The offense has never been fixed

Let us remember.. Harbaugh was brought here to honestly fix an offense that wasnt holding up its end with a very good defense behind it. Hence harbaugh, now, ranking 11th at highest in his tenure in 2012 here with a top 5 defense year in year out, his other offensive rankings have been mid 20s at best, yes he managed to win. But who wouldn't knowing with a run blocking line, and defense that good, mistake free ball would always put you in a position to win.

Harbaugh hasn't held up his end, this offense has struggled, period. Stop our run, you beat the 49ers. Kaepernick was his guy, was always going to be, was thought to be the big play QB we needed to get over the hump.

Now, with an always below mediocre passing attack, how can one say that with Kaeps contract, being an easy cut ties for 9ers, but a injury guarantee money type deal, that kaep would not be protected from himself with the run element knowing that if he did not develop as Pocket passer, the last thing we would want is to pay a guy full salary for being injured exposing himseld running all the time?

He failed, period. Yeah, we've been successful, but he wasn't brought here to ride the defenses coat tail until it folded, we were supposed to see major offensive improvement, especially passing. Has never happened since he's been here, and now that the D has regressed slightly, and kaep can't just run around and improvise knowing with injury he's getting paid, harbaugh knows that kaep will not be what he once thought. Especially with expectations now. This is why hes leaving, not because he's being forced out, but because he knows he's tied to kaeps success or failure, which reflects upon him. He's leaving before his reputation is tarnished by his failure developing the big play QB he drafted. If he stayed and we failed again on offense, roman here or not, it's his future he has at stake regarding money and job offers, he's a product of a good situation, and now that the defense may not be carrying this team anymore, he's being exposed, so he's skipping town before it affects him, rather than the team... Fact.

It's so easy to see he rides good situations until they're no longer beneficial to him. Then takes off while still in the clear. His next job will fail, trust me. He won't have what he's fallen into. Writing is on the wall.

Originally posted by 49erjonny:

Let us remember.. Harbaugh was brought here to honestly fix an offense that wasnt holding up its end with a very good defense behind it. Hence harbaugh, now, ranking 11th at highest in his tenure in 2012 here with a top 5 defense year in year out, his other offensive rankings have been mid 20s at best, yes he managed to win. But who wouldn't knowing with a run blocking line, and defense that good, mistake free ball would always put you in a position to win.

Harbaugh hasn't held up his end, this offense has struggled, period. Stop our run, you beat the 49ers. Kaepernick was his guy, was always going to be, was thought to be the big play QB we needed to get over the hump.

Now, with an always below mediocre passing attack, how can one say that with Kaeps contract, being an easy cut ties for 9ers, but a injury guarantee money type deal, that kaep would not be protected from himself with the run element knowing that if he did not develop as Pocket passer, the last thing we would want is to pay a guy full salary for being injured exposing himseld running all the time?

He failed, period. Yeah, we've been successful, but he wasn't brought here to ride the defenses coat tail until it folded, we were supposed to see major offensive improvement, especially passing. Has never happened since he's been here, and now that the D has regressed slightly, and kaep can't just run around and improvise knowing with injury he's getting paid, harbaugh knows that kaep will not be what he once thought. Especially with expectations now. This is why hes leaving, not because he's being forced out, but because he knows he's tied to kaeps success or failure, which reflects upon him. He's leaving before his reputation is tarnished by his failure developing the big play QB he drafted. If he stayed and we failed again on offense, roman here or not, it's his future he has at stake regarding money and job offers, he's a product of a good situation, and now that the defense may not be carrying this team anymore, he's being exposed, so he's skipping town before it affects him, rather than the team... Fact.

It's so easy to see he rides good situations until they're no longer beneficial to him. Then takes off while still in the clear. His next job will fail, trust me. He won't have what he's fallen into. Writing is on the wall.

Good, accurate assessment of the problem with the team. Though I don't believe Harbaugh is leaving because of Kaepernick. I still believe Kap can become a good quarterback. Maybe not great but better than average. I think Harbaugh still believes in Kaepernick also.

You can't fix the offense when you don't have a QB and you have tons of O line injuries and holdouts.

Originally posted by trooper49:
Good, accurate assessment of the problem with the team. Though I don't believe Harbaugh is leaving because of Kaepernick. I still believe Kap can become a good quarterback. Maybe not great but better than average. I think Harbaugh still believes in Kaepernick also.

