49ers Top Rival No Longer In Their Division

Remember the good ol' days when the New Orleans Saints were in the NFC West? Until 2002, they were and the 49ers played them twice a year every season. In fact, back in the 90's when they were coached by Jim Mora Sr., the Saints were often the biggest threats to San Francisco's division supremacy. For those of you who would like to forget the past eight seasons -- and who would blame you? -- it's very easy to harken back to a simpler time when annual road trips to places like The Superdome and Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium were the norm for your locals.

So it strikes me as a bit of a happy coincidence that here we are in 2011 and once again, the squad breathing down the 49ers collective necks, and really the ones whose results they're taking note of on the scoreboard, are those same Saints, their real NFC West rivals who just happen to not technically be in the division any longer.

The real NFC West, as you've no doubt noticed, is about as imposing as Group A of the recently announced Euro 2012 draw (Russia, Czech Republic, Greece and host Poland). While the 49ers have yet to officially clinch it -- a win on Sunday wraps it up -- it's been done and dusted since mid-October. Whatever claptrap the Niners coaches and players offer you about rivalry games and not looking past the Arizona Cardinals of the world is a bunch of politically correct hooey. Their real rivals are Saints, in all their Drew Brees-ian, Darren Sproles-ish, Jimmy Graham-esque and Sean Payton-ish glory.

At 8-3 the Saints are 1.5 games behind your 49ers in the battle for the No. 2 seed. Because all three of their losses have come against conference opponents (vs. just one NFC loss for the Niners), San Francisco has the tie-breaker on them, and would have to drop at least two of their final five games to relinquish their first round bye. Still, the Saints have been streaking of late and they seem to have everyone's attention. Alex Smith admitted that he watched their Monday night curb-stomping of the New York Giants, while a certain beat reporter who will go unnamed referenced Sproles in a question to 49ers skipper Jim Harbaugh when he meant to say Steven Jackson, the St. Louis Rams featured runner, instead. Harbaugh, who prefers to stay on autopilot during his media obligations, didn't skip a beat in answering the question anyway.

As it stands, a second-round playoff matchup between the 49ers and Saints seems virtually inevitable. New Orleans is 5-0 at home and just crushing people with an offense that's unstoppable at home. Too much speed from Graham and Sproles, too much precision from Brees, too much wizardry from Payton. On the road they haven't been nearly as consistent, with Brees in particular being far more forthcoming with the turnovers. Though the 49ers may well be underdogs either way, they would have a far better chance of overcoming the Saints at home and with a week of rest than vice versa.

And that, ladies and germs, is the best -- really the only -- reason for Niners to take the rest of their schedule, beginning with Sunday's tilt with the downtrodden 2-9 Rams, at all seriously. St. Louis may have a victory over the Saints to their credit, but precious little else has gone right for them these past few years. To put it in perspective, with a win on Sunday Harbaugh would tie Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo on the career win list with 10 despite the latter's 32-game head start.

St. Louis has been decimated by injuries, particularly at cornerback and along the offensive line, and they weren't strong at either of those positions to begin with. Their safeties are slow. Their quarterbacks have rags for arms. Sophomore Sam Bradford has been such a disappointment that it seems to matter little if he plays on his gimpy ankle (didn't practice on Thursday, "very limited" according to Spagnuolo on Friday) or if A.J. Feeley gets the nod instead. Jackson is above average, but the 49ers defense has chewed up and spat out far better than him and ex-Niner Brandon Lloyd is their lone playmaker. Cover him with two guys and poof, he's a rumor.

Defensively the Rams have a formidable front four, but one that like Philadelphia and Detroit, that's hellbent on getting to the quarterback at all cost -- leading sack man Chris Long has missed practice all week with an ankle injury but said he's gonna play -- to the point of ignoring their running game responsibilities completely. They're dead last against the rush, allowing 159 yards a game and over five a pop. Even their pass defense, which 49ers offensive Greg Roman charitably described as "unique," gambles so recklessly that they've been prone to big plays.

"From a coverage and pressure standpoint, I’d say when they first started developing this system, they were willing to take more what people would call risks in coverage than other teams," Roman said. "They would add a guy to the blitz, still play a version of zone coverage and basically burn a zone, as we say, vacate a zone to add another guy to the blitz. Basically, a lot of their blitzes just take the old playbooks and shred them when it comes to protections and rules."

Roman added, "They’ve done a phenomenal job," a line once uttered by George W. Bush to former FEMA Director Michael Brown during the Katrina disaster, to tie this back to the Saints in our typically morbid fashion. If ever the 49ers will have a pass play over 50 yards (their season-long is 44, to running back Kendall Hunter at Philadelphia, naturally), Sunday should be the game.

A record that's an even safer record to be broken, however, is the franchise's all-time rushing mark of 7,344 yards, which is currently held by late Hall-of-Famer Joe "The Jet" Perry. Frank Gore is but 21 yards away from passing Perry and it's sure to be the secondary story in your Monday game recap after the pomp and circumstance of the 49ers division title clinching. Sure, Spagnuolo could choose to put 11 in the box and let Smith throw for 13 uncovered touchdowns, and as oddly entertaining as that would be, I'm guessing he'll play it more straight up and Gore will be taking a bow midway through the first quarter.

The game itself should be decided not too long after that, giving all involved a chance to drive home early and check out that Lions-Saints game and count their blessings that they're no longer in the division.


Picks (already 0-1 this week!)

Indianapolis at New England (-21): I probably would've picked the Pats to cover if the line was 27. Then again, I'm a terrible gambler. Patriots 45, Colts 3.

Tennessee at Buffalo (-3): If you have any doubts about how little anyone trusts the Titans, here you go. They're a desperate bunch, hanging on for dear life at a playoff bid, and they're underdogs against a team that's lost four straight. I should know better, but I'm picking them. Titans 20, Bills 13

Kansas City at Chicago (-7): The first offensive coordinator who calls a pass play before somebody has either a 14 point deficit or is facing a 3rd-and-15 should be fired. Bears 17, Chiefs 6

Oakland at Miami (-3): The Raiders are just the kind of no-nonsense running team that won't let a frisky Dolphins bunch rattle them on the road. Or so I'm telling myself. Raiders 27, Dolphins 23

Denver at Minnesota (-1): A battle of the quarterbacking Christians. Sadly, I think Tim Tebow will run for more yards than Toby Gerhart. Broncos 13, Vikings 10

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (-7): The Bengals come into this one a lot healthier than Pittsburgh, so that line seems too high to me. I'm picking an upset, mainly because it's not like I'm wagering money on these things. Bengals 24, Steelers 23

Carolina at Tampa Bay (-3): Over/under Cam Newton turnovers is at 3.5. I'm taking the over, and thus a Bucs win that does them not a lick of good. Buccaneers 27, Panthers 20

NY Jets at Washington (+3): And here come the Jets, steamrolling into January, ready for their annual two road wins and crushing AFC title game loss.* Jets 20, Redskins 13 *May not happen.

Atlanta at Houston (+3): The Texans signed Jake Delhomme, which means for the first time in recorded history a stadium full of fans will be thinking, "I hope T.J. Yates doesn't get hurt." Falcons might put all 11 in the box. Falcons 17, Texans 13

Baltimore at Cleveland (+7): I think the Ravens are the best team in the AFC and I couldn't trust them any less to beat the Browns. In fact, I'll consider it a sign of growth and maturity if they win the game at all. Ravens 17, Browns 16

St. Louis at San Francisco (-14): How the heck is an offense struggling as badly as the 49ers getting 14? That's nuts. That's absolutely asinine. Ludicrous on every conceivable level. 49ers 27, Rams 10

Green Bay at NY Giants (+7): Mayhaps I was too high on the Giants earlier in the season. I tend to overvalue NFC East teams that are actually based in the east. My new position, as bold as it may be, is that the Packers are pretty good. Packers 44, Giants 27

Dallas at Arizona (+5): Someday, perhaps a month from now, the Cowboys will have to face an NFL team instead of this steady claptrap of Division I-AA gutter runoff. Oh what a glorious afternoon that will be for all of us. Cowboys 30, Cardinals 16

Detroit at New Orleans (-9): Lions fans thought they saw a stomping last game, wait until Drew Brees and the fellas get through with 'em. Saints 45, Lions 21

San Diego at Jacksonville (+3): I would rather watch an NBA preseason game between the Bobcats and the Pacers. I would rather watch a hockey game between Columbus and Florida. I might even rather watch a college basketball game. And about now I remember that both of my fantasy running backs are prominently involved in this one. Goddammit. Chargers 8, Jaguars 4


Power Poll

1. Green Bay (11-0)
2. Baltimore (8-3)
3. Pittsburgh (8-3)
4. San Francisco (9-2)
5. New Orleans (8-3)
6. New England (8-3)
7. Houston (8-3)
8. Cincinnati (7-4)
9. Dallas (7-4)
10. Oakland (7-4)
11. Chicago (7-4)
12. Atlanta (7-4)
13. Detroit (7-4)
14. New York Giants (6-5)
15. New York Jets (6-5)
16. Tennessee (6-5)
17. Denver (6-5)
18. Seattle (5-7)
19. Tampa Bay (4-7)
20. Miami (3-8)
21. Washington (4-7)
22. Buffalo (5-6)
23. Cleveland (4-7)
24. Arizona (4-7)
25. Carolina (3-8)
26. San Diego (4-7)
27. Jacksonville (3-8)
28. St. Louis (2-9)
29. Minnesota (2-9)
30. Kansas City (4-7)
31. Indianapolis (0-11)
8,415,913. Philadelphia (4-8)

C+ Is Good Enough, Some Game Balls and My Apparent Love of "Low-Hanging Fruit"

Here’s how good the 49ers are in 2011 – they can play a “C+” game, on the road, and still dominate the first 57 minutes and win comfortably.

Did any facet of their operation thrill you during yesterday’s 19-11 win at FedExField over the injury decimated and far too Shanahanned Washington [insert offensive racial euphemism here]?

On offense there were ill-timed penalties that turned an early 3rd-and-1 into a 3rd-and-6 and turned a second half 4th-and-1 where they appeared set to go for it into a 4th-and-6 and another David Akers field goal. There were drops by Frank Gore and Vernon Davis that ruined drives and a bad miss by Alex Smith on third down when he could’ve hit a wide open Gore on a rollout. The Niners converted 3-of-12 third downs and were 0-for-2 in the red zone. Several times plays appeared to come to Smith too late, forcing him to waste time outs and reminding us of the bad old Mike Singletary days.

