SF Chronicle 49ers Insider App: On the Brink

February 04, 2013 by Art Spander in articles, football

By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App

NEW ORLEANS – He was angry. He was proud. The call went against him, went against Jim Harbaugh, went against the 49ers. They had lost the Super Bowl. The unblemished record was no more. The dream was finished.

And yet Harbaugh saw what we saw, a football team, a 49ers team, which was dead in the water, which trailed by three touchdowns and came within a play of victory.

“We were right on the brink of winning it,” said Harbaugh. He’s not a could-have, might-have sort of guy. He’s absolute, unforgiving. This time he also was correct.

Right on the brink. Right where a Joe Montana or a Steve Young might have pulled it. Right where a Colin Kaepernick could not quite do it.

Harbaugh, after again losing to his brother John, the Ravens coach -- in 2011 in a regular season game, this time, Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31 -- was frustrated and disappointed, honest and, yes, angry.

They say never to let a game or tennis match, any sporting event, come down to an official’s call, because then you’re at the mercy of someone making a judgment. Yet that’s exactly what occurred.

Fourth down and goal. Fourth down and five yards from probable victory, although with 1 minute 46 seconds remaining and Joe Flacco – the game’s MVP – at quarterback for the Ravens, who knows?

Kaepernick, rolling hot after a mediocre start, a start echoed by the supposedly efficient 49er defense, threw toward Michael Crabtree in the end zone. Crabtree couldn’t get to the ball, couldn’t get there because TV replays showed he was seemingly held by Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith.

Harbaugh went ballistic. He yanked at his cap. He screwed up his face in a grimace beyond description. He shouted at the official. He went unheard, and the 49ers went winless, incurring their first loss in a Super Bowl after success the previous five times.

“We want to handle this with class and grace,” said Harbaugh, not exactly the epitome of either when displeased. “We had several opportunities to win the game. We didn’t play our best game. We competed and battled back. Yes, there’s no question in my mind that there was pass interference and then a hold on the last one.”

This was not a game we expected the 49ers to play, to get beat by Flacco on third-down passes, to turn the ball over on a fumble by LaMichael James and an interception by Kaepernick, to give up a 108-yard kickoff return to open the second half and fall behind, 28-6.

Yet, conversely, this was the game we did expect the 49ers to play, to hang in, to hold on, to wake up the echoes, and the 49ers fans among the 71,024 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. There was Kaepernick finding Crabtree, there was Frank Gore slipping into the end zone, there was David Akers kicking his third field goal of the game. Suddenly, 28-6, was 28-23.

Kaepernick, with 302 yards, joined Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have completed more than 300 yards passing in a Super Bowl game. Kaepernick, with 62 yards rushing, did not join Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have won Super Bowls.

There was a touch of the surreal to the game, and not only because the Ravens had the ball some five minutes more than San Francisco or because Flacco picked apart the Niners' secondary.

But because late in the third quarter there was a power outage at the Superdome, half the lights over the field and all the television sets and Internet connections going out for 34 minutes. It was similar to what happened Dec. 19, 2011 at Candlestick Park before and during a 49ers-Steelers game.

When power was restored for a Super Bowl game which would last 4 hours 14 minutes – but was one play short for San Francisco – the Niners started their rally. “We got a spark,” said Harbaugh, “and we weren’t going to look back after that.”

Others will. They’ll wonder why, after a two-week break and numerous practices, on the first play from scrimmage, a 20-yard pass from Kaepernick to Vernon Davis, Davis was penalized for lining up in an illegal formation. They’ll wonder why the final sequence was composed of three straight incomplete passes from Kaepernick.

And, as Harbaugh, they’ll wonder about the non-call. But Crabtree will not, to his credit.

“It was the last play,” said Crabtree, “and I’m not going to blame it on the refs.”

Neither will Kaepernick. “We had to score,” said the quarterback. “The fourth down play wasn’t the original option. It’s something I audibled at the line, based on the look they gave us. I was just trying to give (Crabtree) a chance.”

He gave him one. He gave the 49ers one. They were unable to take advantage of it.

Newsday (N.Y.): 49ers' gifted Colin Kaepernick poised and aimed at Ravens

February 02, 2013 by Art Spander in articles, football

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEW ORLEANS -- He is a 25-year-old with biblical tattoos on his arms and a sense of purpose in his manner, a man who in a matter of weeks has gone from a place on the bench to a key position in the biggest NFL game of any season.

Colin Kaepernick is a star, a mystery and, as the man in control of the pistol offense, the primary weapon for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens.

Read the full story here.

SF Chronicle 49ers Insider App: It's all business with Harbaugh

February 02, 2013 by Art Spander in articles, football

By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App

NEW ORLEANS – The mystery is the attraction. That and the success. What we know about Jim Harbaugh is that his teams, at the University of San Diego, at Stanford, and now with the 49ers, win football games.

