A Theory about the Harbaalke feud

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so let's all just ignore the fact that San Diego kept facing 3rd and long or 4th down situations and were converting on the defense....lets ignore that the Niners got no pressure on Rivers, who I believe wasn't even touched once that game...

the defense let this team down...comebacks don't happen all because of the offense...hell I dont even remember all of the 3 fumbles, just the one in overtime

say what you want about the offense and lack of scoring in the 4th quarter, but there was no problem moving the ball in that over time until that fumble...
everything isn't always so cut and dry and some of you guys who claim to be "fans" of this team are a shame

spoiled

Lots of Rex Ryan fans in this thread.

AFC Championship resume...piss poor offense? Keep him and pay him more!

Originally posted by 24plus25er:
Guys it's not some huge quantam theory on what went wrong this season. Our issues are simple;

A. We didn't have a back up for Kap that we could trust. So we couldn't risk letting him run during the season. But last night he proved hands down he is the baddest man in the land when he can run free. He still needs to work on his touch passes and hitting checkdowns but Kap is a stud.

B. INJURIES no way you have a winning season with so many of your top guys out. It messes with lockeroom chemistry, the way we practice and so many other things. I mean come on we have Leon McFadden and Marcus Cromartie out there!

C. Pressure of winning is off... this team needed this season. Now the expectations are reset, and as you can see tonight this team plays better when the pressure is off. Had we stayed halfway healthy we would have beat the Chargers by 35. Next season should be much better.

D. We need to end the drama and pay Jim. If we beat Arizona Jed needs to throw a truckload of money at Jim and tell he and Baalke to make it work. If Eddie D and Bill can make it work so can these two. Lets have a strong off season, and come back next season and dominate.

Nailed it. I had a feeling this year would bee a down year. Just think of the accumulation of games and season ending let downs. The team needed a down year to take a deep breath and refocus.

Unless there's really something weird underlying this drama between Harbaugh and the FO, Jed and Trent just need to suck it up. Coaches like this don't grow on trees, no matter how much I trust Baalke.

One thing I will say though, the "who's got it better than us" mantra has lost it's effect. In college there's always people cycling through your program so keeping the phrase year after year works, but I can see it getting stale on a bunch of 30 y/o men. If he comes back, they're due for a new rallying cry.

harbaugh is a great coach - in his system

its just that someone made a big mistake at QB. Kap can't run Jim;s system that is all about using shifts and motion to give the QB an idea of the defense pre-snap so he can make a proper read of where/how to attack it - remember alex smith with all the kill kill kill / let it roll

Kap cant do it so they tried to adjust and simplify it to something kap can grasp and execute and its been a disaster.

Just like peyton cant run a mike martz offense, kap cant run a harbaugh offense.

we cant keep both. sadly, we're keeping the wrong person.

It seems to me the problem goes back to Kaepernick, but not in the way people think. It's been made pretty clear personnel is Baalke's department, except for QB. So Harbaugh wanted this great talent with speed and a cannon for an arm. But for him to be effective, he needed a team built around his special skill-set, and so Baalke needed to supply him with weapons. The Achilles heel for the team during the entire Harbaugh era has been the terrible lack of speed on offense.

So what does Baalke do? He drafts AJ Jenkins and LaMichael James. Maybe they were bad picks, but just remember this: Harbaugh has consistently preached "keeping your issues in house" and "lauding your players no matter how much they screw up". So what does Harbaugh (the man who's made every excuse for Aldon Smith, Ray McDonald, Michael Crabtree, Ahmad Brooks) do with these picks? Before Jenkins even steps on the practice filed, Harbaugh trashed him in the press for not being ready to compete. He had his moments in pre-season, but Harbaugh never missed an opportunity to deride him in public - I suppose he though he was "toughening him up", but instead all it did was shatter his confidence. And his assistants called out James about his blocking. When injuries finally put James on the field, he averaged over 5 yards per carry. And in pre-season this year, though it was clear James had worked at his blocking, it was also clear he wasn't going to move above 3rd string. No wonder he asked for (and was granted) his release. Why bring these up? Harbaugh has publicly said he didn't want roster control, but his actions say otherwise.

Baalke wanted to change the offense from three yards and a cloud of dust. Harbaugh didn't want to adjust. This year, it finally looked like Baalke was going to force his hand adding Lloyd, Johnson, and Ellington to the returning Patton. What does Harbaugh do? He plays the slowest least likely to stretch the field players that he has and lets Ellington and Patton languish at the end of the bench until injuries force him to adapt. And what happened? For once we had some semblance of an offense!

This is just a tiny example of a whole bunch of things that could be referenced to show why the FO might have simply made the decision: Harbaugh was the right man in 2011 to move the team forward, but sometimes a coach only has the tools to move the team forward so far. In this case, that was pretty far: right to the doorstep of a championship; but perhaps it became obvious to them Harbaugh didn't have what it was going to take to go through that door.

