Comments on: Not taking safety was smart move for Harbaugh

By: unex9885

unex9885 — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:01:14 +0000

first off… let me state that I am a 49ers fan, now… I personally in my own opinion do not think this was the right move and I’ll explain why.

taking that safety makes it a 2 possession game, thats just simple math. Now I see what you guys are all saying about an onside kick, they get it, they score, they get another onside kick, yada yada yada… yeah, I get it.

but imagine that we decline the penalty, take the ball and fumble the snap in the victory formation?? alot more likely right? and now if they score we’re going to overtime, just my opinion… not to mention that one of the tie breakers for the playoffs is points. I dont really have a problem with it either way, Harbaugh is a fantastic coach and I back all decisions he makes, but in my opinion which is only mine… I believe he should’ve taken the safety.

By: jessethegreat

jessethegreat — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:44:18 +0000

Don’t they have to punt after a safety? And if they do, unless the other team touches the ball first, you can’t gain possession of your own punt… It’s downed if you touch it. Also, perhaps Baugh took the betting line since he knows alice smith is a roller coaster that could run off the tracks at any time?

By: discosucs2005

discosucs2005 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:01:53 +0000

I think even if the safety had made it a three or four possession game, you still take the fourth down. Every snap is a potential injury.

By: dannythebisforbeast

dannythebisforbeast — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:22:49 +0000

I bet he gets fined for that legal hit too

Goodell changes the rules as he goes. It boggles my mind that there are fines every week for “within the game” penalties. it’s gonna be so people are afraid to hit anyone

By: ialwayswantedtobeabanker

ialwayswantedtobeabanker — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:23:07 +0000

The primary responsibility of an NFL HC is to make the calls that are in the best interests of his team.

I’m not a particularly big fan of Harbaugh’s personality, but the guy has shown he can coach lights out, and he made the right call in this instance. Harbaugh’s responsibilities are to his team – not gamblers, fantasy football owners, the cyber-rabble, or whomever else.

In fact, it would be BAD if Harbaugh gave a crap about what is going down in Vegas, Atlantic City and wherever else.

In this scenario, both avenues presented high probabilities of victory on the ‘Niners’ end, but the path Harbaugh chose was the smart call.

By: dallascowboysdishingthereal

dallascowboysdishingthereal — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:06:56 +0000

I thought it was an odd deceision. It was a bad call on the safety to begin with but I just don’t see how Harbaugh figured they would lose if they took the 2 points. Would have taken a miracle and some luck too.

By: 4evrnyt

4evrnyt — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:04:06 +0000

You’re right it shouldn’t have been called a chop block because in reality it was a clip. The offensive line man charged at Aldon and ended up hitting him in the back. I couldn’t figure out why the ref called it a chop block when it was a blatant clip.

By: ghostofgilchrist

ghostofgilchrist — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:53:16 +0000

That’ll teach ya to eat the juice and take the tease. For entertainment purposes only, of course.

By: conormacleod

conormacleod — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:34:57 +0000

I think my head just exploded. FYI: punt, drop kick, or kick without a tee are all options on the free kick after a safety. But, did you all know you can attempt a field goal after a fair catch, even if time has expired? And, the defense may not come within 10 yards of this attempt, nor can they attempt to block the kick until it has actually been kicked. The ball is simply held by a holder while the kicker tries a field goal.

By: desertviking64

desertviking64 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:26:59 +0000

It costs me 2 points on my FF team, otherwise it was a smart move.

By: apistolpeteproduction

apistolpeteproduction — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:17:30 +0000

Anyone remember when they picked up the flag one ref threw for hitting Russell Wilson while he was sliding? It was a good no call. Fast forward to the drive where Alex Smith throws the pick in the endzone in the 4th quarter. They brought in Colin Kaepernick and he ran to the outside and took a vicious helmet to helmet right in the face while he was going down. Knock his head around hard, and there was no call on it and the announcers were like ” That is ok because he is a running back now” . It is still not ok, it is still against the rules to helmet to helmet anyone, and this was a direct helmet to helmet hit. The two bodies never contacted as Kaepernick was already being tackled by someone else. Another player just came in a nd took a monster head shot on him which should have made it first and 1 on the goal line.

By: sweetnlow44

sweetnlow44 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:12:55 +0000

There should have been no flag on that play. The spot was questionable too. Wouldn’t have mattered though. We all know after watching the Seahawks offense that they weren’t going to move the ball.

By: TheWizard

TheWizard — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:04:26 +0000

I don’t like how the referee’s continue to pick and choose what rules to call

You’re right. Last week in the Ravens game I saw Flacco throw a ball away as he was getting plowed, in the pocket and no receiver near the ball. No call.

Patriots game, same circumstances with Brady, intentional grounding.