What we don’t know about Jim Harbaugh is almost everything else, other than his daily attire – the black sweatshirt, the khaki pants – and his circuitous, indirect answers to questions other than the color of his sweatshirt or his pants.

Which is the way he wants it. And what he wants is what Jim Harbaugh gets.

“We don’t give nothing away,’’ said Niners tight end Delanie Walker.

But on the eve of Harbaugh’s first Super Bowl, Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens and his brother, John, something has been given away about Jim Harbaugh.

It wasn’t where we might expect, in the Chronicle Sporting Green or even on ESPN. Instead – and this is so perfect for Harbaugh – it was in the Wall Street Journal. So perfect because Jim Harbaugh is all business.

An article by Kevin Clark points out that Harbaugh is a disciple of Andy Grove, the 76-year-old intellectual and former chief executive of Intel who in the mid 1960's wrote a guide to keeping on top of one’s game – and we’re not talking sports – “Only the Paranoid Survive.”

Of course. Jim Harbaugh, Mr. Paranoia, Mr. “We Don’t Give Nothing Away.” Other than those two fumbles which cost the Niners a chance to make it to the Super Bowl a year ago.

“His whole demeanor is about that book,” 49ers cornerback Perrish Cox, told Clark about Harbaugh.

Is that why he is so evasive? Is that why when asked if his own experience as an Raiders assistant coach in the 2003 Super Bowl, No. XXXVII, Harbaugh responds, “I think everybody’s anybody’s experiences; we’ll use all to a cumulative affect thing”?

Is that why he hoped we’d believe back in November that Colin Kaepernick and Alex Smith both were first-string?

Brother John said Jim is merely toying with the media, that deep down there beats a loving heart, that we really haven’t seen the man he knows. There’s a reason, certainly.

Jim won’t allow us to see that man. He chooses to keep us at arm’s length, psychologically if not physically.

Jim, what have you seen from the changes to the Ravens offense since Jim Caldwell became coordinator a couple of months ago?

“Yeah, we’re not going to get into a lot of scheme talk,” said Jim Harbaugh.

“What’s new, what’s different. What we expect them to do.”

What we expect from Harbaugh isn’t exactly the unexpected but more significantly the unorthodox. Bench Alex Smith after a mid-season injury for someone who never had started an NFL game, Kaepernick? Is Harbaugh crazy? No, paranoid. And brilliant.

Jim is the son of a coach and the brother of a coach. Intensity? “An enthusiasm unknown to mankind.” Jack Harbaugh, the father said that about his sons – and daughter, Joanie Harbaugh Crean, wife of the Indiana basketball coach. And three days ago, Jim Harbaugh said it about the way the 49ers are going about their business.

Harbaugh played under Bo Schembechler, who when Jim got his first head coaching job, at San Diego, said to his pupil, “Tell me you’re going to have a tight end that puts his hand in that ground on every snap. Tell me you’re going to have a fullback that lines directly behind the quarterback, and a halfback in the I-formation.” He had that until Kaepernick and the Pistol.

Harbaugh studied the films and videos of teams coached by Bill Walsh, who led the Niners to three Super Bowl victories.

Harbaugh, we now learn, also is paying homage to the philosophy of a fellow worker from Silicon Valley – if in a slightly different sort of production – Andy Grove, who wrote, companies don’t die because they are wrong but because they won’t commit.

The Niners head coach is very committed and rarely wrong. the best example is Kaepernick, who most of us, including former Super Bowl quarterbacks turned commentators Trent Dilfer and Steve Young, believed wasn’t experienced or poised enough to get the Niners to the Super Bowl.

Paranoia? Someone dared ask Harbaugh whether he second-guessed himself after the decision to go with Kaepernick, as if such an admission ever would be made.

“I hesitate to answer those questions about that,” Harbaugh said in a Harbaugh manner. “All those questions and answers really lead to a lot of self-promotion . . . I’d rather answer those questions another time.”

Meaning, he won’t answer them.

“Life is full of bitter disappointments,” was a Harbaugh comment. He was referring to the playoff loss which ended the 2011 season. But that axiom also served as a reminder to those intent on finding out more about the coach or his team.

They don’t give nothing away.

Newsday (N.Y.): Frank Gore runs hard but speaks softly

January 27, 2013 by Art Spander in articles, football

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- He was dancing for a few seconds after scoring what would prove to be the winning touchdown in the NFC Championship Game.

Then, suddenly realizing it was out of character -- even when it meant a trip to the Super Bowl -- Frank Gore waved his arms as if to say "this isn't me" and stopped.

Read the full story here.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jim Harbaugh turns tables on John Madden

January 27, 2013 by Art Spander in articles, football

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- John Madden is known for his television work and the EA Sports game that carries his name. But he also was the coach who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl win over Minnesota in January 1977.

Now, living in Pleasanton, east of San Francisco, Madden has a daily morning show on KCBS, an all-news radio station. On Friday, he called 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, whose team will meet the Ravens -- coached by brother John Harbaugh -- next Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII.

Read the full story here.