Defensively they were sensational as always against the run, and after two or three productive carries by Washington rookie Roy Helu, he got nothing the rest of the way. It’s gotten to the point where you wonder why people even bother ever calling a running play against the Niners. It’s a waste of a down, akin to turning a 49ers defensive series into the CFL, where the opposing offense only has two plays and then the punt. However, run defense aside – the locals still haven’t allowed a rushing touchdown all season and haven’t had anybody run for 100 on them in 30 games – it wasn’t a dominating performance by any means.

Patrick Willis was amazing as always, but neither of his forced fumbles on Helu came on a ferocious hit or a powerful strip. Helu just wasn’t securing the ball high-and-tight (think Jeremy Maclin) and “P-Willie” did what he does because he’s a future Hall-of-Famer. Dashon Goldson had a fabulous break on a ball to snatch his second interception in as many games, but let’s face it, it’s not like John Beck has a cannon.

To me, the disappointing aspect of the defense, and maybe I’m picking nits here, was the pass rush, or lack thereof. Ahmad Brooks had the only sack the Niners had, out of 51 Beck drop-backs. Beck attempted 47 passes and scrambled for gains on four other occasions when the pocket broke down on him. Far too often, he had all day back there, especially in play-action situations. It was a credit to the secondary (and an indictment of Beck) that he only had 254 yards on his 30 completions and had to settle for so many check-downs to Helu, but that was the same Washington o-line that gave up 10 sacks to Buffalo last week. Against a better QB and better receivers – such as the ones they’ll face next Sunday – that kind of time in the pocket portends bad things.

Even on special teams, Akers was a perfect 4-for-4, including a 52-yarder; and Brad Seely’s coverage units were solid as always led by Blake Costanzo and C.J. Spillman, but Andy Lee dumped two of his five punts into the end zone and Ted Ginn had a quiet day in the return game.

What I liked about the operation on offense is that Gore wasn’t overtaxed and that Harbaugh got everyone involved, whether it was Bruce Miller or Kendall Hunter or Kyle Williams or Ginn. There were personnel packages aplenty and formations galore. Smith completed passes to eight different receivers and was as sharp (70.8%) as he’s been any game since the season-opener, when he dinked-and-dunked for 124 yards on 15-of-20 against Seattle.

My concern is that at times these guys are too clever by half. You don’t need nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga out there to convert every 3rd-and-1. You don’t always need seven linemen or multiple shifts or this guy motioning and that guy reporting as an eligible receiver. Trickery is fine and good on 1st-and-10 against somebody worthwhile. On 3rd-and-inches how about you just do a QB sneak right behind Mike Iupati’s big derriere and see what happens?

Then there are the red zone issues. At some point Harbaugh will have to give the other team’s run defense some credit. There’s a reason the 49ers haven’t allowed a rushing touchdown all season. It’s not easy to jam it in there in close quarters when there isn’t as much field to defend. It really is easier to pass it in. If it’s a simple matter of saving your “good” red zone plays for the good teams when you’re gonna need them, that’s one thing, but eventually Harbaugh will have to trust that the quarterback who’s been so careful with the ball for him all season will be that same quarterback inside the 10-yard-line. In fact, Smith’s history is that he’s been better in those situations than he is normally. Harbaugh has let Smith pass it in the red zone in games they’ve trailed, but not nearly as much as when they’re playing from ahead. Until that changes, this team will continue to lack that killer instinct.

I must stress that I don’t think Harbaugh coaching this way has any reflection on what he thinks of Smith as a passer. I’m quite aware that the national perception – and that of some local columnists – is that he’s “hiding,” “protecting,” or trying to win in spite of Smith, but that’s not how I’m reading the situation at all. I just think Harbaugh is naturally a run-first coach and conservative by nature and that trying to pound it in fits in with his whole macho persona and tutelage under Bo Schembechler. Still, by-and-large, running the ball up the gut will lead to more Akers field goals than not. I have a suspicion that the Giants will score more than 11 points, so maybe this will be the week that Harbaugh puts the game more in Smith’s hands, especially with Gore gimpy with a bum left ankle.
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Reason Why Jim Harbaugh Is Difficult To Work With – No. 618

Toward the end of his press conference, Harbaugh, perhaps annoyed that no one asked him a special teams question, decided to praise the work of C.J. Spillman for occupying numerous Washington’s blockers and Tramaine Brock for blocking in coverage. Then he said this, about Akers:

“Another four-for-four in the field goals. Now I see you nodding your heads, you like that low-hanging fruit don’t you? ‘Oh four-for-four, that’s a statistic we can mark.’”

That’s right coach. None of us understand a darn thing about football beyond the surface statistics. We’re all total laymen who don’t even watch the games.
Of course, whenever anybody asks Harbaugh an actual football question, such as “what’s the difference in responsibilities between your two safeties,” or “Can you give an example of the difference in techniques the inside linebackers have in Vic Fangio’s 3-4 defense versus Greg Manusky’s defense?” all we ever get is “I’m not going to get into the scheme.”

Eventually the way the NFL is going, independent media will be eliminated altogether and the league will just let team employees disseminate information to the public. Unfortunately, guys like Rex Ryan are the exception in this profession, not the rule. To Harbaugh’s credit, the better you are at your job, the less any of this other stuff matters. Thousands of Giants fans – including myself – cheered Barry Bonds everyday without ever thinking of he treated the beat writers the night before, and we were perfectly right to do so. Harbaugh deserves all the cheers he’s getting as well.
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Game Balls:

Ricky Jean Francois – made his second start of the season and first ever start at defensive end, in place of the injured Ray McDonald. I admit that before this season that I didn’t think much of all as Jean Francois as an NFL player. I loved him as a person, of course, as does just about anybody who interacts with him, but I thought for the most part that when he did see action on the field, that he looked like one would expect a former 7th-round pick to look. However, Jean Francois has been much better at holding the point this season and I thought he had a great game on the nose against Tampa when he starred in place of Isaac Sopoaga.

Yesterday he wasn’t quite as good, but it was obvious that Washington was targeting him and running to his direction early on. Jean Francois said he got some tips from Sopoaga and linemate Justin Smith on the sidelines and after that the running game went pffft. I give him credit for being versatile enough to not just play end on the run downs, but also to be able to take over McDonald’s role in the nickel and do his part as a pass rusher as well. It’s not easy to go from a reserve to an every down player and Jean Francois played just about every snap on defense from what I saw.

Dashon Goldson: In the offseason I openly wondered which Goldson we’ve seen is the real one – the 2009 version or the 2010 version? Well, through six games – he missed the first two with a knee injury – Goldson’s play, while not as consistently spectacular as we saw two years ago, has definitely leaned closer in that direction than last season’s, which saw him get almost no interest in the free agent market. The 49ers free safety is back to his playmaking ways, and has been involved in a turnover in four of the last five games, including yesterday’s interception. He’s always been a ferocious hitter, but if he continues to be a ball hawk, the 49ers will have to shell out the bucks to re-sign him.

Bruce Miller: The 30-yard pass he caught for a touchdown effortlessly in the second quarter gives you a good idea of why Miller, a defensive end at UCF, was drafted to be a fullback. Good coaching can teach a kid to block, if he’s smart enough and strong enough and willing to do it. Coaches can’t teach Moran Norris to run fast or catch. Running backs coach Tom Rathman pointed out that Miller’s blocking game still has more to do with angles and leverage than it does with power, but even in that aspect I’ve seen him get out to make some blocks on the second level there was no way the plodding Morris could’ve made. I think the kid is gonna have a nice career here.

David Akers: He’s now a perfect 4-of-4 on kicks of 50 yards or longer. I can’t shake the feeling that having a kicker as the offense’s most dependable weapon is also its biggest curse. When coaches trust their kickers too much they tend to not be as aggressive in their play-calls between the 25 and 40-yard-lines. I guess the same is true, in a way, of having a great defense. They both detract coaches from the goal of scoring touchdowns. We’ll see how it affects the 49ers down the road.

Who Wants To Play This Game? Noooo-body

Sunday's game between your local gridironers and the woebegone Washington Redskins at FedExField will be one of those unique sporting affairs that will feature two ticked-off head coaches who'd rather be elsewhere.

For just about any football aficionado Washington head whistle Mike Shanahan's discontent is easy enough to figure. He knows he's bringing a butter knife into a gunfight. His best running back (Tim Hightower) and tight end (Chris Cooley) are lost for the year and his top wide out (Santana Moss) will also be unavailable. Backup tight end Fred Davis is iffy with a wobbly ankle, as is left tackle Trent Williams, who's missed the past two games. Even safety O.J. Atogwe (Mike Singletary's son-in-law) is a long shot to play. We haven't even discussed their quarterback situation yet.

The Redskins have lost three in a row and four of five. Shanahan suffered the first shutout loss of his storied career last week at Buffalo and quarterback John Beck, who is winless in eight career appearances -- five starts -- was sacked a whopping 10 times by a Bills team that came into the game with four quarterback take-downs total in six games. I dare say that your Niners have a wee bit better defense than Buffalo, even without injured defensive end Ray McDonald, but allow for the possibility that playing in Toronto gave the Bills some as of yet unidentified superpowers. Still, barring a few turnovers or some special teams shenanigans (or, if you prefer, "Shanahanigans") it will be tough for the Redskins to have more points than 49ers whirling wunderkind Aldon Smith will have sacks. Call it -2.5 in favor of Washington's offense.

Meanwhile Jim Harbaugh has no fear of the Redskins per se, no more than any other foe in the Freddie P. Soft phylum of your weekly power poll, but if had his druthers the 49ers would rather be playing this game on Nov. 20, four days before their other Maryland tilt against the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving. The Niners fought the league's scheduling committee long and hard about the unfairness of having to fly cross-country to crab cake county twice in 20 days, but were met with the usual unsympathetic shrugs they've come to expect from the league ever since the Yorks over ownership from the disgraced Eddie D. Let's be real about it -- there are janitors in that building that Commish Goodell respects more than plucky youngster Jed York, so expect the 49ers to be boned by the schedule fairy for a bit longer until they become established contenders again.

