GB/SF Post Game Thread

[Turk Nowitzki]

It sounds like Harbaugh wants to fight Clay. Put it on PPV and I'll pay all the money.

He can't even be gracious in victory, it's disgusting.

[whatthe_buck!?]

It sounds like Harbaugh wants to fight Clay. Put it on PPV and I'll pay all the money.

He can't even be gracious in victory, it's disgusting.

I really hope we can stay healthy this year and then crush Harbaughs dreams in the playoffs. I hate that pos and with injury luck and home field I think we are over 50% to beat them in the postseason. The Seahawks are the best team left on either ours or the niners schedules and they have to play them twice vs zero times for us, inotherwords I definitely still have plenty of hope for us to beat out the niners for a playoff bye and then get them at home in the 'offs. Hell for all we know the cardinals are better than any team in our division and we have to play them exactly zero times to twice for the niners as well....

[whatthe_buck!?]

Btw, can I put in a request to have brimleys ban to be a conditional one that will end if/when the packers win the owl this year?

[raysbookclub]

pretty funny memory from deadspin...

http://deadspin.com/that-time-jim-harbaugh-broke-his-hand-punching-jim-kell-1279830622?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Coach/angry person Jim Harbaugh is still talking about an incident in yesterday's Niners-Packers game where Clay Matthews took some slaps at the head of Joe Staley during a scrum. "Come with some knuckles," Harbaugh said. He would know.

Before Matthews takes punching advice from Jim Harbaugh, he might want to read up on a 1997 incident where Harbaugh, then the Colts QB, took a swing at quarterback-turned-broadcaster Jim Kelly and ended up breaking a bone in his own hand, putting him out—without pay—for a month.

During NBC's pregame show on Oct. 20, analyst Jim Kelly questioned Harbaugh's propensity for injury, calling him a "baby" who "overdramatized" his injuries.

Harbaugh heard about it, and what do you know—Kelly and NBC were in San Diego for Indianapolis's next game. The Saturday before the game, Kelly was at the Colts' hotel for a production meeting. Harbaugh reportedly poked his head into the room and told Kelly he wanted to talk. The two went into another room and exchanged punches, in a scuffle that lasted about 30 seconds, according to the Daily News.

Kelly was fine. Harbaugh broke a bone, and was placed on the non-football injury list, meaning he'd have to forfeit his salary ($147,000 a week) until he was healthy. He returned on Nov. 23.

"I consider this something personal between Jim Kelly and I," Harbaugh told the AP, wearing a protective wrap on his hand. "We settled things."

Did he regret anything?

"I regret that I have a crack in one of my bones in my hand."

Harbaugh would later tell ESPN News that "I felt I had to do something since my toughness was being questioned."

Curiously, a few days later, Kelly would deny the entire incident, saying no punches were thrown and he had no idea how Harbaugh got hurt. That didn't fly, since Harbaugh had already copped to it and witnesses had confirmed the punches.

So, keep slapping, Clay Matthews. Even if the other guy's not wearing a helmet, it's for your own safety.

funny comments below, too, from niner and seahawk fans who don't love their coaches.

[BUCKnation]

It sounds like Harbaugh wants to fight Clay. Put it on PPV and I'll pay all the money.

He can't even be gracious in victory, it's disgusting.

There has to be a meme somewhere out there with Harbaugh saying "Wins the game... still angry" or etc.

[emunney]

Harbaugh is a prick and Kaepernick is already an all-timer douchebag. Great coach and QB, though.

[El Duderino]

I dunno, when I look at it I feel like the defense gave up what in my mind amounted to 27 points. The other 7 came from the turnover in the red zone which puts your defense at a terrible disadvantage. The offense basically gifted them that TD.

So on top of that, the 49ers were starting with good field position most of the day and they put up 27 legitimate points on our defense.

Given those things, I honestly think that was a solid defensive effort against the 49ers. Without that Lacy fumble and the Finley drop/INT I feel like we win that game. We don't give them 7 and there is a good chance that we at least put up 3 on the drive where Finley dropped the ball.

Teams often turn the ball over once or twice a game, so while the two turnovers sucked, it's not any excuse for the overall poor play of the defense.

Bottom line is the defense again gave up 500 yards to the SF offense. They again struggled quite a bit to get off the field on 3rd down except for 3rd and really long situations. After we took a four point lead with about eight minutes left, the defense first allowed SF to take the lead back with a relatively easy TD and then after we were forced to punt, the defense yet again couldn't get a stop until the SF offense basically ran out the rest of the clock.

