It's unfortunate this is how the 49ers season had to end. Of all teams to shut the door on our playoff hopes, it was THE OAKLAND RAIDERS. And now we will walk into Seattle next week completely deflated and will most likely be dominated again, just to add to the agony. On top of that we will have to hear Raider fans run their mouth for the next four years before we get an opportunity to play them again. After watching this game, it is clear now Harbaugh is gone. I'm sure I am stating the obvious, but it's unfortunate because I am a Harbaugh believer, and I stand by the fact that I do not believe the struggles of this season are his fault. He will go to another team and turn their franchise around the same way he did for us. Unfortunately we need a change and the head coach is always the place to begin. I place the blame of this season on injuries, Kaepernick, Roman, and brace yourself... Baalke. I'm not ready to give up on Kap but man, the regression we saw from him this season was truly disappointing, considering all the weapons we brought in for him this offseason. And even though a big part of the blame goes on Roman for terrible play calling, Kap's terrible decision making and lack of awareness is his fault and can't be pinned on anyone else. However, we need to run the option more and get back to the pistol! We took the playbook that got us to 3 straight NFC championships and a Super Bowl, then threw it away and pulled out a new one. Makes no sense to me. You can't force Kap to be a QB he is not, we must adapt the playbook to his skill set and stop trying to adapt his skill set to what the "traditional" QB is suppose to be. As for my reasoning for putting some of the blame on Baalke, is the fact that he is the GM, and he holds more power than Harbaugh due to his relationship with York. Had he been the bigger man, we could have avoided this problem. At the end of the day it's up to Baalke, if he wants to keep Harbaugh we will keep him, but Baalke's ego and need to control the team from top to bottom has led to this current situation we are in. It dismantled our locker room and any chemistry this team had. It's obvious that the players love Harbaugh, they are all vocal and speak on this fact. As a GM, you got to acknowledge what the players want and put your personal differences aside. If I was in Baalke's postion, I would sit Harbaugh down, discuss the future, and let him know that we can move forward but we got to work harder on rekindling this relationship, and Roman has to go. We can bring in a new OC, but I would want Jim to take a larger role in the play-calling. Firing Jim will not solve anything if we cannot bring in another good coach instantly, which is unlikely to happen, what will likely happen is we will end up hiring another Dennis Erickson, Nolan, or Singletary, and set ourselves back for years to come, and by the time we find a good coach Kaepernick will likely be around the age of 30 and steadily declining. What coach is better suited for Kaepernick than the man who drafted him? Firing Harbaugh makes no sense unless we plan to trade Kaepernick as well. They love each other and it will be very tough to find Kap a coach who he will connect to on that level.
It seems that either Baalke or Harbaugh need to go but both of them are so good at their jobs that I just wish they could set aside their differences.
What are your thoughts on all of this?
Is there anyway around fixing this teams issues going into next season without firing Jim? (Obviously Baalke is going nowhere)
I'd like to believe that there is some hope and that the team hasn't thrown the towel in on Jim just yet.
Any man with a brain should notice that the teams current issues go well beyond the head coach.
I would not settle for trading Jim unless we can acquire a 1st rd pick, a true #1 WR, or a true #1 CB.
And I just want to make it clear that I do not want Baalke gone, I just put some blame on him for not handling the situation better.
If it's up to me, we keep everything the same going into next season, but fire Roman.
It bothers me that Baalke had the nerve to say that it is unfair to place the blame on Kaepernick, what's truly unfair is putting all the blame on Harbaugh, which is exactly what he's doing.
[ Edited by 4everFaithful on Dec 8, 2014 at 6:40 PM ]
The Seattle game was the punch that knocked the wind out of my blind homerism. Then I knew without a doubt that this team's season was defined.