Still, if you have to fly all the way out there you might as well win, so in that sense a trip to the nation's capitol should be perfectly pleasant for your 49ers. The 'skins are their fifth straight foe that is far more accommodating to opposing runners than they are to passers, and as you're no doubt aware that's a hanging slider right into the wheelhouse of a Jim Harbaugh Greg Roman Geep Chryst Mike Solari Tim Drevno Tom Rathman Isaac Sopoaga offense that will be looking to give the ball to Frank Gore early and often as he seeks to extend his streak of 125-yard rushing performances to five.

Also, for someone like Harbaugh who's so attuned to the pulse of his team, one would think that this would be the week he'll look to get Vernon Davis some touches, considering that it's a homecoming game for Davis, who's from the D.C. area. Ol' Vern contributed to the nation's economy by purchasing 90 or so tickets for friends and family and presumably it wasn't so they could watch him block Ryan Kerrigan all afternoon. Davis tried hard to be unquotable as possible with us ink-stained wretches on Thursday, but it was still pretty clear that he measures his self-worth in catches and touchdowns rather than seal blocks and double-teams drawn. Some appeasement is in order.

The game will present another reunion of sorts for 49ers corner Carlos Rogers, whose departure after six up-and-down seasons in Washington drew some interesting comments from Shanahan and former teammates. Rogers, who has stated ad nauseum that he did not enjoy his last few seasons as a Redskin and that he wanted out two years ago, was mocked by Fred Davis and DeAngelo Hall for his poor hands and ripped by Shanahan for "inconsistent" play. While the Washington coach was totally complimentary of Rogers to the San Francisco media, he told his local beat writers that if he felt that Rogers merited a long-term contract that he'd still be a Redskin. Rogers already has three interceptions for San Francisco after never having more than two in any season for Washington, and he'll no doubt be looking to make a point to his bronzed former boss.

Beyond all that there really aren't many story angles to discuss. The 49ers haven't strung two halves together on offense in any of their road games, but 30 minutes of competent football should more than suffice against a punchless Washington outfit. Harbaugh will be looking to get out of there quick and painless and Shanahan will probably be more preoccupied with scouting reports on Landry Jones and Matt Barkley than he will with the game plan. Nothing interesting ever happens in Washington and there's no reason to expect that to change on Sunday.

Week 8 Picks:

San Francisco at Washington (+4): As near as I can figure, the Redskins have nothing going for them aside from being home, and even that may be a drawback as their fans figure to let them have it if things get ugly early. Fortunately for them, the Niners have a gnarly habit of playing only one half of football per game on offense and back-to-back shutouts are fairly rare in the NFL, so this should be a close one. 49ers 23, Redskins 16

Atlanta at Indianapolis (+8): The Colts insist that they're trying and they will continue to. Doesn't that make this whole saga even sadder? Also, Atlanta gets Julio Jones back, just to make this match-up even more lopsided. Falcons 30, Colts 13 **FOUR POINT PICK**

New York Jets at Buffalo (-2): I'd love to pay more attention to this one live, but those damn Niners will selfishly monopolize my attention once more. What I like about the game is that we'll be forced to take the winner seriously while the loser won't suffer too badly. Kinda gives me a warm feeling as I dislike neither team. Jets 20, Bills 17

Seattle at Dallas (-12): Ugh. The only way this game gets my attention is if the Seahawks are up 10 in the fourth quarter. The sight of a smiling Tony Romo gives me gas. Cowboys 34, Seahawks 14

Miami at Kansas City (-5): Seems like a low line but A) the Chiefs have a short week B) the Dolphins play close games and C) Kansas City was secretly kind of terrible against the Chargers. Still, how many narrow losses in a row can Miami have? At some point they'll either win or lose big, right? Chiefs 26, Dolphins 9

Tampa Bay at New Orleans (-9): Vegas has caught on to the Jekyll & Hide nature of these two teams with their home/road splits, so this line makes pretty good sense, as the quarterbacks have been turnover machines on the road. (Or, in Josh Freeman's case, at "home" in England.) Drew Brees needs the running game to take a bit of pressure on him to sell the play-action and to give pass rushers something to think about. I think nine points is too much for a division rivarly game. Saints 30, Buccaneers 23

Cleveland at Houston (-11): I admit the Browns have a low-watt offense and the Texans have been locking people up the last couple of weeks, but Cleveland plays too good on defense in their own right to lay 11. I think Colt McCoy will play fairly well in what amounts to a homecoming for him. Texans 23, Browns 17

Cincinnati at Tennessee (-3): I'm kind of shocked the Titans are favored in this one. If the Bengals can win at Seattle, why not Tennessee? Don't be fooled by the Titans record. They've beaten nobody, save for a Week 2 win over a Baltimore team that was still euphoric over the beatdown they handed Pittsburgh the week before. Easy upset pick (which means it's doomed). Bengals 26, Titans 17 **SIX POINT PICK**

Denver at Oakland (-9): I don't care if Tim Tebow is the worse than Babe Laufenberg, I'm laying nine with the carcass of Carson Palmer playing for Oakland. Also, there's a good chance Darren McFadden will be out. Turnovers will be the only way either team can score. Raiders 16, Broncos 13

New York Giants at New England (-9): Patriots fans will be at full boil against the team that robbed them of a perfect season. The Giants are actually the more complete team, thanks to their ferocious pass rush and I was this close to picking them in an upset, but with Ahmad Bradshaw highly unlikely to play with a cracked bone in his foot, I just can't do it. Still, if Eli Manning just drops back to pass every play, I like that match-up against the Patriots secondary (assuming Hakeem Nicks plays). Should be a wild one. Patriots 27, Giants 24

St. Louis at Arizona (-2): Sam Bradford is probably gonna play for St. Louis and John Skelton will start for Arizona. It doesn't seem possible that Skelton could be any worse than Kevin Kolb, but until proven otherwise, I have to assume he will be. Rams 23, Cardinals 16 **EIGHT POINT PICK**

Green Bay at San Diego (+6): A interception-prone quarterback facing guys like Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams and Sam Shields? This sounds fairly simple. And if I'm wrong, I'll hardly cry about a Packers loss. Packers 34, Chargers 20 **TEN POINT PICK**

Baltimore at Pittsburgh (-4): The Steelers are a lot hotter but the Ravens are much healthier. I'm gonna go with the team that doesn't have Joe Flacco playing in prime time on the road. We might see a couple loud pops in this one. Steelers 24, Ravens 17

Chicago at Philadelphia (-8): I think the birds have found themselves and I'm pretty excited about the match-up of the Eagles defensive line against the Bears big uglies. I'm not as excited about Matt Forte against Philly's linebackers and safeties. Oh well. Eagles 30, Bears 20

Last week's W-L: 8-5
Season W-L: 73-43
Week 8 Vs. Spread: 5-7-1
Season Vs. Spread: 44-65-7
Week 8 +/- Points (All games count as one point unless specified): -2
Season +/- Points: -28

I forgot to do extra point picks last week (just as well) so I'll double them up this week, Berman-style. Good luck!

Five 49ers Observations and Week 8 Power Poll

You'll forgive me if I don't give you some fancy preamble and we just jump right to it. Here are five 49ers thoughts that have been rattling in my brain for a couple weeks, in no order of importance.

1. Okay, I get it with Mike Iupati now. I admit I was a bit rough on the big lug during the off-season, during the preseason and even the first couple weeks of the regular season (he was poor during the Dallas game). However, the light seems to have turned on for him in a major way and he's been an absolute bulldozer of late. When they run left, they run right behind him. When they run right, it's with him pulling. Iupati is freakishly athletic for his size and can really move well in tight spaces. He's missing far fewer blocks than last year and not getting confused as much in the pass game on twists and stunts. He's not lunging at people anymore and playing with his feet under him. Coaches are fond of saying that players improve the most between year one and two and while NaVorro Bowman has been the best example of it, Iupati and Anthony Davis aren't far behind. Kudos to Trent Baalke.

2. Harbaugh is killing Frank Gore. 31 carries against dilapidated Cleveland? Gore's averaging 20 carries per game and has had at least 17 touches in every contest. That's too many and he won't be able to sustain it for a full season. You've got a good backup in Kendall Hunter, who brings his own ingredients to the table. Only giving him three touches to Gore's 31 is inexcusable.

3. While we're on that theme, Harbaugh is riding all of his starters too much. Seriously, outside of the sixth and seventh offensive linemen and the tight ends, what backups on this team ever see the field outside of special teams? Kyle Williams and Anthony Dixon never play and Ted Ginn is there purely for show as a third receiver. The young defensive linemen never play, nor do the linebackers. There are eight guys on defense -- Ray McDonald, Justin Smith, Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Ahmad Brooks, Carlos Rogers, Tarell Brown and Dashon Goldson -- who basically play every snap. It's asking too much of them. Would it kill Harbaugh to give a guy like Larry Grant an odd series here or there to give Bowman or Willis a blow? Can't Aldon Smith relieve Brooks every once in a while instead of always coming in for Parys Haralson? The 49ers have good depth in some spots and they're not using it and as a consequence these guys will be worn down to a nub by December.

4. As well as they've played, I don't think the 49ers are using their best 11 on defense. And no, I'm not talking about Aldon Smith being a nickel rusher stuck behind Haralson. No, I mean Brown. How good has he been, honestly? When teams complete any pass of consequence to a wideout, more often than not it's been his man. He let a dink-and-dunk passer with a noodle arm get the better of him in the fourth quarter last Sunday. He doesn't have a single pick in seven games. Isn't it about time that Shawntae Spencer is let out of the dog house? He's been persona non grata on this team for the crime of being injured and it's a shame he's still buried behind Brown even though he's healthy. Spencer is bigger, more physical, and has more experience. He deserves a shot.

5. I don't understand why Moran Norris is still on the roster. Rookie Bruce Miller has shown he's the better receiver, the better special teams player, and, of late, the better blocker too. You've no doubt noticed how Gore and the running game has taken off with Miller starting. He's faster and more athletic than Norris and able to get to his targets both at the line of scrimmage and the second level, easier. Isaac Sopoaga has found a niche as a short-yardage fullback. What exactly is Norris needed for? The 49ers dressed their 46 best players last week (not counting Joshua Morgan or Nate Byham, who are on IR) and presumably will continue to do so. At whose expense would Norris be activated? No one I can think of. Most teams don't have the luxury of having two fullbacks on the 53-man roster. You'd think Norris' roster spot could be used on a more useful player, such as a veteran receiver or a backup outside linebacker. Is Norris around simply to sate his friend Gore?

Debate these topics amongst yourselves, or seek me out on Twitter. If the comments section on this here blog isn't working for you, you can always drop me a line at michael.erler1@gmail.com.

