Twitter
Categories
Archives

Entries in Colin Kaepernick (31)

9:38AM

Harbaugh says Colt McCoy is the backup

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — The coach even smiled. That told you as much as his words. Jim Harbaugh knows what he has. And now we know he has a second-team quarterback. Just in case.

And in the NFL, you never can get too far away from “just in case.”

The 49ers are an excellent football team, a statement not formulated after watching San Francisco beat the Minnesota Vikings 34-14 Sunday night, but in no way negated, either.

Preseason football, in truth, is exhibition football. In international soccer, they call it a “friendly,” because the results don’t count. In the standings, that is.

They count in the way a coaching staff and management determines what it has.

The Niners, who made it to the Super Bowl last year, have plenty.

“I saw a lot of good things,” said Harbaugh, who handled the questions with the ease that, well, the Niner defense handled Minnesota. “I was pleased the way we worked.”

When Colin Kaepernick, getting his first significant playing time of the summer, was at quarterback, the Niner machine was efficient and effective. It was 2012 all over again, six straight completions at one point, and eventually 7 of 13 for a touchdown and 72 yards. Hardly a surprise.

Then on came Colt McCoy, and he was a surprise. A delightful one. A week that in the minds of many skeptics began with McCoy, the new kid in town, about to be traded ended with McCoy firmly set as No. 2. Or is that just a ploy to get rid of him? You never can be sure in the Byzantine world of the NFL, but it was hard to believe Harbaugh wasn’t telling the whole truth and nothing but.

The kicker in all this is that until Sunday night, when he was 11 of 15 for 109 yards, and directed a 91-yard touchdown drive — if also throwing an interception — McCoy had been, well, "a bust" may be too strong, so we will say "disappointing."

San Francisco picked up Seneca Wallace a few days ago, and with Scott Tolzien still around and B.J. Daniels seeming like the man of the future — the new Kaepernick, if you will — McCoy was a question mark. The Niners got McCoy before the April draft. He hadn’t shown much. If anything.

The problem, McCoy said as he stood in front his locker in the Niner locker room, was he hadn’t learned the system well enough to feel at ease. “I was staying up late,” he said. “It just took a while.”

McCoy said everything finally began to click a few days ago, and he and Harbaugh had conversations that reassured Colt he would not be sent packing up if something happened to Kaepernick but rather sent in move the team.

“I wasn’t ever scared or nervous,” said McCoy, a third-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2010 draft. “I saw a lot of improvement this week. This was my best week with the 49ers. I’m glad everyone liked tonight, but give credit to the other guys on the offense.”

Reports are that McCoy restructured his contract, dropping the base salary to the minimum $630,000 — he had been owed $21.5 million. Both Harbaugh and McCoy refused to discuss money.

Candlestick was maybe only half full, the usual for preseason games, but the crowd was edgy. Two men wearing Niner jerseys ran onto the field, halting the game, and then after security hauled them away a third, in an Indianapolis Colts jersey, bounded out of the stands. Go figure.

Also go figure Lavelle Hawkins, a Niner rookie wide receiver and return man from Cal. He zoomed 105 yards for a touchdown with a kickoff in the second quarter, which was beautiful. However, he strutted the final 20 yards or so and then, in the ultimate showboat move, whipped off his helmet, drawing two penalties on the one play.

He wasn’t done, eventually picking up two more big penalties. Surely he didn’t learn this from former Cal coach Jeff Tedford. “He’s got to do a better job of not getting hijacked emotionally after doing something great,” Harbaugh said of Hawkins.

The job Kaepernick did was solid. “When you get out there,” said Kaepernick, who had played only briefly the first two games, “and you find your rhythm, that’s how you want to be playing.”

Someone wondered if Kaepernick, who started last year second team and then replaced Alex Smith, was paying close attention to the quarterbacks behind him, especially McCoy.

“I’m always watching the other guys,” said Kaepernick, “seeing what they’re doing, seeing what the defense is doing and how I can help them during the game.”

Colt McCoy didn’t need much help. Neither did Colin Kaepernick.

9:48PM

SF Chronicle 49ers Insider App: On the Brink

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.

Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle

9:46PM

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

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.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

9:04PM

SF Chronicle 49ers Insider: How to play the Pistol: Chris Ault explains

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

The elements of the formation are basic. The man who is directing  things is not. The Pistol works. Colin Kaepernick makes it work.
     
Chris Ault just stepped down as head coach at the University of Nevada in Reno. That after proving he could design a scheme which would help his team and then many others take the steps they wanted on a football field.
    
“We’ve had more fun with this thing,” said Ault. So have the Niners.
   
“It is the next big thing in the NFL,” said Trent Dilfer, the ESPN analyst, and appropriately with the Super Bowl matching those teams, a former quarterback for both the Ravens and 49ers.
   
Ault had coached at Nevada, where he graduated in 1965, from 1976 to ’95, then became athletic director. “We used the one-back offense,” he said, “and were the No. 1 throwing team in the nation.”
   
When he returned as coach, his philosophy changed. “In this day and age, if you’re going to win a championship, you’ve got to run the ball better,” said Ault.
   
He wanted the quarterback off the line of scrimmage but not as far back as the five yards or so in the shotgun formation because that makes for too much side to side running.
   
He moved the QB up and the running backs directly behind him so that the backs could run right at the line of scrimmage. It was the spring of 2005.
  
“My assistants were getting their resumes ready,” said Ault, 67. “They thought it would never work.”
   
It worked when Nevada went 13-1 in 2010. It worked when the Niners beat Green Bay and Atlanta to advance to Super Bowl XLVII. It worked because the defense isn’t quite sure how to play. It worked because Kaepernick, with great speed, with a great arm, is at the controls.
  
“There is so much more to the Pistol,” said Ault. “You can run anything you like. With a quarterback being in a position where he can carry, that’s a dimension they haven’t had in the NFL.”
  
Which answers the question whether a unique college offense – do not call it a gimmick, insists Ault – could find a place in the pros, who are notoriously rigid in their beliefs how to play offense and what a quarterback should do.
  
As Ault pointed out, with Robert Griffin III of the Redskins, with Kaepernick of the 49ers, the Pistol is a perfect alignment.
     
“You have a thrower who can run,” said Ault, “or a runner who can throw. The Pistol provides opportunity along that line. And because the quarterback may run, as Colin did in the playoff game against the Packers, or may hand off as they did to (Frank) Gore against the Falcons, the (defensive) rush against the offensive line may be slowed down. The Pistol is not just a read-option formation.”
     
Kaepernick was a redshirt freshman in the fall of 2007. “I had seen him at a high school quarterback camp we had,” said Ault. “He had run the Wing-T in high school, so he hardly ever carried the ball, but I saw what he could do.”
    
When Nevada’s starter was injured early on that season of ’07, Kaepernick stepped in – as five years later he would step in to replace an injured Alex Smith with the 49ers. “It was a great marriage,” said Ault of player and plan.
    
In his four seasons at Nevada, Kaepernick passed for 10,098 yards and ran for 4,112, becoming the only player in the Football Bowl Subdivision to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 three times in an undergraduate career.
    
As we know, Niners coach Jim Harbaugh went to Nevada to scout Kaepernick. As we know, Niner offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was at Stanford with Harbaugh in 2010, “loved the downhill element” of the Pistol.
  
"Sure, it can be defended,” said Ault. “Any formation can be defended. But it’s a matter of personnel and execution.”
   
So far, the personnel who have executed have been on the 49er offense, as in 2010 they were on the offense at Nevada, when the school not only made it to the Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T but also upset then unbeaten Boise State.
    
“It isn’t predicated on the quarterback running,” Ault told the NFL Network about the offense. “The defense will take away some of the runs, but that leaves the middle open.”
  
As it did Sunday in the NFC Championship, when Gore scored two touchdowns.
   
Because the running back is directly behind the quarterback, the linebackers do not have a clear view, making it harder to key on the running back.
   
While Colin has copyrighted his touchdown gesture, “Kaepernicking,” Ault unfortunately never through about a copyright of his formation, which he calls “my baby.” And it is.

Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle

5:35PM

SF Chronicle 49ers Insider: Tough but spectacular

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


You watched, as much in dismay as disbelief. The 49ers were down by 17 points early in the second quarter.

