Oh, let's review: I started following the 9ers, the yr I moved to Paso Robles, 1977. Team was a shambles, but an inspiring new coach, went 2-14, then 6-10 with his "new"Qb, and then won the SB the next yr. He won 2 more also, handed off to Seifert who closed out the century with the team winning an astonishing 5 SBs. Did I like coach Walsh better? Yes. Did Seifert win with a SB team put in his lap? yup. Then mooch, then the train wreck, Er-Wreck-son, then the amazing noln, a small man in size, and a HC with a very small mind, obviously not HC material. Then disaster befell us with BM, or bowel movement mike, who was and excellent LB coach, but could not coach another position on the field. He led us to the bottom, where we remained mired, until last yr, with the amazing Stanford coach, who promptly led us to 13 wins, more Ws than we had combined in some 5 seasons. In the end we lost the NFC title game because our PR was injured and a rook PR flubbed two punts, and we lost to a team we had already beaten once that yr.
Fast forward to this yr, and we get on a roll, our qb takes us to top of NFC west, but is injured 4 games ago with a concussion. He is sidelined, and Coach Harbaugh has replacement play so well, and show so much talent that he becomes enamored of Kap and jumps him to starter, even tho alex had just completed 27 of his last 29 passses in the previous two games. Gutsy call, or goofy call. Kap went big against Saints, looked awful against Rams, looked great against PATS and then one week later, looked pathetic against SEA. Granted Kap had plenty of company in their performance in a very hard place to win. Still as a team, we weren't ready, we had schidt for an O game plan, worse than that for a D game plan, AND we were missing Justin, the heart of our D. Adding insult to injury, a guy who the courts allowed to play yesterday after testing positive for performance enhancers(steroids i assume), and who will now have to miss the next 4 games, lays a wicked hit on vernon who we lose for game with a concussion. Mario tears his ACL and PCL on a play. Our O has a lock on 3 and outs. Our play calling and game plans suck. Our D game plan sux. Coach kept the clip board away from his face until late in 3rd qtr when we were really starting to get embarrasssed. ERGO, roman called the game to there, when JH could no longer stand it. Fangio's D play calls and D Planning was unbelievably bad.
Coach H was the one who jumped Kap to a starting roll with 4 games left to go in season, after a good performance, once alex was out concussed. Coach H has to live with the fact that Kap had no business on that field on Sunday last. He got showed up for the experience he doesn't have. Times were tough, and Kap folded, holding his head down on the sidelines, instead of rallying his troops. He missed all long throws except to delanie, overthrew vernon twice, and crabs a bunch of times. Overthrew mario, and randy. Kap connected on a few, but his just better than 50% was no where near as bad as it looked. Coach had to know his jump start qB was going to go thru this period, so why in the world put him in? Next yr would have been fine. 4 fumbled snaps in PATs game was extraordinary. The SEA game should have given Coach H a birds eye view of where "his" QB is at present. Odds were high that Kap would make rookie mistakes in a yr we had SB written all over us. That is all on Coach H. His call , he has to live with it.
So do i miss BM, noln or erickson? Hell no. Do i wish coach had kept it in his pants and waited to change Qbs until next yr? yup. Do i wish we had another of the great coaches out there, say garret at dallas, norv at SD, who knows at JAX, andy reid and his 5 Win team, or the Chiefs, TAmpa, Cleveland, panthers, oakland,titans, miami, coaches? hell no. There are at a max only a handful of coaches who are great in the league. bellicheat, Coughlin (and they won't make playoffs), GB, Sean Payton. Say there are 6, maybe 7. And I put Harbaugh up there with any of them, equal to GB and NE coaches. That is top 3. We do not want Coach H to leave here , ever. He has, however, mucked up this yr, and it was all his own doing. Bad thinking, overly rated his backup Qb, but has called good games 90% of the time. He is the cause of missing a shot at the SB this yr, however, and that is something he will just have to live doewn. Of course, we could still win, but there are 6 QBs out there who can eat our QBs lunch. With alex, less flash, more steady, but a winner.
How do you rate that? I got no idea, but give him great marks except for those few areas he screwed up. Anybody wants Coach h gone has rocks in his head. The guy is one of the best 2 or 3 coaches out there. He needs to improve his OC and DC, however, or just call the game himself like bellicheat does. Get rid of him? no way. Grade? A overall, with some Fs in there for SEA, Kap, and coaching against Rams. I guess that makes an A-. But if you don't like what you see, why not follow Dallas, panthers, raiders, chiefs, rams, AZ, cleveland, miami, bills,etc....for starters. Guys , who has it better than we do? NOOOOBODY.
[ Edited by pasodoc9er on Dec 24, 2012 at 8:29 PM ]