Week 8 Power Poll

1. Green Bay (7-0): What I found out during the Packers bye week is that apparently Greg Jennings was the MVP of my fantasy team. Green Bay may still be undefeated, but sadly the Roster Marginalia no longer are. Also, I should've played Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brent Celek last week over Drew Brees and Vernon Davis. Packers go on the road to San Diego to take on a grouchy Chargers team on short rest, though I don't think it's gonna be too hostile of an environment for them. Not only will the stands be filled with 40 percent bandwagon Packers fans, but there's more eye candy at Chargers games than anywhere.

2. Pittsburgh (6-2): So much for the Super Bowl loser jinx. Steelers are red hot, Ben Roethlisberger is playing out of his mind and the defense seems to be improving by the week, regardless of who's healthy. Amazingly, they're doing it without much of a running game, dependable offensive tackles or elite corners. Nothing makes sense about this team. Hard to see them not winning the AFC North if they can take care of the Ravens on Monday night, and they owe 'em one after Baltimore spanked 'em 35-7 on opening day, including a late two-point conversion for no reason.

3. New York Giants (5-2): I'm not gonna punish them for needing 3.5 quarters to get the better of the Dolphins. Miami is a tough team to get up for. The Giants have injury issues at running back and receiver, and their schedule is just about to get ridiculous, starting with this week's Super Bowl rematch at New England. However, if Eli Manning continues his strong play and that defensive line keeps pressuring opposing QBs, I don't think the Giants will have the free-fall that most people are expecting.

4. San Francisco (6-1): Huzzah! A season-high place for your Niners on the power poll, and fully deserved thanks to that ferocious front four. A bit of warning though, nothing they do on Sunday at Washington is likely to inspire me to move them any higher, as that is one dilapidated team they're on Sunday. If your local gridironers can get through the Jints to get to 8-1, we'll talk. Also, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to see Mr. Smith mix in another 200-yard passing day, just to remember what it looks like.

5. Detroit (6-2): Now that they've finished scraping the Tebow off their shoes, the Lions get a well-deserved bye before their return engagement with the Bears -- this time in Chicago -- next week. Matthew Stafford had his best game in weeks and now he'll have some time to get his ankle healthy.I must say I wasn't a fan of them making fun of Terrible Tim's praying and all the trash they blabbed to Mike Silver after the game. What's the point? Beating the guy isn't enough, you gotta humiliate him too? It's like I always say: Teams take on the personality of their coach. The Lions may be fun to watch, but they seem to be a bunch of jerks.

6. Baltimore (5-2): Yes, I'm aware that they nearly lost to Jacksonville and Arizona in back-to-back weeks. Here's my excuse: I like their defense (which wasn't really responsible for too many of those 27 points allowed against the Cards), I like Ray Rice, I like their wide outs, and they haven't lost to the any of the other playoff hopefuls I have below them. I'm aware Joe Flacco hasn't set the world on fire, believe me. The situation is being monitored. He gets another shot in his personal house of horrors at Heinz Field on Monday night.

7. New England (5-2): Oofa. A five place fall for losing to the team right below them in the rankings on the road. Too harsh? Probably. However, what exactly do the Pats have going for them besides Tom Brady and his two tight ends? They have no running game, no speed at receiver and a skeleton crew on defense. If Ahmad Bradshaw and Hakeem Nicks play I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Giants win over there. This is a flawed team, my friends.

8. New York Jets (4-3): Similar to the Ravens in almost every conceivable way, except for that whole "having a running game" thing, though Shonn Greene did have a nice day against the Chargers before the bye week. Real interesting match-up they've got coming up at Buffalo Sunday morning. I'm sure the Bills will just be thrilled if Aaron Maybin puts Fitzpatrick on the turf a couple times.

9. Houston (5-3): It's hard to gauge how good their defense is without Mario Williams when all they've done of late is beat up on the popgun offenses of their AFC South rivals, but the Texans are avoiding the trap game pratfalls that have plagued them in years past. In many ways they're similar to the Niners. They very well could finish 12-4 with their soft schedule and be underdogs in their first playoff game. Arian Foster and his mates will get the Brownies to chew on this Sunday.

10. Cincinnati (5-2): Sure the Seahawks aren't very good. Still, winning convincingly at Seattle is no mean feat, especially for a rookie quarterback. The Bengals seem to get a big return on defense or special teams every week and I was impressed how they took care of business even without Cedric Benson, who was suspended. Sneakybig game coming up Sunday afternoon at Tennessee, who are a quiet 4-3 themselves.

11. Buffalo (5-2): They came into their game against the Redskins with a league-low four sacks in six games and then slammed poor John Beck nine ten times into whatever playing surface they've got over there in Toronto. All available evidence points to this being an indictment of Washington, but heaven help us if the Bills actually found themselves a pass rush. We'll know more Sunday against the Jets.

12. Philadelphia (3-4): A six-spot jump for beating a 3-3 team at home? I'll be honest, if you guaranteed me that Michael Vick and LeSean McCoy will stay healthy the whole year, I'd have the Eagles in the top five. And before you condemn me, Steve Mariucci said on NFL Network that he'd have them No. 2 behind the Packers. You don't think he's full of beans, do you? What's that, you do? I see. Well at the risk of jinxing them, the Iggles certainly look like they've gotten some of their issues resolved over the bye week. Another prime time home game against an unlikeable quarterback awaits, this time a Monday nighter against Jay Cutler and the Bears.

13. New Orleans (4-3): Down they drop, from 4 to 13. No mercy for an outfit who've declared to the world that they intend to be world-beaters at home and absolute rubbish on the road. What happened to this offensive line? It seems as if Brees is even a little off kilter the whole operation goes poof. The defense is not built to hang around either. You have to give them either a 14 point lead or things get ugly. Now they get to defend their turf against the Bucs.

14. Chicago (4-3): Do I feel rotten for dropping them four spots for the crime of having a bye week? No, not really. I honestly feel the 13 teams in front would all beat them on a neutral field. However, it would be just like the football gods to punish me with an upset in Philly at the hands of this loathsome bunch.

15. Tampa Bay (4-3): For their sake I hope LeGarrette Blount is healthy now and good to go because one could easily argue that his backup, Earnest Graham, was the team MVP through the first seven games. Too much is on Josh Freeman's shoulders and he needs some relief. Things could get worse before they improve at New Orleans. The Saints will be in a rotten mood and eager to avenge a loss to these same Bucs a couple weeks back.

16. Atlanta (4-3): And here's our last team on the positive side of the ledger. Did you miss the Falcons on their bye week? Me neither. They're gonna get Julio Jones back this week, though in his absence Atlanta discovered they're better off being a run-first team with Michael Turner anyhow. Regardless of what they call, the Colts figure to give them little trouble.

17. Kansas City (4-3): Somehow, someway, they've won four in a row, despite losing Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry. The Chiefs are way below the radar, but have some dangerous receiving threats in Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston, and now Jonathan Baldwin. Streak should hit five with Dolphins up next.

18. San Diego (4-3): Pretty hard to pin Monday night's loss on Norval. We keep waiting for Philip Rivers to snap out of his funk, but he continues to be a turnover machine week after week. Me? I blame Takeo Spikes, who dooms every team he's on to an early vacation. Maybe playing the Pack this week will be good for them. After blowing games everyone expected them to win, why not play somebody where no one expects anything of you?

19. Dallas (3-4): We think of Cowboys-Eagles as a big rivalry, but I swear it seems like once every two or three seasons Dallas goes over there and flat out mails in a game where they just don't give a damn. Once the Eagles scored on their first possession it felt like the Cowboys knew they had no shot. Tony Romo hardly ever threw to Dez Bryant and Miles Austin, choosing to repeatedly target Laurent Robinson instead. I guess they were just steeling themselves for their stretch of patsies, starting with this Sunday against Seattle.

20. Tennessee (4-3): The last two times they played somebody good, they got flattened. Their running back situation is deplorable. Their best receiver is someone named Damian Williams. And yet I can't rank them any lower. They have to beat the Bengals at home if we're to take them seriously.

21. Oakland (4-3): On one hand I don't see a bright future for them at all with Carson Palmer under center. That was a disastrous trade, in my opinion. On the other hand, you'd think they'd beat Tebow at home.

22. Minnesota (2-6): It blows my mind that their record is as bad as it is. They're in the wrong division for sure. Put them in the NFC West or AFC South and they'd do some damage. Also, give them a decent coach. There's signs of life with this team because, surprisingly, Christian Ponder isn't terrible. Another game with the Packers, this time in Green Bay, awaits them after the bye.

23. Carolina (2-6): Great running backs, good receivers, good tight ends, awesome QB... How do they keep losing games? One of these weeks I should probably watch them play and get to the bottom of this. But not this week, because they're off.

24. Cleveland (3-4): They're beat up to hell, but that secondary keeps them in games. Also, Colt McCoy wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be when I saw him up close. Somebody needs to get that boy some receivers. We'll see if they have any more success stopping Arian Foster than they did Frank Gore.

**THE DREGS**

25. Jacksonville (2-6): They still have a defense and Maurice Jones-Drew, whom am I traded for in fantasy, so bully for them. Enjoy that bye week, fella. Time to work after that.

26. Seattle (2-5): They out-gained the Bengals by a bunch but still lost at home, which is pretty sad. Their quarterback situation is even sadder. I'm not expecting much from them at Dallas.

27. Washington (3-4): Just beat up to hell, and they gave Mike Shanahan the first shutout of his coaching career. That guy lied to us today about something related to Carlos Rogers, so screw him. I hope the Niners beat the hell out of them, and I'm not even a fan.

28. St. Louis (1-6): That's kinda sorta how I pictured their defensive line playing the whole year. Where's it been? Kind of ironic how A.J. Feeley might have saved Sam Bradford from Andrew Luck hysteria.

29. Arizona (1-6): I think maybe Kevin Kolb isn't looking too good you guys. Getting sacked six times in 27 drop backs doesn't help either. Now he gets to face that Rams D-line.

30. Miami (0-7): Best 0-7 team ever? Best 0-7 team ever. I'm sure the owner will treat the team to some fine KC barbecue on Saturday afternoon. And then again at night. And then have some catered in the locker room before the game. Eat up, fellas.

31. Indianapolis (0-8): It's like I was telling Grant Cohn the other day, "Man, once teams get some film on Curtis Painter, it's gonna be hard for him to keep up his slightly-below-average play." Cohn just laughed like he understood what the hell I was talking about and went back to talking about rap with Sam Lam.

