Monday, October 31, 2011

Trick Plays All A Part Of Harbaugh's Game Within A Game

In Monday's postmortem of Sunday's 20-10 ho-hummer over the shorthanded Cleveland Browns, Jim Harbaugh said a couple of things that I thought were interesting and revealing, in their own way.

First there was this, in response to a question about if he's already started to plan for December, and Harbaugh conceded he probably does look forward more than the typical coach.

"Just generally it's just a philosophy of life, of how we approach things as a team. There’s the one philosophy that's 'yesterday's a (memory), tomorrow is a mystery, we live for the present, it’s a gift' - that kind of thing. That's not us. We reject that. We live for the future to make tomorrow better, to make this Sunday better. Everything that we can do today so we can have a better future."

Now I might be reading into things a bit, but here's what I took from that quote. Harbaugh denied it earlier in the season, but I think he was holding something back in the game plans. He was keeping it ultra conservative early on and making Alex Smith show him something, making the linemen prove they could play together, making the receivers show they were committed to the cause by blocking downfield before they got their treats in the passing game. He wanted to see what he had before he opened it up, and the Seattle Seahawks, the opening opponent, were just the kind of team to stage a preseason-esque proving ground game against. No offense to my guy Sam Lam of the Examiner (who doesn't read this anyway) but if the 49ers are Stanford, than the Seahawks were San Jose State.

My point is I think Harbaugh told us a white lie when he said the coaches put everything they can into a game plan to win and hold nothing back. After watching this team for seven games, I'm convinced that Harbaugh is confident enough in his abilities and those of his coordinators and his players, to treat the game plans by and large like that joke about the Irishman and the dick-measuring contest.

If you haven't heard it, the joke goes like this: An Irishman comes home and presents his son with a toy car and his daughter with a new doll and a bouquet of flowers for his wife. His wife is thankful for the gifts but doesn't understand the timing, as there is no special occasion for any of it. He explains to her that he won some money at the bar for a contest and wanted to share in the spoils with his family.

"What kind of contest?" she asked, dubiously.
"Oh nothing special. We just wanted to see who had the biggest member," he said, nonchalantly.
"So you just pulled the whole thing out in front of everyone?" she replied, incredulous.
"No," he said. "Just enough to win."

So yes, I think Harbaugh has coached some "just enough to win" games against Seattle, Cincinnati and yesterday against Cleveland. I believe he coaches in the short-term, but without ever losing focus on the big picture, and the timing of the trick plays where Smith threw passes to Joe Staley on a tackle-eligible play and to nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga who was lined up at fullback, was too convenient for me to ignore.

I mean, think about it. The Browns have a popgun offense. Their QB, Colt McCoy, has a noodle arm. Their two best runners -- Peyton Hillis and Montario Hardesty -- as well as their best receiver in Mohamed Massaquoi, were out. I don't believe Harbaugh ever regarded Cleveland as a serious threat to beat his team, not with the talent the 49ers have on defense.

What better time to experiment with a few gimmick plays? What's the downside? Sure, it's great that Staley caught the pass and made a show of getting the first down. The play made all the highlight shows and got him exposure on the NFL Network. And it's great that Sopoaga caught his third down pass late in the fourth quarter which basically iced the game. But even if neither play worked, there were no serious consequences to trying them. Even if Sopoaga dropped the ball, so what? The 49ers would've punted and the Browns would've had to drive 80 yards to tie it up. It took McCoy 53 minutes to beat that defense once. Was he really gonna do it again two drives in a row? Doubtful.

No, the point isn't that the plays were successful or not, but that Harbaugh and his coaches tried them. Now, opposing coaches (like his brother, John, with Baltimore or New York's Tom Coughlin) will have to waste 15-20 minutes every day of practice before they play the Niners working on ways to stop JOE STALEY AND ISAAC SOPOAGA from catching passes. They'll be spending time worrying about Ted Ginn on reverses and end-arounds. That's valuable time that won't be spent worrying about Frank Gore or Vernon Davis or Braylon Edwards. That's a win for Harbaugh, and how I think his "live for the future" quote applies.

There's more to my theory of Browns as guinea pigs. It's the way that, in an offense famous for favoring tight ends in the passing game, that Smith virtually ignored Davis and Delanie Walker completely and forced nearly every pass at Edwards and Michael Crabtree. It's the way they resisted throwing any screen passes to Gore or Kendall Hunter. I think Harbaugh wanted to get the wide outs going and saved the more dependable aspects of his passing game for when they'll be needed down the road.

The 49ers face another team whose offense has been decimated by injuries on Sunday in the Washington Redskins. They've already lost their best back in Tim Hightower and their starting tight end in Chris Cooley, for the year. Their best wide out, Santana Moss will be out, and there's a good chance backup tight end Fred Davis will too. Their quarterback situation is well documented and they were shutout by the Buffalo Bills on Sunday 23-0. They're so desperate that they signed Tashard Choice off waivers from the Cowboys.

So don't be surprised if you see some more "what the hell?" shenanigans from Harbaugh. A wildcat package for Colin Kaepernick? Wouldn't surprise me in the least. A receiver pass from Edwards? He's got a pretty good arm (as does Sopoaga, actually). The more practice time-wasters Harbaugh can force upon "enemy" coaches, the better. It's another house money, "just enough" game, set up on a tee, in a schedule full of them (see: NFC West standings).

Besides, by now if there's anything Harbaugh's proven besides that he's a great coach, it's that he's a pretty big dick.

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