Sunday, October 02, 2011

49ers

The first great win I can remember for the 49ers in awhile. The Eagles are clearly a better, more skilled team than the 49ers, but the Niners were able to capitalize on Eagle mistakes and make them pay. They played smart football, something that was completely missing from the Mike Singletary era. Harbaugh knows what he is doing. He minimizes mistakes. He knows Smith's limitations. He doesn't panic. He seems to know the length of the game and keeps the Niners focused. And then luck favored us toward the end, which tends to happen when you do the little things right.

The biggest detail I noticed from the game - there were about 30 secs left in the first half and we were down 20-3 and got the ball back. Smith had fumbled the ball away the possession before and given the Eagles a FG. There are two options at this point - kneel the half out or go for a score. What did we do? A few short screen plays that produced 1 first down. Harbaugh called a time out with 1 second left to run one more short screen play from around our own 30 yard line. A guy in the bar was like "What the hell was the point of that?" On paper, there was no point, but I think Harbaugh was trying to get our offense some reps. And to signal, we play for 60 minutes. I liked the move.

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