savvy veteran that had success in the past getting deep in Brandon Lloyd. They targeted him 5 times in the Philadelphia Eagle game. The next game versus the Chiefs they let him loose. Kaepernick connected twice on deep vertical passes with Lloyd that afternoon in a Niner win over the Alex Smith led Chiefs. The next game was against the division rival St. Louis Rams. The Rams jumped out to a 14-3 lead. Gut punching a Niner team that was obviously not ready to play football. But they regrouped. Late in the 2nd quarter the Niners scored a field goal. Cutting the score to 14-3. Then with less than a minute to go before half, the Niners got the ball back. I fully expected the Niners to take a knee. Instead with the clock ticking down, Kaepernick dropped back and found Lloyd running up the sideline. He hit Lloyd in stride for an 81 yard TD. The comeback was on and the Niners won the game.
More importantly though, the Niners re-introduced the vertical pass. This I believe will pay dividends for this season and beyond. My question to Jim Harbaugh, what took you so long?

Bayareafanatic