Down against the Falcons, a team with the best record in the conference.

Down at the other team’s home, a domed stadium full of hysteria and great passing by the other quarterback.

Down but, despite the way many of us thought, not even close to being out.

“It’s hard to break us,” said Niners running back Frank Gore, the nonpareil. “We’re tough.”

Tough mentally, which is where it starts.

“We still had confidence we could beat those guys in their house,” said Carlos Rogers, the cornerback.

Tough physically, which is where it continues.

“There had been breakdowns in communication and coverage,” said Dashon Goldson, the free safety. “We did a good job of tightening up some things.”

A great job of holding the Falcons scoreless in the second half and, in the process, recording the third-biggest post-season road comeback in the 90 years the NFL has been in existence.

A spectacular job of defeating the Falcons, 28-24, in the NFC Championship at the Georgia Dome and reaching the Super Bowl a sixth time – where the Niners, coached by Jim Harbaugh, will face the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his brother, John.

Coaches talk of players who make plays.

Players such as Joe Montana and Dwight Clark who three decades ago combined for The Catch and altered the path of history for San Francisco football.

Players such as Ahmad Brooks who, on third down, and NaVorro Bowman, on fourth, broke up consecutive fourth-quarter pass Atlanta pass attempts.

Players such as Vernon Davis, suddenly rediscovered in an offense quite capable of adapting to the moment, who caught five passes for 106 yards. “It’s bigger than me,” insisted Davis. “It’s not about me. It’s about the team.”

Players such as Gore, who, with Atlanta having schemed to stop the expected running of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, ran for 90 yards and two touchdowns.

Players such as Kaepernick, the second-year quarterback, who after last week, when he rushed for a record 181 yards, this time carried only twice for 21 but completed 16 passes in 21 attempts for 233 yards and touchdown.

“The Falcons put a spy on Kaep,” said Gore, using football language for a defender assigned to keeping the quarterback from running. “We kept hearing all week how they were going to pound Kaep. He made the right decisions. I got the opportunities.”

On the CSN Bay Area post-game show, Clark, pointed out. “I thought it was a brilliant game plan. They came out in the read-option, and Colin made the right decisions. Even when they got behind, they didn’t panic and try to pass a lot.”

Atlanta certainly passed a lot. In the first half alone, quarterback Matt Ryan threw 24 times, completing 18, three for touchdowns. The Falcons appeared unstoppable.

“We had the jitters,” said Niners cornerback Tarell Brown. (So did Niners fans). “We knew it would be a challenge. We just settled down.”

Once they did the gloom started to settle in on Atlanta. A week earlier the Falcons had squandered a 20-point lead to Seattle but rallied to win. This time they squandered a 17-point lead, but it was to the Niners. To a franchise which after 18 years is back in the championship game.

The post-game locker room offered not only athletes in celebration but a glimpse into the past. There was Eddie DeBartolo, who owned the Niners when they won their five Super Bowls, presenting the NFC Championship trophy to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, who owns the team today. And right there were Denise’s husband, John, at last a happy man, and his and Denise’s son – and Eddie’s nephew – Jed York, the Niners president.

There was a sense of solidarity and tradition, a feeling that after the lean years the restoration of the Niners franchise is all but complete.

“This is fun to be a part of,” said Justin Smith, the defensive tackle. He is playing with a torn triceps. He will need surgery. But he wasn’t going to miss being a part of scene. And he was a very big part of the success.

“We knew Atlanta had weapons all over the place. We knew they started fast. But we never got down and we won. It’s an awesome feeling.”

At halftime, Harbaugh, the coach was simply businesslike. It was Davis, the receiver, who was emotional, giving the motivational speech. Later he would shout out, “Kaepernick is the man.”

The 49ers are composed of a lot of men, symbolically as well as literally, a lot of people who never concede.

“Everybody goes through adversity,” reminded Patrick Willis, the All-Pro linebacker. “The way we came back makes it so more captivating.”

Donte Whitner, the safety, would say, “When we had to stop them at the end, there was a lot of pressure. We knew what was at stake.”

In three words, the Super Bowl.

Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle

Page 1 ... 2 3 4 5 6 ... 7 Next 5 Entries »