Colin Kaepernick was scheduled to play in the preseason finale, unless he wasn’t.
“Yes, he’ll play,” coach Jim Harbaugh said regarding Kaepernick. “We’ll go into it like we have these other games.”
While noteworthy because of the starting offense’s struggles this year, the starting quarterback had typically played in the final preseason game under the Harbaugh.
And then came Thursday night. And Kaepernick didn’t play against the Texans.
“I felt like a short week traveling down to Houston, I just decided to make a battlefield decision and treat it like a bye week going into the first game, rather than play a majority of the starters,” Harbaugh said after the game.
The move puts a little extra pressure on Harbaugh and the starting offense entering Week One, since he opted not to take advantage of one more opportunity to work out the many kinks in the system. Then again, the 49ers play the Cowboys in nine days, which should go a long way toward working out the offensive kinks.