32. Denver (2-5): Tebowmania! Hey, I admit Tebow didn't look good against the Lions, but YOU try playing quarterback with a Skip Bayless fastened tightly around your winky.

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.

Why the 49ers Won, A Little Love For Their Unsong Hero, and Thoughts About Harbaugh's Emotions

You look at the 49ers 25-19 triumph of the previously undefeated Detroit Lions at Ford Field and the cliché sportswriter thing to do would be to wax poetic on redemption.

Alex Smith played his worst game of the season and threw what could’ve been the game-changing interception, but came back to throw the kind of clutch touchdown pass at the end that he never could these past six seasons.

Delanie Walker dropped a touchdown when he was wide open in the third quarter, but then ran the kind of slant route that Jerry Rice would’ve admired on that fateful 4th-and-goal from the 6-yard-line and was powerful enough to drag a tackler into the end zone.

Rookie Aldon Smith had an easy interception clank off his shoulder pad, but then came back to sack Detroit’s Matthew Stafford into an 18-yard loss that ruin a Lions drive and set up Walker’s go-ahead score.

Even the much-criticized Chilo Rachal, who’d been benched the past 2 ½ games, checked into the game in the fourth quarter for injured starter Adam Snyder and more than held his own against the Lions Ndamukong Suh, who’d been hyped up as football’s answer to Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago.

All of that is well and true. Those guys had their low points earlier in the game and reached exhilarating heights at the end. But all that nonsense overshadows the real nuts-and-bolts story of the game – Jim Harbaugh’s over-caffeinated postgame handshake and slap on the back with Lions head-whistle Jim Schwartz.

Kidding. Just kidding. Such an overblown total-nothing of a story. It’s all ESPN cares about – because apparently fellows like Frank Gore, NaVorro Bowman and Aldon Smith aren’t compelling enough to write stories on – so they’re driving the cattle call for the editors of the local writers to care about the story too. Frankly, the whole thing is embarrassing and makes me question why I’m in the business.

(And then I remember that I don’t like working for a living.)

No, here’s the story: The 49ers are, unquestionably, better than the Detroit Lions, and thus, by the transitive property, this makes them one of the five or six best teams in the league and a legitimate contender. There’s no need to qualify it or say “maybe if this happens” or “if the ball bounces that way,” or anything like that. Right now, what they have on their roster and on their coaching staff is good enough to play deep into January. I’ve seen enough and I’ve become a believer.

Consider all that the 49ers had going against them on Sunday. First off, they were on the road, which had not been kind to them in the past decade. Secondly, they were playing a team that hadn’t lost at home in nearly a calendar year. They were without Joshua Morgan, who was lost for the season last week and also missing Braylon Edwards, who’s still on the mend, leaving the mercurial (another sportswriter cliché alert) Michael Crabtree as their only decent receiver. Of the 11 primary defenders they would be using the game, eight were different than the primary 11 they fielded last season.

Still, on a day when Alex was only their third-best Smith, when the team was a -2 in the turnover department – a road team winning in such a case is about as rare as a Halley’s comet sighting – and the fellas misbehaved to the tune of 15 penalties for 120 yards, the 49ers still found a way to prevail because they had better players, better coaching and more composure at the end.

Past 49ers teams would’ve fallen apart down 10-0 early on the road and the game would’ve turned into a disaster. This one never led the Lions get out of shouting distance, even in the ear-splitting din of their dome. The coaching staff wisely game-planned to use the over-aggressiveness of the Lions front four against them, the way karate senseis teach their pupils to do. Detroit uses the same “wide-nine” front that the Philadelphia Eagles do, lining their ends up exaggeratedly wide and putting them in sprinter stances to explode off the ball and go hell-bent after the quarterback. These guys do not care one whit about stopping the run. As a consequence, that leaves the two defensive tackles with four gaps to cover, the two between the guards and the tackles and the two between the center and guards. And those guys aren’t reading and reacting either. They want to get sacks too, so they’re also picking a gap and exploding through it. When they guess right, they stuff the run on their way to the quarterback. When they guess wrong… well then guys like Frank Gore (15 carries, 141 yards) start getting smaller and smaller as they run off into the distance.

Even in the passing game, the coaches schemed well enough to get Crabtree open quite a bit (whether Smith actually threw it within Crab’s zip code or not was a different story) and to get Walker wide open in the end zone in the third quarter and on the game’s biggest play, where Walker’s slant was helped along by a sneaky Crabtree pick. That the 49ers didn’t do more damage in the passing game was due to some misfires by the quarterback, some drops by the receivers and generally mistakes of San Francisco’s own making than anything the Lions did.

Defensively, the staff saw that Stafford gets rid of the ball too quickly, too often to make blitzing him worthwhile, and that most of Detroit’s big plays happened when their opponents brought pressure. So the Niners gambled… by not gambling. As Harbaugh noted during his Monday presser, the 49ers didn’t bring more than a four man rush on any of the Lions’ 78 plays from scrimmage. They just played their nickel defense pretty much the whole game, with two-man over help from the safeties (Donte Whitner and Dashon Goldson was each responsible for half the field) and let Bowman cover the back and Patrick Willis cover tight end Brandon Pettigrew.

Come to think of it, I think defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who said he’d never been associated in a better defensive effort than this one, according to Harbaugh, was giving us a bit of a snow-job during training camp when it came to Willis. Fangio said that Willis was better than he expected in virtually every facet but blitzing and that he would have to work on that skill. I filed that comment away at the time because I thought, "Huh, it’s odd he thinks a guy who had six sacks last year needs to work on his blitzing," when I always thought Willis’ biggest weakness was in pass coverage.

My theory is that Fangio intentionally threw us off track and actually got Willis to work on his coverage skills. Wills has hardly blitzed all year, but has been tremendous in coverage. Yesterday might be the best game I’ve ever seen from him in that regard. He made three or four plays on the ball in the red zone when he was clearly targeted, and even the one time Pettigrew scored a touchdown on him, it took a perfect throw, as Willis was practically in the tight end’s shirt. I think the Niners thinking all along was to give the Lions what looked like a mismatch with Pettigrew, all but daring them to throw to him, so they’d have less incentive to go to Calvin Johnson in the red zone. The Lions fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

Harbaugh and the coaches will get all the credit for this 5-1 start, but general manager Trent Baalke, who’s been mocked, derided and dismissed through much of his 49ers tenure, deserves a lot of praise himself. It’s been fashionable to look at the 2010 49ers as by-and-large the same team as the 2011 version, but there have been changes at virtually every position.

Carlos Rogers has been a godsend at cornerback, and center Jonathan Goodwin, safety Donte Whitner and kicker David Akers have also been clear upgrades as free agent additions. Perhaps Edwards will be too, when he gets on the field again. Meanwhile, in the draft he’s gotten immediate contributions from Kendell Hunter, Bruce Miller, Chris Culliver and Aldon Smith. Of the ten picks in the 49ers draft class, Hunter was probably the only one who got universal praise from the experts out there, but Baalke was ripped for just about all the others.

Aldon Smith certainly looks the part, but the fear about him was that he’d be another one of these guys that (cliché alert) looks like Tarzan and plays like Jane. How about “looks like Tarzan, plays like Tarzan after Jane cheated on him with the opposing quarterback?”

Culliver had prototypical size and speed, but only had three games worth of experience at corner in the SEC. He switched positions from safety as a senior at South Carolina and suffered a season-ending injury early in the season. Baalke didn’t care, and so far he looks like a genius. Culliver’s talent was easy to see during individual drills in training camp, and even back then it was apparent that if this kid could put the time in to be a pro, that he’d be a starter in this league for a long time. He didn’t “shut down” Megatron yesterday by any means, but he limited the damage, tackled well and didn’t allow the big play.

To draft Miller, who was a two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year at UCF, and turn him into a fullback was thought of as ludicrous. Now, not so much. He’s been the starter the past three games, where the 49ers have totaled 580 rushing yards and Moran Norris may not be in the plans anymore.

Then you look at the way Bowman’s blossomed – he might very well be the 49ers MVP through six games – he was a 3rd round pick in 2010. You look at the progress Mike Iupati and Anthony Davis have made. Baalke saw the potential in Ray McDonald and gave him a five-year, $20 million contract and decided to let Aubrayo Franklin go. McDonald has been terrific so far as a full-time starter (I was way wrong on that one) and the run defense hasn’t missed a beat with Isaac Sopoaga at the nose.

However you want to view the win, the thing we have to put a stop to right now is this silly notion that Harbaugh is rallying the troops because of his emotion, his competitiveness, his sideline antics, etc. The players readily agree to lazy Hollywood premises like this because A) they think we’re idiots who’ll believe anything they tell us B) it amuses them that we so readily gobble up this tripe and C) it beats telling us the truth for why games are won and lost, which would get them into all kinds of trouble with all kinds of people.

In case you folks had electroshock therapy to expunge the Mike Singletary era from your memories, Harbaugh’s sideline behavior was EXACTLY the same kind of stuff the media at large ripped him for. We said Singletary didn’t deserve to be a coach because he was TOO EMOTIONAL, that he still thought of himself as a player, and that he wasn’t mature enough to lead a football team.
Now we’re giving Harbaugh praise for the exact same characteristics and behavior? Get out of here with that garbage.

Harbaugh is a much better football coach than Singletary because of the things he does to help prepare the team Monday-Saturday, because of the ways he can provide information of substance to his quarterbacks, and because instead of telling his team to run the ball better, he actually schemes a way for them to do so. Or maybe he was just prescient enough to hire a better staff around him. Either way, “Who’s got it better than us?” doesn’t mean a lick more than “Physical with an F.”

He’s a better football coach because he’s a better coach. How’s that for your cliché?

49ers Throttle Bucs But Needlessly Lose WR Morgan

SAN FRANCISCO -- 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh was wrong three times on Sunday afternoon.

1) He went for it on 4th-and-2 from Tampa Bay's 20-yard-line with four minutes to go and a 41-3 lead, instead of kicking the field goal. In fact, he didn't just go for it; he called a pass.

2) After the game he speculated that receiver Joshua Morgan's injury wasn't too serious, even though Morgan's left foot was badly twisted underneath him in similar fashion to the injury that befell San Francisco Giants star catcher Buster Posey on May 25th and ended his year. Morgan needed assistance from teammates to get off the field and was helped onto a cart. A couple hours later CSN Bay Area reported that Morgan fractured his ankle, which likely means he'll be out for the season.