If the regular refs are so competent, perhaps they could be consistent.

By: rmcrip

rmcrip — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:55:20 +0000

Kleppnasty you are wrong. A free kick after a safety must be done without a tee or a holder. You cannot simply try a routine onside kick!

By: DailySpew

DailySpew — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:53:19 +0000

After that play, no matter what he does his chances of losing are about 0.000000002%. Nobody has an onside free kick in their playbook, and the odds of recovering 2 in a row are about the same as turning the ball over on a kneeldown.

If any good coaching in this game was done, it was the events that put him in this favorable position, not his “six of one” decision in this case.

By: anthonyverna

anthonyverna — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:52:10 +0000

@targhee159 Thank you for reminding us of the rule. The football rule book is complex and it is easy to forget such subtleties.

By: apistolpeteproduction

apistolpeteproduction — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:42:11 +0000

I don’t like how the referee’s continue to pick and choose what rules to call. Harbaugh is a big proponent of throwing his red flag on the field for plays that cannot be challenged , just so the referee will have to come talk to him. He did it once last night, and waved the red flag at them multiple times on another incident screaming for the ref to come talk to him. While throwing the flag on an incident you cannot challenge is not an automatic penalty anymore, it is a penalty if it was deemed you are doing it on purpose, which Harbaugh has a history of doing. The time he actually threw the flag was later in the game than his first use of the flag to argue with the referees. He should have received a 15 yard personal foul call as it was clear from the tv even he knew he could not challenge it and wanted to yell at the refs instead.

By: rcali

rcali — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:41:15 +0000

Seahawks +7.5. Bank it!

By: blackcatnfl

blackcatnfl — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:37:41 +0000

Harbaugh doesn’t care about the SF economy, obviously.

By: eagles512

eagles512 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:35:04 +0000

The problem was the Seahawks got the first down but got a poor spot. So bettors would have been happy with a good spot.

By: granadafan

granadafan — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:30:00 +0000

This is why Harbaugh is paid tthe big bucks to actually coach a team and make decisions real time. This is also why the commentators are sitting in a booth and not on the sidelines. They don’t understand the situations.

By: kleppnasty

kleppnasty — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:21:25 +0000

To the above question about punting after a safety. Teams can choose to punt or kick, so they could attempt an onside kick.
And anyone questioning this decision should look at the Tampa Bay game last year. Game was over but the 9ers kept playing rather than running out the clock and Morgan was lost for the year on a freak injury. If a team has the option to end the game without risking injury, you always take that option. If Crabtree or Davis was hurt on the onside kick, or Willis or one of the Smiths was hurt on a defensive play after Seattle recovered, everyone would be bashing the decision to take the unnecessary 2pts.

By: dwarftosser

dwarftosser — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:10:21 +0000

I’m not a big fan of the Thursday night announcers so far. They didn’t even seem to know about the chop block flag until the ref was done explaining it, and they should have recognized how smart it was to decline it. In general they just have come off as very opinionated to me, and I find myself being more annoyed by their comments than informed.

By: skinsfanwill

skinsfanwill — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:07:24 +0000

That was actually the second bad chop block call of the game. Had the replacements made that call, that would be the story of the day. Who is going to hold the real refs accountable when they screw up calls? that should be an ongoing topic.

By: theandy59

theandy59 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:07:03 +0000

Seriously? There’s actually people who claim to know and understand football that think there’s any other decision to be made other than the one Harbaugh made? It’s pretty simple – there is nothing more important than possession of the football. Nothing.

By: tampabay4life

tampabay4life — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:06:15 +0000

I don’t believe you can “onside” a free kick. As some others have said, you are punting the ball, therefore it must touch the receiving team first. If this is indeed true, there was no fear of an onside kick.

By: motobus

motobus — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:03:46 +0000

I think he decline the penalty because the referees were not going to give the 49ers a safety.

During the call right as the ref is calling the play a safety another referee comes over and stops the head official from finishing his call.

The penalty in question started in the field of play and ended in the end zone which would not have been a safety.

And you can see the referees trying to explain the situation to Harbaugh before he decides to just decline the penalty.

These are just my thoughts on the situation though.

By: briang123

briang123 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:56:14 +0000

Of course it was the right move. It was the only move. The point spread is the only reason we are talking about it today. In essence, it was no different than an intentional safety.

By: targhee159

targhee159 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:51:16 +0000

One point that seems to be missed by nearly every poster who’s questioning the possibility of an onside kick. After a safety, the kicking team has the option of either kicking off using a tee, or punting. Teams usually opt for the punt due to the ability of a punter with plenty of time to punt it farther than usual with enough hangtime to prevent much if any return.

By: robgilman

robgilman — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:42:41 +0000

Yeah but what about ppl who have the niners defense in fantasy?!