Kap is not even average. He's not even that good. Most of his best plays last night came running around. From the pocket he was garbage as usual.

Remember when Harbaugh was first hired and his press conference with York/Balke? The promises of a revival of the WCO and how excited he was to have access to Bill Walsh's "vault"? I don't know where that fantasy ended up but it sure sounded good at the time.

Originally posted by Califm5:
Remember when Harbaugh was first hired and his press conference with York/Balke? The promises of a revival of the WCO and how excited he was to have access to Bill Walsh's "vault"? I don't know where that fantasy ended up but it sure sounded good at the time.

Do you see a QB as good as Montana on this team?

I often wonder if a big part of the offense's issues is the elimination of sight adjustments in Harbaugh's offense. There was a Grantland article a while back about how eliminating sight adjustments helped Alex Smith become a safer, more efficient quarterback. Essentially the QB must read the defense correctly and identify where he must go with the ball pre-snap. Apparently it made quarterbacking a bit easier for Smith, but I think defenses have adjusted to this and find it easier to identify the plays the Niners are running.

I think Kap can become a really good quarterback, but I also think he's somewhat hamstrung in this offense. The concepts are there as have been proven by THL and johnny, but it just seems like Harbaugh's offense has always been a slow, plodding affair. Even now when he has had arguably the most explosive offense of his tenure, we're still seeing the same conservative offense. Part of it has been Kap's regression this year, as well as line issues. However, at this point in the season I think we can safely say a large part of it has to do with Harbaugh and Roman.

Kap was a neat new tool stuck into the same old "Alex Smith" offense. Defenses didn't know how to handle him at first, but have learned that this offense really hasn't changed much with Kap under center. Kap is more apt to take a deep shot than Smith was, but what this offense really wants to to is consistently run 8-10 minute scoring drives. That's great when you can do it, but sometimes deep shots and explosive plays are needed to open up those "grind it out" drives. For anecdotal evidence, just watch the recent Seattle game. Despite being down by 2 scores with 8 minutes left to go, the Niners were still plodding down the field taking all the time off the clock they could...

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Califm5:
Remember when Harbaugh was first hired and his press conference with York/Balke? The promises of a revival of the WCO and how excited he was to have access to Bill Walsh's "vault"? I don't know where that fantasy ended up but it sure sounded good at the time.

Do you see a QB as good as Montana on this team?

Not a fair question. When have you seen a QB as good as Montana, ever, besides Joe Montana?

As for Kap, I see a guy with a lot of raw ability who makes bad decisions at times and runs a bad scheme. If they have coached him on some basic WCO principles and this is all they have to show for it, then why on earth would Jim Harbaugh have allowed Trent Baalke to give Colin Kaepernick that contract? We all know Kap is Harbaugh's guy. And it's clear Harbaugh cannot develop Kap, but one has to wonder, what is he being coached to do? I don't think we can fairly say Kap isn't capable before a fair attempt is made to turn him into the kind of QB the team needs.

I wonder how often they run drills with 1 to 3 step drops, making Kap get rid of the ball quickly on slant patterns, passes to the fullbacks, running backs, and tight ends? If the game day play calling is any indicator, I'd say not much. How often is he made to throw the passes with touch and not make the pass catcher break stride to catch the ball? None of us are at the practices, but I seriously doubt any of the above is being done.

Originally posted by 49erjonny: Let us remember.. Harbaugh was brought here to honestly fix an offense

Seems you'd prefer if we were averaging 6 wins a year with an exciting offense.

He wasn't brought here to fix the offense. He's not an offensive coordinator. He was brought in to win football games, take us back to the playoffs and maybe even if we are lucky the Super Bowl. And he did.

Good for him.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by trooper49:
Good, accurate assessment of the problem with the team. Though I don't believe Harbaugh is leaving because of Kaepernick. I still believe Kap can become a good quarterback. Maybe not great but better than average. I think Harbaugh still believes in Kaepernick also.

Kap is not even average. He's not even that good. Most of his best plays last night came running around. From the pocket he was garbage as usual.

He was 8 of 9 at one point in the game when the play calling resembled calls intended to flow from one to another. Then the calling got stuttery, and Roman receded back to his game of trying to outsmart (Lets run a QB sweep to the sideline, they will neeeeeever think we'd try that, trying to run out the clock and all) the opponent instead of calling a play he was confident in because he knew his offense would execute it perfectly.

Why is it that Kap can execute the game play at some times, but not others? He has shown the capability to put up big numbers in the passing game, but then looks pedestrian at other times.