Being a "player's coach" probably resonated after Singletary, But when Harbaugh would say "pay the man" when the FO decision had already been made not to, it probably didn't sit well with players. When they brought in veterans who didn't get the kind of playing time they might have expected (/wanted), that was probably fine in the locker room, as long as the players they were sitting for were preforming, but when they're not? That requires something a little deeper in the way of motivation. Maybe that was just beyond Harbaugh.

I had the feeling he carries around a huge chip on his shoulder that is there because of a very deep inferiority complex: that's why he can't beat his older brother, and probably Pete Carroll too!

I'm giving the front office the benefit of the doubt: I loved the fact that Harbaugh's teams won, but I hated the boring style of play, and more than that, I hated the fact that he won without class!

I think it's more of an impasse than a feud.

Feuds imply HATE and I just don't see it.

Originally posted by bret:
It seems to me the problem goes back to Kaepernick, but not in the way people think. It's been made pretty clear personnel is Baalke's department, except for QB. So Harbaugh wanted this great talent with speed and a cannon for an arm. But for him to be effective, he needed a team built around his special skill-set, and so Baalke needed to supply him with weapons. The Achilles heel for the team during the entire Harbaugh era has been the terrible lack of speed on offense.

So what does Baalke do? He drafts AJ Jenkins and LaMichael James. Maybe they were bad picks, but just remember this: Harbaugh has consistently preached "keeping your issues in house" and "lauding your players no matter how much they screw up". So what does Harbaugh (the man who's made every excuse for Aldon Smith, Ray McDonald, Michael Crabtree, Ahmad Brooks) do with these picks? Before Jenkins even steps on the practice filed, Harbaugh trashed him in the press for not being ready to compete. He had his moments in pre-season, but Harbaugh never missed an opportunity to deride him in public - I suppose he though he was "toughening him up", but instead all it did was shatter his confidence. And his assistants called out James about his blocking. When injuries finally put James on the field, he averaged over 5 yards per carry. And in pre-season this year, though it was clear James had worked at his blocking, it was also clear he wasn't going to move above 3rd string. No wonder he asked for (and was granted) his release. Why bring these up? Harbaugh has publicly said he didn't want roster control, but his actions say otherwise.

Baalke wanted to change the offense from three yards and a cloud of dust. Harbaugh didn't want to adjust. This year, it finally looked like Baalke was going to force his hand adding Lloyd, Johnson, and Ellington to the returning Patton. What does Harbaugh do? He plays the slowest least likely to stretch the field players that he has and lets Ellington and Patton languish at the end of the bench until injuries force him to adapt. And what happened? For once we had some semblance of an offense!

This is just a tiny example of a whole bunch of things that could be referenced to show why the FO might have simply made the decision: Harbaugh was the right man in 2011 to move the team forward, but sometimes a coach only has the tools to move the team forward so far. In this case, that was pretty far: right to the doorstep of a championship; but perhaps it became obvious to them Harbaugh didn't have what it was going to take to go through that door.

Being a "player's coach" probably resonated after Singletary, But when Harbaugh would say "pay the man" when the FO decision had already been made not to, it probably didn't sit well with players. When they brought in veterans who didn't get the kind of playing time they might have expected (/wanted), that was probably fine in the locker room, as long as the players they were sitting for were preforming, but when they're not? That requires something a little deeper in the way of motivation. Maybe that was just beyond Harbaugh.

I had the feeling he carries around a huge chip on his shoulder that is there because of a very deep inferiority complex: that's why he can't beat his older brother, and probably Pete Carroll too!

I'm giving the front office the benefit of the doubt: I loved the fact that Harbaugh's teams won, but I hated the boring style of play, and more than that, I hated the fact that he won without class!

Exactly! The operative phrase in your argument is "Harbaugh didn't want to adjust." I'm sure the opposing CBs were laughing almost every game. It makes perfect sense to pepper in Patton and Ellington to give Kap some safety valves but NO! Harbaugh has no idea how to incorporate team speed into the equation. This is the reason I don't mind seeing Harbaugh leave. Sure he's a great head coach but he has no edit button. Most coaches watch film and ask themselves, how to we solve this? How do we get better? How do we attack the weak points in the opposing defense. I really don't think Harbaugh has such thoughts, It's always the same with him ie "we'll run our offense the same way we've always run it regardless of the circumstances." It's a recipe for failure!!!!!!!!! It's no wonder guys on the offense are complaining. Harbaugh simply isn't using all of the tools in the toolbox.

I saw a bit of tinkering last game. Nice to see the speedy Ellington used more. Hey he got into the end zone twice! It's sad this happened after we were eliminated from the playoffs.