It is impossible to overstate the importance of the 49ers’ comeback win in Philadelphia on Sunday. For the first time in years, the Niners beat a good team on the road and, most important, they finished the game when they had the lead.
They couldn’t do that against the Dallas Cowboys in the second game of the season. They had the Cowboys on the ropes with a 10-point lead and just 11 minutes left, but they let the Cowboys wriggle off the hook to tie the game and win in overtime.
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Welcome to chance No. 3 for Alex Smith and the 49ers’ offensive unit to earn the trust of their new coach.
They clearly don’t have it yet, and, unfortunately, going into this morning’s game in Cincinnati against the Bengals, that fact has already cost this team one victory.
Chalk it up to the short preseason. Or the fact that Jim Harbaugh is still getting to know his players in person. Or Alex Smith’s history.
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There’s a segment on ESPN in which a former player, now employed by the network, tries to judge an NFL team’s immediate future. It’s labeled “Patience or Panic,” which is self-explanatory. In the Bay Area, it would be called “Panic or Doctor, can I get a prescription for sedatives?”
After two games, the 49ers and Raiders are 1-1. And people are giving up already. Maybe they have the NFL confused with the NL, where unfortunately, it’s time to give up on the Giants. Drat that Clayton Kershaw, anyhow.
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Jim Harbaugh’s media honeymoon is over. Alex Smith’s never started. But the real lesson from Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys is that this is the kind of game good teams win, and until the 49ers can win these games, they’re going nowhere.
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A little of this, and a lot of that ...
- Five second-half possessions. Five touchdowns. The defensive performance the Raiders turned in against the Bills on Sunday, allowing a 21-3 halftime lead to evaporate faster than an American job, was downright offensive.
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Welcome to Chapter 2 in the developing relationship between Alex Smith and 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, a relationship that has to grow. And grow quickly if the 49ers are to make anything out of this season.
This brand-new bond has to develop more dimensions for 49ers fans to chew on than was displayed in Week 1 when Smith played as conservatively as humanly possible — which was a positive — for the veteran of six disappointing years.
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Jim Harbaugh is as much a football coach as a psychologist is a pixie. His words are measured, his thoughts unlimited. There’s a reason for every comment, just as there is for every play call.
Wednesday at 49ers Central in Santa Clara — and via phone hookup — Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys, who play the Niners on Sunday at Candlestick Park, said what one coach always says about another: That Harbaugh is brilliant.
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The NFL is back with a bang, which of course means it’s open season on coaches, quarterbacks and victories that don’t pass the beauty test.
Jim Harbaugh is already on the defensive about claims his play-calling was too conservative in Sunday’s win against the Seattle Seahawks. This after Harbaugh himself said the 49ers went into a “blue-collar” mode after building a 16-0 halftime lead.
“We’re attacking and I think we’re playing to win, that’s what I live by,” he said.
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The Jim Harbaugh Era has officially begun as the NFL kicked off its 2011 season with solemn and sincere tributes to the victims of 9/11 and their families. So what have we learned after watching the premiere of this long-awaited show?
Well, one thing Harbaugh learned is that Alex Smith is no Andrew Luck. Smith’s 124 yards in the air was an average quarter’s work for Harbaugh’s QB at Stanford last season, and the Niners’ 219 yards of total offense was evidence of work in the early stages of progress.
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Ready, set, go. Only forget the ready, set.
It’s full speed ahead into the next era of 49ers football, on display for the first time this afternoon at Candlestick Park. No learning curve allowed for Jim Harbaugh in his debut as an NFL coach.
That’s because today’s game against the Seattle Seahawks is the first must-win of the year for Harbaugh and the 49ers. This begins a three-game, season-opening set that this team has to make the most of.
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