Any time a defense allows 34 points and 500 yards, i just have a hard time saying that unit played a solid game.

The only slight defense i'd make for that unit going forward is Kaepernick IMO is either close to being among that elite group of quarterbacks or he's already there, and elite QB's put up points. If he can continue passing with the kind of accuracy he showed Sunday and as he played more last year, Kaepernick will be such a nightmare for defenses to handle.

1. He can run the read option great which needs to be defensed and game planned for.

2. He can throw accurately from the pocket.

3. Like Rodgers can do, he's gotten much better at making big plays with his arm once forced out of the pocket.

4. Like Rodgers can do, Kaepernick can avoid free pass rushers or when all receivers are covered, demoralize a defense by scrambling for important first downs. A big difference there though is when Kaepernick takes off, he's a big guy who runs a 4.5 40 and thus instead of scrambling for say 5-10 yards as Aaron typically does, Kaepernick can break off really long runs.

5. He's got a big arm and is accurate throwing downfield.

6. He's smart as evidenced by his 37 Wonderlic score

Basically, when he's really accurate, he's IMO as much or more of a nightmare for a defensive coordinator to deal with as any QB in the league. The scary thing to me is that he's only started 12 NFL games and he's already this good, along with having a fabulous mind at head coach to both teach him the position and develop game plans going forward. Crabtree will get healthy. Sure wish he was in the AFC instead.

[paulpressey25]

but you can't say that his scheme didn't at least divert the danger to a much less likely scenario of getting beaten.

That''s sort of where I'm at. Until the D started to get a bit winded in the fourth perhaps due to being on the field so long and the heat, they completely stuffed the SF run game and Kap's option plays. They physically held the ground, which they really didn't do in both games last season.

I think Larivee or Ellerson mentioned on the postgame that the gameplan was to see if Kap could be a great pocket passer. Well, he was. That and the fact our secondary guys were either two steps slow or lost much of the game is the reason we lost. Give us Hayward and Burnett and I think we win that game.

[Siefer]

With all the talk by the Packers and the media the past 8 months about the read option am I the only one not the least bit surpsied that SF didn't really use it?

Of course not. It was the most predictable thing about yesterday's game.

Yep. It shouldn't be under-emphasized how ridiculous San Francisco's flexibility is, though. San Francisco has the personnel to play multiple very different styles at an elite, or near-elite level, making it very difficult to shut them down. I' still think the Packers are a contender, but I want no part of the 49ers come playoff time.

[emunney]

but you can't say that his scheme didn't at least divert the danger to a much less likely scenario of getting beaten.

That''s sort of where I'm at. Until the D started to get a bit winded in the fourth perhaps due to being on the field so long and the heat, they completely stuffed the SF run game and Kap's option plays. They physically held the ground, which they really didn't do in both games last season.

I think Larivee or Ellerson mentioned on the postgame that the gameplan was to see if Kap could be a great pocket passer. Well, he was. That and the fact our secondary guys were either two steps slow or lost much of the game is the reason we lost. Give us Hayward and Burnett and I think we win that game.

Boldin doesn't come up with one or two legitimately great catches and we win the game. It's a razor's edge. Everybody's freaking out. This is how it works: they played better than us at home, and the game was very close. What is alarming about that?

[paulpressey25]

I think the freak out is because the secondary was so downright awful and save for some needed health which we might not get (Hayward and Burnett) we know that secondary may bite us all year.

The board and fans here are pretty sophisticated. Most comments are made from the viewpoint that we know what a Super Bowl champion needs. So even if we go 11-5 and have by all accounts a nice year, we understand the fine points that could make it tough to win it all. And we saw one of those fine point weaknesses yesterday with the personnel in the secondary.

Washington will be the good barometer game to put the SF game in better perspective.

[emunney]

A Super Bowl champion requires a confluence of things that we don't know about yet. Broadly speaking they need a lot of talent, and the NFL is flat enough that probably 12 teams can breach this threshhold, and then they need some fortunate bounces and timely plays. We can talk about what we have or don't have, but what did we say after we let Chad Henne beat us in 2010? Or the previous week when we gave up 357 yds passing to a dying Donovan McNabb in another loss? Probably not "This team has what a SB champion needs."

We just don't know what the landscape is going to look like. We do know that we could have very easily taken this game from the 9ers in SF.

[xTitan]

I think the freak out is because the secondary was so downright awful and save for some needed health which we might not get (Hayward and Burnett) we know that secondary may bite us all year.

