Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnV
Still are. Only person that's been able to cover up the dysfunction since the Yorks took over is Jim Harbaugh, and Alex lovers swear he can't coach in this league lol
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I think the Harbaugh legacy is a bit more complicated than you think. Harbaugh does have a great track record of coming in and leveraging existing assets to make very competitive teams. He also has a track record of wearing out his welcome, and he has thus far been unable to have sustained success.
When he took over the 49ers they had an immense amount of talent. Their offensive line was almost all first round talent. Gore was still in his prime. Crabtree was in his prime. Vernon Davis was an allstar...their linebackers were the best in football. Justin Smith may have been the best all around lineman in the League. 10 years of sucking had allowed them to stockpile a ton of talent, and Harbaugh knew that. All they needed was some good (not great) coaching, and Fangio and Roman brought that. Problem was that as they lost that talent to retirement, or contract issues, and did not replace it because of poor drafting and poor choices, they started to decline and the lack of truly great coaching caught up. Fangio was writing checks on defensive calls that the players couldn't cash. Roman's quirky "tackle eligibles," became predictable. People often forget that the 49ers were 8-8 for Harbaugh's last year. As they became less talented, they needed better execution, something they could not get from Kaepernick and their diminished roster.
Funny thing is when Smith got benched in the 2012 season, he was 6-2-1 and was playing some of the best ball of his life. Geep Chryst has finally provided some coaching stability, and you could see the improvement in Alex's play...then he got benched, for no apparent reason other than Harbaugh's infatuation with Kaepernick's running ability. Alex had one of the all-time great games for the 49ers in the 2011 playoffs against New Orleans, and with two long TDs to Vernon Davis in the NFC Championship game (despite a steady rain) it looked like he had sealed the game, but two really stupid plays by Kyle Williams gave the game to the Giants and kept the 49ers out of the super bowl. Eli came into that game as one of the hottest QBs in the league, and Alex outplayed him. Many 49ers fans thought KC got the better QB. Turns out, they were right.