3) In the otherwise cheery postgame presser, Harbaugh gave a reporter (okay, me) some guff for mispronouncing Ricky Jean Francois' name during a question. "It's Ricky Gene, get the pronunciation right," he chided. One would think the "Francois" part would be a dead giveaway of the French roots of his nose tackle's surname, but nonetheless, I went to the Jean Francois himself in the locker room who assured me it is in fact pronounced Zhahn-Frahnswah, not Jeen-Frahnswah.

Whatever. Harbaugh's a football coach, not a linguistics professor. I don't care if he calls Jean Francois "Ndamukong Suh," really. It's his room. And it's hardly the first time he's been condescending to the media when the facts were clearly not on his side. As fans and colleagues have told me ad nauseam, as long as the team is winning, nobody will ever care how Harbaugh acts or speaks.

However, while mistake No. 3 was trivial for Harbaugh the first two certainly weren't, and it casts a pall on an otherwise perfect 56 minutes for the coach, where he made, I'm sure, literally hundreds of correct decisions in guiding his team to a remarkable, stunning, merciless 48-3 win over previously 3-1 Tampa Bay.

Let's focus on the good stuff first.

The Buccaneers came into the game no doubt filled with confidence. Their coach, Raheem Morris, referred to his team as "The West Coast Killers" based on their wins at Arizona and against these very same (well mostly same) Niners last season. He boasted about his squad's confidence on the road playing in hostile environments. The Bucs had won 9 of their previous 12 away games. In last year's meeting with the 49ers, San Francisco came into the game with a two-game winning streak, just like this season. Tampa Bay whupped them up and down the field, winning easily 21-0 and handed the Niners their first shutout at home since 1977. The Bucs defense had six sacks of starting QB Troy Smith that day and hounded him into a 51.5 passer rating, while their guy Josh Freeman had two touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 117.9 QB rating.

However, not everything was hunky dory with the 2011 Bucs, even though they'd won their past three games. For one thing, the schedule was stacked against them. They had to play on Monday night this week and then fly cross-country to face the 49ers, so they didn't have too much time to recover or prepare. Also, Freeman hasn't been the same guy so far this year. Last year he was sensational, with 25 touchdowns, just six interceptions, and a 95.9 rating as a second-year starter. He came into this game with three touchdowns, four interceptions and a 81.1 rating.

As the game unfolded, it because quickly apparent that 49ers QB Alex Smith (11-of-19, three touchdowns, no picks, 127.2 rating) is not very similar at all to Troy Smith except for their shared last name. Smith sliced and diced through the Bucs on the opening possession and hit tight end Delanie Walker on a perfect pass in between three defenders to make it 7-0.

Freeman, meanwhile was very similar to the guy he's been throughout the first four weeks of this season (minus the fourth quarter heroics this time), rather than the one who starred last year. He threw two early picks; one that was returned 31 yards by Carlos Rogers for a touchdown to make it 14-3 and another to rookie Chris Culliver that led to another score to make it 21-3 and the rout was on.

Smith, who didn't have to do much on this day, only showed off one other time. He was red hot to open the third quarter too, hitting Michael Crabtree on a slant on 3rd-and-14 for 15 yards, then Morgan on a bubble screen for a 24-yard catch-and-run and then Vernon Davis over the middle for 23 and a touchdown to make it 31-3.

Mostly though, the 49ers ran and ran and ran it some more. They ran shotgun draws that surprised the Bucs and from jumbo formations with six linemen (right guard Adam Snyder was lining up at fullback) and three tight ends that didn't. It really didn't matter if Tampa Bay knew it was coming or not, particularly after they lost defensive tackle Gerald McCoy to an ankle injury late in the first quarter. The more lopsided the score got, the less resistance the Buccaneers offered.

Frank Gore (20 carries for 125 yards) found wide running lanes between the tackles the first three quarters, and then rookie Kendall Hunter ran a series of student body sweeps and tosses left and right for 65 more yards of his own on nine carries. All in all, the 49ers had a season-high 213 rushing yards, with their backs often not getting touched until they were 10 or 15 yards down field.

The domination of their offensive line didn't just extend to the run game however. Smith wasn't sacked once all game and I can't even remember him being hit. Everyone up front did a great job, but tackles Joe Staley and Anthony Davis in particular deserve kudos for their work.

Defensively there wasn't much to quibble with either. Harbaugh noted how quickly his secondary reacted to the ball, how they read routes and how they got their hands on so many passes. Culliver, the third-round pick with prototypical size and speed but only three games of cornerback experience in the SEC, looked like the real deal and Rogers put the kibosh on his butterfingers reputation with an interception in his third successive game. He never had more than two in any of his previous six seasons in Washington. Also, free safety Dashon Goldson laid out Bucs receiver Mike Williams with a ferocious hit in the third quarter, causing a fumble. It was the first time all season that both starting safeties -- Goldson and Donte Whitner -- played at the same time, and the results speak for themselves.

The front seven stuffed LeGarrette Blount (10 carries for 34 yards) even without starting nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga, who missed the game with a staph infection. Jean Francois was superb in relief and the 49ers extended their streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher to 27. They also had three sacks, pretty much all of the "coverage" variety, with first-round pick Aldon Smith collecting two of them. He now has 3.5 on the season, which leads the team and trails only Denver's Von Miller among rookies.

In short, the 49ers were the much better team in every facet a football game could be measured. They won all three phases, controlled the line of scrimmage and thoroughly out-coached and out-executed the road weary Bucs. Harbaugh and his assistants deserve all the credit in the world, not just for having the team absolutely prepared for this game, but also in a big-picture sense, as their fingerprints on the team are easy to see everywhere.

The 49ers, even without the benefit of mini-camps to install the new offensive and defensive schemes, look for all the world like runaway division champs and one of the seven or eight best teams in football. It's taken virtually no time at all for Harbaugh to change the culture of the locker room and to turn Smith into not just a serviceable quarterback, but a good one. Again, they deserve full credit for that.

However, two things can be equally true, and the facts remain Harbaugh totally screwed up the end game.

He tried to run up the score, because it's what he does. It was the same way at Stanford, when he went for two with a billion point lead against USC late in the game, prompting then-Trojan coach Pete Carroll to ask him "What's your deal?"

As Harbaugh said in last Monday's presser, he's "moody and complicated." Part of this complication extends to being a bully when he knows the other team has given up and quit. He doesn't know how to win gracefully and he feigns surprise when people ask him why he enjoys stepping on the opponent's throat and twisting his heel.

"You've got to play," he said. "You can’t take a knee with four minutes left in the game. It could have been a run. Josh was competing; I think he's going to be okay. [QB Colin] Kaepernick is competing; he's got to get to work. We're not taking a knee with four minutes left in the game."

Nobody was asking you to take a knee, coach, and I understand that Kaepernick needs "work" though I'd question the value of that work in a 41-3 game against a defeated team. But that's what downs 1-3 are for. On 4th-and-3 it's just good form to kick the damn ball.

The thing about Harbaugh is that unlike previous 49ers coaches, he's repeatedly demonstrated that he's capable of learning, even though he'd never admit, ever, that he made a mistake in the first place.

The media suggested that mayhaps right guard Chilo Rachal wasn't playing too well? Harbaugh insisted that he was, then benched him in favor of Adam Snyder, who's been tremendous.

Some of us wondered why Kendall Hunter wasn't playing when Gore was struggling early, and voila, Hunter has gotten a lot of work the past three weeks and prospered.

Harbaugh was questioned why he kept a field goal on the scoreboard in a loss to Dallas instead of taking the penalty and accepting what would've been a 1st-and-10 at the 22-yard line in the fourth quarter.

Against the Bucs he gleefully pulled an Akers field goal off the board and accepted a Tampa Bay penalty early in the fourth quarter and then had Smith throw in the end zone to Davis to make it 41-3.

So rest assured that when the grave results do come in on poor Morgan, that Harbaugh won't admit he erred, when his efforts to impress the AP Poll or whatever he was attempting to do cost him one of his best receivers and most popular players inside the locker room. I'm guessing the next time the 49ers are administrating or receiving a whipping, he'll be more conservative and that the explanation he'll offer for his change of heart will bend the truth severely, similar to the way Morgan bent his ankle.

Morgan got needlessly hurt last year too at Kansas City, when Mike Singletary called a pass on the final play with the 49ers trailing 31-3. Morgan scored a cosmetic touchdown to make it 31-10 at the gun and Singletary sent his message -- that he's a terrible coach who could care less about his players' safety.

Maybe next time a 49ers coach calls a pass play in a blowout, Morgan will just fall down.

A Note About the 49ers Offense

It’s true that the 49ers came into the game ranked 32nd – dead last – on offense, but I came away from the Bengals game more encouraged, not less. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve no doubt noticed that every week Jim Harbaugh has been given Alex Smith and the receivers more rope. Smith is getting more attempts and still completing passes at a high percentage. By hook or by crook Kendall Hunter and fullback Bruce Miller have been incorporated into the offense, which has totally given the backfield a dynamic dimension it had previously lacked. It may not seem like much, but it’s nice to have a fullback that can gain 10 yards on a swing pass and a speedy halfback you can run toss plays with. Smith has always been comfortable with Vernon Davis, but now he’s starting to link up with Michael Crabtree and Joshua Morgan. You saw the difference not having Chilo Rachal in there made for the line. In a few weeks Braylon Edwards will return and that will be another weapon on the boundary and in the red zone.

What I’ve always liked about Harbaugh when watching his Stanford teams was that you could see that he had a vision and a plan, both in the short term (single games) and the long term (the season). The guys he recruited all fit together so beautifully and Harbaugh was a mastermind at maximizing everyone’s strengths and minimizing their weaknesses; and for adding new wrinkles week after week to surprise his opponents.

I feel like that’s what’s going on with the 49ers now. Finally the team is running an offense conducive to Smith’s strengths. Finally they have a running back in Hunter to give the backfield a thunder-and-lightning dimension when for so long their idea of understudies were glorified goal line backs like Anthony Dixon and Glen Coffee, who were just bigger and slower than Frank Gore. The way Hunter is being used now is how Brian Westbrook should’ve been used last year, but the inept coaching staff had him chained to the bench.