The board and fans here are pretty sophisticated. Most comments are made from the viewpoint that we know what a Super Bowl champion needs. So even if we go 11-5 and have by all accounts a nice year, we understand the fine points that could make it tough to win it all. And we saw one of those fine point weaknesses yesterday with the personnel in the secondary.

Washington will be the good barometer game to put the SF game in better perspective.

The entire middle of the defense is sub par, that is the MLB's to the safety's, middle of the field always open, nobody can cover......easy pitch and catch.

[xTitan]

A Super Bowl champion requires a confluence of things that we don't know about yet. Broadly speaking they need a lot of talent, and the NFL is flat enough that probably 12 teams can breach this threshhold, and then they need some fortunate bounces and timely plays. We can talk about what we have or don't have, but what did we say after we let Chad Henne beat us in 2010? Or the previous week when we gave up 357 yds passing to a dying Donovan McNabb in another loss? Probably not "This team has what a SB champion needs."

We just don't know what the landscape is going to look like. We do know that we could have very easily taken this game from the 9ers in SF.

End of the day the simple truth is that SF has beaten GB three times in the span of one year, and although it looks like the Pack can hang, they just seem to not be good enough.

[emunney]

I'm assuming you felt the same way after this game:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/b ... 180dal.htm

[El Duderino]

but you can't say that his scheme didn't at least divert the danger to a much less likely scenario of getting beaten.

That''s sort of where I'm at. Until the D started to get a bit winded in the fourth perhaps due to being on the field so long and the heat, they completely stuffed the SF run game and Kap's option plays. They physically held the ground, which they really didn't do in both games last season.

I think Larivee or Ellerson mentioned on the postgame that the gameplan was to see if Kap could be a great pocket passer. Well, he was. That and the fact our secondary guys were either two steps slow or lost much of the game is the reason we lost. Give us Hayward and Burnett and I think we win that game.

No question that the front seven held up much better, but part of the reason why was having in very often all three of Jolly/Raji/Pickett at the same time. That's three huge bodies going 330 plus clogging up the middle on all of those inside runs to Gore. Our OLB's were far more disciplined yesterday about crashing inside right away, thus taking away Kaepernick's read to fake the hand-off and run outside instead.

The downside to that plan is that whenever Kaepernick faked the hand-off and chose to throw instead when those three fat bodies were on the field, none of those three could generate pressure at all. Jones and Daniels didn't get on the field much.On third downs of say 4 yards to go or less, we often had at least two NT's still on the field and both OLB's would freeze for a split second at least to protect against a potential run either inside or outside.

I understand for the most part why the game plan was so run defense first heavy, but it contributed quite a bit as to why Kaepernick rarely was pressured and in turn had plenty of time for Boldin especially to find holes in the zone.

[El Duderino]

A Super Bowl champion requires a confluence of things that we don't know about yet. Broadly speaking they need a lot of talent, and the NFL is flat enough that probably 12 teams can breach this threshhold, and then they need some fortunate bounces and timely plays. We can talk about what we have or don't have, but what did we say after we let Chad Henne beat us in 2010? Or the previous week when we gave up 357 yds passing to a dying Donovan McNabb in another loss? Probably not "This team has what a SB champion needs."

We just don't know what the landscape is going to look like. We do know that we could have very easily taken this game from the 9ers in SF.

No doubt that the NFL today isn't like the NFL of much of the 80's and 90's where for the most part a handful of teams were clearly dominant.

Instead, the playoffs have become a lot closer to the MLB playoffs where almost end team can end up winning the title.

Hell, just look at the last three Super Bowl winners. All three of the Packers, Giants, and Ravens needed some good fortune to simply land their playoff berths. Last year if the Denver safety doesn't have an epic brainfart inside the last minute of the game, Baltimore sees their season end right there. The Giants needed multiple fumbles by the SF punt returner to advance in 2011.

So while there are legit reasons for many to peg say San Fran and Denver as the favorites, the overall parity and potential random pitfalls in a single elimination format can often lead to the favorites in today's NFL not winning their ring, for a variety of reasons.

I will grant though that having to face SF in the playoffs again this year would suck. It would be nice to see another team eliminate them first.

[whatthe_buck!?]

Boldin doesn't come up with one or two legitimately great catches and we win the game. It's a razor's edge. Everybody's freaking out. This is how it works: they played better than us at home, and the game was very close. What is alarming about that?

QFT. We have improved relative to them since last year. In addition, they are our worst matchup in the entire NFL but we are still clearly capable of beating them. I am taking nothing but positives from this game going forward other than the coaching mistakes that do concern me slightly...