How far we've come

[TheNinerMind]

In the offseason I wrote a piece about the definitive game of the 2010 season - the "We Want Carr" game. I re-read it earlier this week and figured I'd repost on Sportshoopla:

Most Dramatic Moment of the 2010 NFL Season: Alex Smith vs. the Eagles - Distracted Writing

As we prepare to play for a spot in the Super Bowl, I can't help but lament on how ridiculous the notion has been for so freaking long.

 

[zman1527]

In the offseason I wrote a piece about the definitive game of the 2010 season - the "We Want Carr" game. I re-read it earlier this week and figured I'd repost on Sportshoopla:

Most Dramatic Moment of the 2010 NFL Season: Alex Smith vs. the Eagles - Distracted Writing

As we prepare to play for a spot in the Super Bowl, I can't help but lament on how ridiculous the notion has been for so freaking long.

Nice writing NinerMind, I enjoyed that. It is very satisfying for us Alex supporters to see it pay off in the long run. Its also good that Harbaugh could see it too, huh?

Re-reading about Nolan: what a pr*ck . That guy should have been slaughtered by the press for how he handled Alex and his shoulder situation. Anybody considering him for an NFL HC job should have their head examined.

 

[h0ckeysk83r]

Good read man!

 

[MHSL82]

Nice writing NinerMind, I enjoyed that. It is very satisfying for us Alex supporters to see it pay off in the long run. Its also good that Harbaugh could see it too, huh?

Re-reading about Nolan: what a pr*ck . That guy should have been slaughtered by the press for how he handled Alex and his shoulder situation. Anybody considering him for an NFL HC job should have their head examined.

Alex supporters? I'm a BIG Alex supporter as everyone knows, but this is satisfying for everyone. I don't want to speak too early, so I hope we win the Superbowl before any of my words have its full effect.

Think of it this way, if we had signed a FA QB and he had this success this year (not more, not less), it would make all of us happy, but we would feel ALL the years before were in vain (and we'd still perhaps want a better QB - Smith's good play aside, some still want someone else). We would say, why didn't we have that QB or someone like him this whole time? I already feel that way about Harbaugh, or a coach like him (and there will be some feeling this way still about Alex). Obviously, this would be better if it happened earlier, but if you can't take away the previous 8-9 years, this is preferrable for it to happen with these guys, IMO.

I couldn't think of anything more unifying for us fans. I'm sorry to say this, but some people are more Alex fans than Niner fans (not saying you). This, has us all on board (no I don't care whether Alex or Niner haters are on board, they don't count). I know some people couldn't care less about Alex fans being happy, because it's the team before players, but I suspect player fans and team fans can coexist if we're winning.

With us doing this with Smith and getting Harbaugh as early as practicable (we wouldn't have hired him before him proving it in Stanford), this seems like fate, that the years before just contributed to the team becoming what it has become and short of this happening in an earlier season, I can think of nothing better. This, of course, is said assuming the limitations of signing the big QB were ever present. I.E. there was no available healthy Peyton Manning.

 

[freaak]

What's crazy is I think they've only scratched the surface on how good they really can be. Geezuz, it's only the first year with this staff!

 

[BallsOfFury]

Great article, it says a lot about Alex's character and tenacity, although admittedly not very flattering to the SF fan base.

 

[deep9er]

In my decades of active and nearly obsessive viewership, I have never witnessed a game like it. Football is not a sport that focuses on any singular player. I think if he had won the game, the 49ers season and the coverage of Alex Smith would have been dramatically different. There would have been a much greater awareness of this incident. That being the case, it remains for me one of the most dramatic football stories I’ve witnessed.

what if that last pass to Davis was incomplete, and we go on to lose the game? would the coverage be dramatically different from what we've read since Saturday?

 

[maniax]

In my decades of active and nearly obsessive viewership, I have never witnessed a game like it. Football is not a sport that focuses on any singular player. I think if he had won the game, the 49ers season and the coverage of Alex Smith would have been dramatically different. There would have been a much greater awareness of this incident. That being the case, it remains for me one of the most dramatic football stories I’ve witnessed.

what if that last pass to Davis was incomplete, and we go on to lose the game? would the coverage be dramatically different from what we've read since Saturday?

I think that last incomplete pass would just be forgotten, because Akers would kick a chip shot field goal and we'd be in overtime.

 

[MHSL82]

In my decades of active and nearly obsessive viewership, I have never witnessed a game like it. Football is not a sport that focuses on any singular player. I think if he had won the game, the 49ers season and the coverage of Alex Smith would have been dramatically different. There would have been a much greater awareness of this incident. That being the case, it remains for me one of the most dramatic football stories I’ve witnessed.

what if that last pass to Davis was incomplete, and we go on to lose the game? would the coverage be dramatically different from what we've read since Saturday?

Would it? Yes. Should it? It depends on whether it was a blatant drop, a borderline drop, or if it was inaccurate. It also depends if we are talking about the comeback or the entire game. There were things we could have done to avoid the dramatic finish, in a loss that would be magnified. Big picture, it shouldn't matter to his individual performance in the last four minutes, but the first 56 minutes would be evaluated so closely. The start would somewhat mitigate the middle but in the end would fall short.

If we win the Superbowl this year (can't believe I'm typing that), it will be the watershed moment. If we lost, they'd say he did great but will always fall short. I've seen people take an isolated incident and apply it to always, nevers, and can'ts before. This would be no different. At the same time, if we don't continue to push forward and win, this incident will be a fantastic but isolated event. This is bigger than the what if we beat Philadelphia in the Singletary exchange event. Though, I will say people should look at that more as the start of Alex's improvement, with this year being the real breakthrough, and last Saturday as the watershed moment if we win.

 

[MHSL82]

I was thinking how perfect the ending went. It could happen no other way and be as sweet - though we might have gotten the same result of a win. If we scored quicker (Davis' long catch on that drive, the Swain bs route running play), they'd have a chance to beat us. If we got the 2-pt conversion, we'd have kicked the field goal after NO's TD. (7 pts, not 8). If they missed their two point conversion, we'd have kicked the field goal. No overtime because we'd have won, so I suppose that's perfect too, except I've fallen in love with this ending so much that I wouldn't go back unless I was risking the victory not to.

If we didn't get the 12 men in the huddle, we would have handed off to Gore - Smith said as much (actually, he just said the play call was "different" due to the penalty). If Gore/Hunter didn't get the first. We'd have kicked it for a field goal to be up by two with 2:11 to go. That to me would have been a loss because the Saints would have been more time concerned with running out the clock for a field goal. By going up five, they had to get the TD, therefore they rushed it and we got a chance to respond.

Ultimately getting the 2-pt conversion would be better, but we wouldn't have had as big of a memorable moment. We'd get articles on Akers and the defense alone. Granted, I am biased for the offense.

 

[MHSL82]

Another thing I love about our coaching staff.