More importantly, Harbaugh understood right away the parameters of what he had to work with, with his offensive line, his quarterback, and his receivers. His line can’t hold their blocks for long, the receivers don’t have much straight line speed and the quarterback is naturally reluctant to throw long as it is. Why force this group to run a vertical passing offense like previous regimes did, when none of the personnel is suited for it?

Instead, in Edwards, Morgan, Crabtree, Davis and Ted Ginn, the team has a nice collection of guys who can run hitches and outs and in cuts and the occasional slant to get six or eight yards at a time and keep the chains moving. It looks horrific on 3rd-and-16, but as long as the line isn’t committing a penalty or giving up a sack and the receivers aren’t dropping passes, it works. The more rhythm and comfort they gain playing within the system, the more consistently it will continue to work.

You don’t see many teams stopping the Cardinal offense now, do you?
Of course the key to it all looking easy is the running game, and it’s impossible to deny that the Eagles run defense is 15 kinds of awful. Again, the more comfort and trust Smith and the receivers earn, the less predictable they’ll be, which will open up more running lanes. It all fits together.

Smith finished the Eagles game with a 112.1 passer rating, which was a career high for him in a road start. His 291 passing yards were the most he’s ever had in a win. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the team also ran for 164 yards when he put up numbers like that.

Dreamy Second Half For The Smiths; A Nightmare For The Eagles

Maybe the worm is starting to turn for the long downtrodden 49ers.

Looking at their remarkable rise-from-the-grave 24-23 at Lincoln Financial Field, there was about a dozen ways the Eagles should’ve scored far more than 23 points. After all, the way Philadelphia moved the ball between the 20-yard-lines all afternoon was so effortless, so breathtakingly easy, awe-inspiring and frightening all at once. You watch it and it’s impossible not to notice that team just has a whole other phylum of athletes at the skill positions.

The thought occurs that perhaps those Miami Heat comparisons were apt. That team was just unstoppable and devastating on the fast break. Every turnover was an automatic transition dunk. But when they were forced to play in the half court, they got bogged down…

Well, think of the red zone as the Eagles’ half court, and the comparisons fit well. By my count the Eagles were in position to score at least a field goal in nine of their 12 possessions. They finished with two touchdowns, three field goals, two missed field goals and two fumbles.

Compare and contrast that to the 49ers, who had six scoring opportunities, and that’s counting two 40+ yard field goals that were certainly no gimmes (and they wound up being missed and blocked). The Niners cashed in with three touchdowns and a field goal on the other four.

That, to me, is the story of the game – That the 49ers were the tougher, both physically and mentally, in money territory, and whole heck of a lot smarter. You look at the box score and you see they had no business winning the game. But at least they were going to make the Eagles beat them instead of beating themselves. Or maybe just stick around in the game long enough to wait for the Eagles to shoot themselves in the foot.

Whatever, they’ll gladly take it. The Niners won road games on back-to-back weeks for the first time in a decade (Nov. 18 at Carolina and Nov. 25 at Indianapolis, in the 2001 season) and it also happened to be their last pair of consecutive wins during 10 a.m. PST starts as well. Usually this team has been absolute dog meat during those early starts. Remember the Kansas City game last year? Or the Green Bay one? I’d say that decision by Jim Harbaugh to spend the week in Youngstown, Ohio between these two games worked pretty well, and lord knows I didn’t miss the Santa Clara commute.

In producing their biggest comeback win since Oct. 20, 1996 against the Cincinnati Bengals, where the 49ers rallied from a 21-0 deficit to win 28-21 (in a game where the hero was the immortal Ted Popson with eight receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns), the 49ers got clutch second-half performances from their three most prominent Smiths as well as some standout performances from Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, Michael Crabtree, Joshua Morgan, Vernon Davis, Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, NaVorro Bowman and Ray McDonald.

Turnover differential has been a running theme for them on this young season, and again the 49ers won that battle, collecting three Eagles miscues while surrendering the ball just once themselves. None of their takeaways led to points, but they all prevented the Eagles from scoring.

As a result of this momentous win, the 49ers own a two game lead on everyone in their division; a claim no other team can make. Also, while the Niners are home next week (albeit against a tough Tampa Bay squad), their division foes all travel on the road. The 0-4 Rams are visiting the 4-0 defending champ Green Bay Packers, so that’s 0-5 right there. Seattle will fly cross country to take on the suddenly hot (and lucky as hell) 3-1 New York Giants. Arizona goes to 0-4 Minnesota, but that still looks like a toss-up game to me, with that Vikings pass rush on the turf.

You can’t exactly say that “NOOOOH-BODY” has it better than the 49ers, but there aren’t many teams in a better spot right now.
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Offensively, Alex Smith had a first half similar to the one the week before against Cincinnati. There were a few first downs, a couple of forays into enemy territory, but ultimately not much of anything on the scoreboard and a whole lot of frustration. As has been the case for darn near a calendar year now, he made a point of not throwing it to the other guys, but was just inaccurate and flustered enough – a high throw to Crabtree here, a low one behind Davis there – to fizzle drives.

The marked differences between today and the Bengals game – pretty much the only reasons to have a speck of hope in the second half – were that Smith and Crabtree were able to establish a connection early enough in the game to make you think there was a spark there, and, more importantly, the Niners were able to run the ball a little bit with Gore and Hunter.

Finally, in the third quarter the dam burst and everything came together for Smith and the fellas in successive, quick touchdown drives.

The first was set up by an improvised play where Smith was rushed to his right and found an uncovered Hunter at the line of scrimmage who scooted for 44 yards. A couple plays later Smith caught the Eagles in a safety blitz and hit Morgan on a slant for an easy 30-yard catch-and-run. Morgan spoke frequently in training camp about watching tapes of the 49ers West Coast Offense of the 80’s with Joe Montana throwing 5-yard slants to Jerry Rice and John Taylor for 80-yard touchdowns, and that’s exactly the kind of play that had him so excited about being in this offense.

The meat of the second score came on a long Smith pass to Crabtree where he toasted much-hyped Eagles free agent signee Nnamdi Asomugha for a 38-yard gain. Three plays later he found Davis in a mismatch with linebacker Jamar Chaney for a 9-yard touchdown to make it 23-17. Smith finished the third quarter a Tom Bradyesque 9-for-9 for 178 yards, two TD passes and a perfect 158.3 QB rating.

The fourth quarter was oddly anticlimactic for Smith, in a way. After a missed 39-yard field goal by Eagles rookie Alex Henery gave the 49ers their first chance to take the lead, they weren’t able to capitalize. Smith took a sack on third down when right tackle Anthony Davis inexplicably decided to double team Cullen Jenkins instead of worrying about left end Jason Babin, who had already beaten him for two sacks. Babin had a free run at Smith, who saw him in time to secure the ball at least before absorbing the blow. On the sidelines Smith had a look on his face like he knew they blew a golden opportunity and the game was lost.

However, fate was kind to them and once more Henery missed a kick – this one a 33-yarder. On the ensuing game-winning drive Smith completed 3-of-4 passes for just 13 yards while Gore and Hunter did the majority of the work. Harbaugh called a risky toss play to Hunter on 3rd-and-7 from the Philadelphia 26-yard-line that worked beautifully. If that play was stuffed you better believe he’d be ripped the next day – deservedly so – for not having more faith in Smith. Gore scored on the next play on a tough inside run from 12-yards out to give the 49ers the lead they would not relinquish.

Gore was questionable to even play in the game after injuring his ankle the week before and not being able to practice much of the week and didn’t even start against the Eagles. Yet he had runs of 40 and 25 yards in addition to his 12-yard touchdown and finished the game with 15 carries for 127 yards. He came into the game with just 148 yards on 59 carries – a 2.5 yards-per-carry average (he’s boosted it up to a respectable 3.7 now).

The left side of the offensive line – Staley and Iupati – deserve a ton of credit, as they were monsters all game. Not only did they neutralize Trent Cole and keep Smith’s backside clean, but they were dominant in opening up all kinds of holes for the backs. Staley was a force on those sweep and toss plays, and Iupati was nimble and powerful in pulling and trapping on inside runs to the right. Also, Harbaugh deserves a ton of credit for seeing that it just wasn’t working with Chilo Rachal and benching him for this game in favor of Adam Snyder, who played quite well. Heck, even Davis, who was a disaster in pass protection with those three sacks allowed and two tripping penalties, did a credible job in the run game against the soft, undersized, and far too pliant Eagles front.

Defensively, I can’t be quite as generous with the plaudits. These guys struggle against quality QBs. Who doesn’t in today’s NFL?

Justin Smith had the clutch play at the end, forcing the fumble from Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin when he was already scooting forward into field goal range. Dashon Goldson was Johnny on the spot to scoop up the fumble before sliding out of bounds. Yet, even though nobody played a truly outstanding game – I’d say Bowman came the closest – just about everybody had their moment or two in the sun.
Eagles coach Andy Reid had a considerable role in this disaster of a game for Philly, but he saw quickly that the Niners planned to take LeSean McCoy away come hell or highwate and adjusted his plan to have Vick throw early and often. Like I said, it looked beautiful and easy in between the 20’s.

• In addition to his forced fumble, Justin Smith chased Vick around a handful of times and pressured him into some hurried throws. He also brushed hands with Smith early in the game, causing Vick to dislocate a finger in his throwing hand.
• Rookie Aldon Smith had the first 1.5 sacks of his career, hit Vick three times and was generally the team’s most consistent pass rusher and just missed a couple more sacks. A game like this will get him more playing time.

• Ahmad Brooks had a couple of his usual bonehead offsides penalties, but he was also relentless in pressuring Vick and got a few licks in.

• Ray McDonald got in on a sack with Aldon Smith, missed another sack on the play that wound up being a touchdown pass in the first quarter and got a couple hits on Vick.

• Isaac Sopoaga didn’t have much to do since the Eagles never ran, but he got to block some on offense in the full house backfield.

• NaVorro Bowman made at least three plays in this game that Takeo Spikes wouldn’t have had a prayer of making. He tackled Vick and McCoy in the open field on a pair of third down plays and bothered Vick on a few well-timed blitzes in the red zone. I mean this sincerely: He’s been the 49ers best player this season and he’s playing as well as any inside linebacker in the NFL right now.

• Dashon Goldson led the team with 10 tackles and really popped a couple of people. He had that big fumble recovery and he wasn’t responsible for any of those long ones to DeSean Jackson from what I saw.

