{"id":22,"date":"2012-02-06T21:01:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T21:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jcannonsports.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2012-02-06T21:01:27","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T21:01:27","slug":"criticism-of-harbaugh-comes-from-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/?p=22","title":{"rendered":"Criticism of Harbaugh comes from outside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published September 21, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com<\/a><\/p>\n

After the 49ers collapse against the Dallas Cowboys, the focus of the talk shows was not the failure of the offense, the defense, or even the special teams. It was Jim Harbaugh\u2019s non-declination of a penalty that has the 49er Faithful\u2019s golden knickers in a knot.<\/p>\n

This having happened several days ago, I\u2019m going to assume you know what I\u2019m talking about, and get right to my point. It seems that there\u2019s a clear line separating the people who think Harbaugh did exactly the right thing, and the people who think he\u2019s a pantywaist softy who was playing not to lose.<\/p>\n

The difference? The people who have played the game are with Harbaugh on this, and the ones who have watched it all their lives are against him.<\/p>\n

At this point, we need some disclaimers. I\u2019m a line-crosser on this, in that I am a non-player, but I\u2019m in Harbaugh\u2019s camp on this decision.\u00a0 I don\u2019t always defer to the guys inside the lines on these matters (see my column last week on wasted timeouts<\/a>), but I usually do, and in this case, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s even a question.<\/p>\n

I understand the impulse. We\u2019re pretty used to second-guessing the 49ers\u2019 head coaches around here, because it\u2019s been a really, really long time since we\u2019ve had one that knew more than we do. We were all raised on Bill Walsh and the West Coast Offense, so the Mike Nolan\/Mike Singletary years were pretty tough to stomach.\u00a0 But folks, it\u2019s time to back off.<\/p>\n

Jim Harbaugh grew up in the game. Everybody knows by now; his father\u2019s a coach, his brothers are coaches, he played for years in the NFL and has now paid his dues coaching at two levels in college. He completely transformed Stanford in four years. It\u2019s going to take him some time to get the players he wants around him, and get rid of the ones he doesn\u2019t, but he\u2019s going to do it, and in the meantime he\u2019s going to try to win every game he can.<\/p>\n

So the notion that he was \u201cplaying not to lose,\u201d which is what I heard a lot of on the radio the last two days, is ridiculous!<\/p>\n

Harbaugh\u2019s detractors seem to zero in on two specific reasons that they think the coach made the wrong move: 1) declining the penalty would have allowed the 49ers to kill some clock and 2) the three points he was taking off the board would have been readily available should he have needed them later.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why they\u2019re wrong on both counts: 1) the Cowboys owned the line of scrimmage at that point, and even handoffs to Frank Gore were getting dangerous. Taking a knee isn\u2019t a great strategy with 11:16 left in the game, so the 49ers were going to have to run some plays. Assuming they gained nothing, which seems to be okay with most of these people, they then line up for a 40-yard field goal, which, according to them, is automatic. 2) No 40-yard field goal, especially at Candlestick on a late afternoon, is automatic. Take that FG off the board, and the TD the Cowboys got could have been the tying score, and the FG that sent the game to OT could have won it.<\/p>\n

People who have spent their lives inside the lines on the field know that nothing is automatic. Ask Roger Craig if \u201crunning some clock\u201d is automatic. His fumble against the Giants in the 1990 NFC Championship game kept the 49ers out of their third straight Super Bowl. While you\u2019re at it, ask any placekicker in the history of the game how \u201cautomatic\u201d a 40-yarder at Candlestick is, and be prepared for some derisive laughter.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying that Jim Harbaugh is perfect. He did let his quarterback burn the final timeout of the first half on a 3rd-and-19, thereby removing any chance of challenging a referee\u2019s call, but the declined penalty? It\u2019s time to let that one go, folks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published September 21, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com After the 49ers collapse against the Dallas Cowboys, the focus of the talk shows was not the failure of the offense, the defense, or even the special teams. It was Jim Harbaugh\u2019s non-declination of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}