I have been on the zone a long time and know your bulldog/stubborn mentality toward the negative so I know I am not changing your opinion, but it just doesn't make sense in my mind that a QB can perform sometimes, but is "complete garbage" in the end. If Kap can put up big passing #'s in any game then he has that potential in every game and is possibly salvageable, is my thinking.

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:

Originally posted by 49erjonny: Let us remember.. Harbaugh was brought here to honestly fix an offense

Seems you'd prefer if we were averaging 6 wins a year with an exciting offense.

He wasn't brought here to fix the offense. He's not an offensive coordinator. He was brought in to win football games, take us back to the playoffs and maybe even if we are lucky the Super Bowl. And he did.

Good for him.

Emmm that's kinda wrong. It was indeed thought that Harbaugh being a former QB, having gotten very good results from the previous QB's he had coached, having went out of his way to learn from Bill Walsh, would improve the offense to pair with our already pretty good defense. He just made it less mistake prone, but other than the 1 year we have actually been ranked worse on offense.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by trooper49:
Good, accurate assessment of the problem with the team. Though I don't believe Harbaugh is leaving because of Kaepernick. I still believe Kap can become a good quarterback. Maybe not great but better than average. I think Harbaugh still believes in Kaepernick also.

Kap is not even average. He's not even that good. Most of his best plays last night came running around. From the pocket he was garbage as usual.

He was 8 of 9 at one point in the game when the play calling resembled calls intended to flow from one to another. Then the calling got stuttery, and Roman receded back to his game of trying to outsmart (Lets run a QB sweep to the sideline, they will neeeeeever think we'd try that, trying to run out the clock and all) the opponent instead of calling a play he was confident in because he knew his offense would execute it perfectly.

Why is it that Kap can execute the game play at some times, but not others? He has shown the capability to put up big numbers in the passing game, but then looks pedestrian at other times.

I have been on the zone a long time and know your bulldog/stubborn mentality toward the negative so I know I am not changing your opinion, but it just doesn't make sense in my mind that a QB can perform sometimes, but is "complete garbage" in the end. If Kap can put up big passing #'s in any game then he has that potential in every game and is possibly salvageable, is my thinking.

He's never been good from the pocket his entire career. His big plays are running and rolling out to the sidelines where he sometimes makes a big play.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:

Originally posted by 49erjonny: Let us remember.. Harbaugh was brought here to honestly fix an offense

Seems you'd prefer if we were averaging 6 wins a year with an exciting offense.

He wasn't brought here to fix the offense. He's not an offensive coordinator. He was brought in to win football games, take us back to the playoffs and maybe even if we are lucky the Super Bowl. And he did.

Good for him.

Emmm that's kinda wrong. It was indeed thought that Harbaugh being a former QB, having gotten very good results from the previous QB's he had coached, having went out of his way to learn from Bill Walsh, would improve the offense to pair with our already pretty good defense. He just made it less mistake prone, but other than the 1 year we have actually been ranked worse on offense.

So our offense is not a top tier offense. It hasn't been dominant like our defense has. We can't move the ball and score at will like the teams quarterbacked by Peyton or Brady or Rodgers. And so Harbaugh failed? Is that what you are saying?

Harbaugh played QB but he was never a Chip Kelly with radical new ideas about how the game is played. He's a gritty, hard nosed competitor who announced at Stanford a love for running an offense with the fullback and multiple tight ends. A throwback, smashmouth, control the clock type offense.

Recall that he completely turned around the career of Alex Smith. He also developed Kaepernick a raw project coming out of college into a pro QB who has had some success.

Seems like some fans expect him to take us deep in the playoffs every single year with an top 5 offense and defense. I'd say if you look at the whole of his career here he's done extremely well and did actual improve our offense from what it used to be. Do people forget how bad it was in 2007? Or 2010?

So sick of thIs. Harbaugh has one bad season, decimated by injuries, and you are ready to trash him. We were lucky to have him.

What I just don't understand about Kap is how he can "still" be so clueless on clock management. How many times does he not get the play off before we get a delay of game penalty, and how many times does he just beat the clock. I get that a rookie in his first year might do this, but Kap has always had this issue, and he is not getting any better at it. I have been a Kap supporter all along, but am beginning to think he may not be capable of getting us to #6. Next year will be a make or break year for Kap imo.

I hope Coach stays, but everything seems to be pointing to him leaving.