NFL Week 15: Mike Phipps' late delivery

Swagger really is the big thing here. Kaep is a cocky little mofo -- in the best way.

At the same time, Alex Smith has that 36-32 playoff win over the Saints and got the 49ers into overtime in the NFC title game, so he's proven himself in big games.

It's good to have both, but someone is going to offer Smith a lot of money to be their starter next season.

 

Gee, the Ravens also went deep in the playoffs last year, and probably should have beaten the Pats. Should they have tried to run it back with the same crew? How is that working out for them right now?

Getting to the conference championship the previous season offers very little insight into how the next season will go. You need a lot breaks to get that far, no matter who you are. Harbaugh understands the degree of difficulty as well as anyone. I'm sure he was pretty happy throwing passes to Tom Waddle back in the day for a brief period, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have preferred to do it to with Cris Carter or Michael Irvin instead.

What if that Giants game only came down to a special teams turnover in Harbaugh's mind because his quarterback completed 46 percent of his passes?

 

I find it somewhat insane that people ding Alex Smith for his team scoring as many points as Tom Brady's or Aaron Rodgers' teams did. The Giants were pretty goddamn awesome that month.

 

Am I dinging him, or did I imply that Harbaugh might look at it that way?

 

I don't think Harbaugh would be that simplistic especially after providing Smith with one-half of one NFL-caliber receiver for that game (Crabtree).

I think you're onto something with the Seahawks-Giants twofer this year but I don't think the Giants game last year was a gauge.

 

If you are a defensive coordinator, who do you want to plan against: Smith or Kaepernick?

 

Did you watch Smith in that game? If Smith could have made a throw the turnover would have been irrelevant. This line of reasoning you use would have kept Tebow in Denver over Manning.

Using the copout answer of this is how its always been done is weak. Good for Harbaugh for taking a chance.

 

The Ravens aren't a good comparison at all. At least part of their problem has been one debilitating injury after another to that defense.

 

I give Harbaugh the benefit of the doubt because:

1. He was a long-time QB in the NFL;
2. He turned around Stanford when they were awful (Buddy Teevins or Walt Harris, forgot which); and
3. I have lived through the Erickson/Nolan/Singletary years and saw him go 13-3 last year.

The Niners got to the NFC Championship Game last year with Smith. But looking at Smith last year, he was basically average. Great game against the Saints, yes. Horribly below average in the NFC Championship game (he had at least 4 shots to get the Niners in FG range and did not make a play.)

If I'm a DC, I'm hoping to see Smith, you know what you're going to get, an 85% chance that the pass will be less than 10 yds downfield; nearly Tebow-like.

 

That isn't Tebow-like at all. Tebow threw nothing but long passes. Bad ones usually, but always long.

That's a very bad comparison.

 

Smith is nothing like Tebow

 

Who is a good comparison to Smith?

I've heard comparisons to Flacco, I don't think Smith is nearly as good as Flacco.