• Carlos Rogers has a rep as a finesse corner, but he was used a number of times on corner blitzes and forced Vick into a few bad plays. He also picked him off on an early bomb attempt to Jackson, giving him interceptions in successive games. He was toasted in zone coverage a few times, but I’m not sure how much of it was him. The Niners were doing some screwy things back there.

• Tarell Brown shouldn’t be starting anymore. People are going right at him every game. The best thing I can say about his game is he dove at Jackson’s feet in the third quarter to hold him to “only” a 61-yard gain instead of a 86-yard touchdown. Who knew at the time it would lead to a missed field goal attempt by the Eagles?

• Chris Culliver got extensive playing time as a fourth corner in place of Tramaine Brock, and wasn’t too bad. He was in four tackles, so the Eagles went his way quite a bit, but they were short completions.

• I think Reggie Smith might have been the worst 49er in this game. Yup, even worse than Anthony Davis. They need Donte Whitner to get healthy. The defense still hasn’t played a game with Whitner and Goldson together.

Harbaugh Channels Ghosts of Singetary, 49ers Lose In Overtime To Cowboys

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's not the most elegant way to begin a game story, but it's the 500-lb. pink gorilla in the room, so why prolong the agony? Jim Harbaugh's decision to take the 55-yard field goal (which David Akers booted so convincingly that it would've been good from 65) instead of accepting the 15-yard "leveraging" penalty on Dallas that would've given the 49ers a 1st-and-10 from the Cowboys 22-yard-line with a 21-14 lead and 11:12 left in the game was A) wrong B) asinine C) indefensible D) short-sighted E) telling and F) overblown.

It was not the reason the 49ers lost to the Cowboys 27-24 in overtime, though it's so convenient and easy to think that it was.

It was wrong because being up 24-14 with 11:12 to go is not as good as being up 24-14 with eight minutes and change to go, which is precisely the situation the 49ers would've been facing had they simply accepted the penalty and ran Frank Gore up the gut three straight times. Even if they don't gain an inch, it's a 39-yard field goal for Akers, a man who can split the uprights with bowel movements longer than 39 yards. It was an unusually hot day by Candlestick standards and the only wind was coming from the press box, so yes, I think Akers could be trusted to deliver there.

It was asinine because the team faced almost the exact same scenario last week, when Akers was roughed on a field goal. Then Harbaugh accepted the penalty, they ran three fruitless plays, they wasted two minutes of our lives and Akers kicked again. The decision worked, they won the game, so why fix something that wasn't broken? Alex Smith has referenced the Albert Einstein in the past about the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so how do we define the 49ers, who willfully deviate decisions that worked?

It was indefensible because the only scenario where that decision backfires is if you have a turnover on a running play or a string of holding calls to back them up from field goal range to San Jose. However, that kind of negative thinking doesn't jibe with the mentality of a team that got a 21-14 lead on the Cowboys in the first place. The three touchdown drives didn't materialize out of thin air. Ted Ginn didn't return three kicks to the house. Smith played well, made good decisions and threw the ball accurately to move the sticks. If you trusted him to do it for the first 48:48 of the game, then you should trust him for the final 11:12. That goes for every situation, from not committing holding penalties (they didn't), to Gore not fumbling (he didn't), to center Jonathan Goodwin not having any bad snaps (ditto). The same guys that got you the lead with were in the huddle, and they deserved the rope to hang themselves with.

It was short-sighted because even if they had won the game, Harbaugh's decision would've been a big neon sign Smith, to the offensive players and to the rest of the football watching world that read, "I DO NOT TRUST YOU." It simply does not bode well for future games. Why would the quarterback have confidence in himself if his coach doesn't? Why would the linemen? For that matter, why would the players trust each other or their coach? It's better to lose and show the players you have faith in them, even if you don't, than to win by hedging your bets and being openly petrified.

It was telling because a coach can hype up and praise and defend his players to the media all day long, but they're just words. Actions are more telling and Harbaugh sure made it appear as though he doesn't think he has much to work with. It's very simple, the way people view Harbaugh's decision. The ones who think it was wrong simply think that Smith is a mediocre starting quarterback. The ones who agree with Harbaugh (I'm not naming names but they're easy to find) view Smith along the lines of those Charlie Brown cartoons where he's pitching in little league and getting his clothes knocked off, with every one of his pitches producing line drive -- think Smith is so incompetent that he can't even be trusted to execute three hand-offs without something, anything, going wrong. They view every single positive play in his career as a residue of luck and all the negative ones as indicators of his true wretchedness.

It's worth noting just the fact that all our hypothetical scenarios deal with Smith just handing the ball three times goes to show how little our expectations are. It's simply unimaginable to contemplate Smith being allowed to throw from inside the 20-yard line with a fourth quarter lead. There's that little trust and faith in him, both from inside and outside the organization. The same people who are happy with Harbaugh's decision to take the points are the ones who wouldn't trust him to kneel down in properly at the end of a game without it going wrong.

However, given all of that, the decision was overblown because what lost the 49ers the game was the fact the same two units that led to most of their losses in the Mike Singletary era while Smith and the play-calling took the blame: the offensive line and the secondary.

Whatever adjustments the Cowboys made in the second half, the line was a nightmare. Smith was sacked on six of his 30 drop-backs, a ratio of 20 percent that's unspeakably awful. Gore was limited to 47 yards on 20 carries. On a line with three first-round picks, a high second-round pick and a two-time Pro Bowler at center, it's mind-boggling how they generate so little push, how they continue to get blown off the ball on snaps, and how often they let people through completely unblocked.

Harbaugh did everything he could to buy Smith time for his receivers. He kept six and seven guys in to block, including Vernon Davis on most plays (Davis was decidedly unhappy about it). He called as many running plays he could in the hopes of keeping Dallas pass-rushers honest. It didn't matter. The Cowboys snarling front seven simply assaulted Gore on their way to Smith. Without Michael Crabtree (inactive) or Braylon Edwards (out after two plays with a knee injury) Smith didn't have people who could get open consistently, as the Cowboys did a good job of guessing who the hot routes were going to be and making him go to the second option. By then Smith was on his back.

The only way Gore will have room to run is if defenses start respecting Smith, and the only way they'll start doing that is if he burns them repeatedly on blitzes. Having Crabtree and Edwards healthy would help, but what would help more is to actually pick up the blitzes in the first place and to fire off the ball once in a while on those runs. Mike Iupati in particular had a bad game but Anthony Davis, Chilo Rachal, Jonathan Goodwin and Joe Staley all had afternoons to forget.

Defensively, the pass rush started off strong enough to fracture a couple of Tony Romo's ribs and forced him to throw off his back foot quite a bit in the first half. They also had the fortune of playing against Jon Kitna for most of the third quarter, and Kitna threw some horrific passes, leading to a pair of interceptions; one each by Donte Whitner and Tramaine Brock. As usual, they completely took away the running game, holding Dallas to 45 yards on 20 useless carries. At this point it's a wonder why anyone ever bothers calling a run against the 49ers. They're just doing them a favor.

Eventually Dallas tightened up their protection, spread the 49ers defense out and Romo checked back in and started clicking with his receivers -- mainly Miles Austin (who had three touchdowns) and Jason Witten, who were both playing hurt themselves. Romo repeatedly abused all the backups forced into prominent roles on the 49ers secondary, guys like Tarell Brown, Madieu Williams and Reggie Smith. However, it's not like this secondary played any well last year when they had Dashon Goldson and Shawntae Spencer, so expecting those two to be saviors might be wishful thinking.

Whitner is a useful player in that he's good at stopping the run and can do a decent job against most tight ends, but against the cream of the crop like Witten, he's not gonna come out on top. The best player in the secondary, and someone who looks to be a great free agent signing, is corner Carlos Rogers. The team actually had him in the slot against Witten quite a bit and he won some of those battles and lost some. He actually played quite well in the game and got his hand -- and his helmet -- on some balls, and had the deflection on Brock's interception. Unfortunately, Rogers' worst play came in overtime, when both he and Whitner bit on a play-action fake and froze, allowing Jesse Holley of all people to get behind them for the crushing 77-yard reception and the winning field goal.

It's crazy to think the 49ers were one play from winning this game on two separate occasions. Dallas had to convert a 4th-and-5 late in the game, which they did on a sideline pass to Witten. They also had to have Dan Bailey make a 48-yard field goal at the gun when he had missed a chip shot early in the game. Still, for the second half they completely dominated both lines of scrimmage and outgained the 49ers in the game 472 yards to 206. In many aspects both teams were lucky to even get to overtime, and the Cowboys took advantage of their luck while the 49ers did not.

For his part Smith played quite well, and I'm sure going into the game most fans would've gladly taken two touchdown passes, one interception, no fumbles and a 99.1 QB rating from him. He wasn't the problem. Smith had a Romo-like play in the second quarter when he completely missed the shotgun snap, caught the ball on the bounce while running backward to retrieve it, rolled to the right like Montana against Dallas 30-years ago, and found Gore in the end zone 40 yards downfield. It would've been a touchdown had Gore not been interfered with by a desperate Cowboys defender, and the 49ers scored on the next play from one-yard out all the same.

The next drive Smith had a series of third-down conversions and found Kyle Williams in the left corner on a beautiful 12-yard pass over Mike Jenkins' shoulder to make it 14-0. His one bad decision in the second half, trying to force a pass to Davis early in the third quarter, was intercepted and led to Austin's second touchdown which tied the game at 14, but Smith made his best pass shortly after, after Brock's intercepted Kitna. He found a mismatch with tight end Delanie Walker against Dallas' Anthony Spencer, nominally a pass-rusher and hit him in stride on a looping 29-yard score to make it 21-14. It was the only drive in the second half and overtime that didn't have one negative play, and that was probably because it lasted all of one play.

If Smith is to be criticized for anything, except not making better blocking audibles to counter Dallas' pass rush, it's that he didn't challenge Harbaugh for accepting that field goal. A better quarterback wouldn't have even look his coach's way and simply jogged out onto the field. Smith should've at least pushed for it, demanded it. That he doesn't have the personality to do so is why he never meshed with Singletary and why he can never be an elite player. It's just not in him to be the forceful, dominant personality you need at that position.

For now, that personality remains Harbaugh, for better or worse. He said he'd know more about his team after a game or two, and the same is true of his players knowing more about him. Right now he knows he's got some real problems at offensive line and the secondary and some health issues at receiver. His players know he coaches scared, playing not-to-lose instead of going for the throat, just like the last guy and the guy before him.

They'll have 14 games this season to learn more about each other, and for now, it appears, only 14.