NFL 2012 Superbowl week: PREPARE FOR HARBAUGHGEDDON

[DanteGabriel]

By the way, if I wasn't clear about it before, I am going to be rooting hard for the 49ers in this Super Bowl. It is weird, after a generation of football that ranged from the sad end of Steve Young's career to brief Garcia-led flirtations with relevance to the shame of the Erickson, Nolan, and Singletary regimes, to see the 49ers in the big game again. I suspect some part of me is going to feel like a twelve-year-old kid for a few hours on Super Bowl Sunday. I am hoping that the pregame treatment serves up a lot of Montana-Rice-Lott nostalgia, and I am going to gobble it all up.

[Mexal]

I am rooting for both teams to lose though I rather the 49ers win if that is a requirement. Fuck the Ravens.

[Guest]

By the way, if I wasn't clear about it before, I am going to be rooting hard for the 49ers in this Super Bowl. It is weird, after a generation of football that ranged from the sad end of Steve Young's career to brief Garcia-led flirtations with relevance to the shame of the Erickson, Nolan, and Singletary regimes, to see the 49ers in the big game again. I suspect some part of me is going to feel like a twelve-year-old kid for a few hours on Super Bowl Sunday. I am hoping that the pregame treatment serves up a lot of Montana-Rice-Lott nostalgia, and I am going to gobble it all up.

I'm still torn on who to root for. The Niners were dead to me for a while for not taking Rodgers, but I'm over that. I don't care too much between the Harbaughs, and I want Ed Reed and Randy Moss to get a ring.

Flacco will believe he's elite so hard if Baltimore wins, so maybe I'll root for San Francisco just for that.

[Tempra]

Okay. I'll point to folks like Aaron Rodgers as a counterexample. having two years in a system to learn things and be part of the system is significant. At the very least it's a pretty big wash - especially compared to Wilson, who did not have a full system.

Brett Favre vs Alex Smith. Nuff said.

As to accuracy, I'll let the numbers speak to that. Wilson was almost a 65% passer with a 3-1 TD int ratio and a 19.7% DVOA. Griffin was a 66.5% passer with a 4:1 TD/int ratio and a 16.7% DVOA. Kaep was 62.7% with a 3:1 TD-int ratio and a 25.7% DVOA. In terms of his value to his team Kaep was higher over those games - I'll grant you that. But accuracy? Nope, sorry. Deep passes? Nope.

By your metric, Smith is "a lot more accurate" passer than Tom Fucking Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and every QB we are talking about. Your stats are ... Imperfect at best for judging a QB's accuracy and deep ball. Seriously, WTF does TD to INT ratio have to do with figuring out who throws a better deep ball?

[DanteGabriel]

I'm still torn on who to root for. The Niners were dead to me for a while for not taking Rodgers, but I'm over that. I don't care too much between the Harbaughs, and I want Ed Reed and Randy Moss to get a ring.

Flacco will believe he's elite so hard if Baltimore wins, so maybe I'll root for San Francisco just for that.

There's that for me too. The list of "veterans I want to see get a ring" on the 49ers includes Frank Gore and Randy Moss. I can't explain my continued affection for Randy Moss. I guess I'm still grateful for all the exciting moments from 2007 and I think his biggest problem is that he can't keep from saying what he's thinking when a reporter asks.

As for the Ravens, if their rivalry with the Pats and classlessness in victory and defeat weren't enough... I respect Reed, but I can't stomach the idea of Pollard and Suggs also getting rings.

[Jaime L]

Tempra,

Pretty sure Kaepernick is not and was never expected to be the savior of the franchise.

Let's put it this way. I'll agree insomuch as Kaepernick had an avalanche of short term pressure to be at least pretty good (i.e.: As good as Alex Smith or better). RGIII has infinitely more longterm pressure to be great.

[Kalbear]

By your metric, Smith is "a lot more accurate" passer than Tom Fucking Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and every QB we are talking about. Your stats are ... Imperfect at best for judging a QB's accuracy and deep ball. Seriously, WTF does TD to INT ratio have to do with figuring out who throws a better deep ball?

Smith actually has been a lot more accurate than most of those QBs. His YPA was pretty incredible too (70% completion, 8 YPA). He had a really good year. He's also more accurate than Kaep is.

The ratio speaks to accuracy; not a deep ball; stats weren't directly applicable there. Sorry; wasn't trying to mislead.

[Guest]

There's that for me too. The list of "veterans I want to see get a ring" on the 49ers includes Frank Gore and Randy Moss. I can't explain my continued affection for Randy Moss.

There is no need to explain being a Randy Moss enthusiast. There is a need to explain not being a Randy Moss enthusiast.

[Tempra]

Tempra,

Pretty sure Kaepernick is not and was never expected to be the savior of the franchise.

Let's put it this way. I'll agree insomuch as Kaepernick had an avalanche of short term pressure to be at least pretty good (i.e.: As good as Alex Smith or better). RGIII has infinitely more longterm pressure to be great.

I agree. If RGIII cannot come back as an effective QB it fucks the Skins over far more than if Kaep is a one hit wonder because of the long-term investment in RGIII. Kaep was brought in to make it to or win the Super Bowl. Anything less would have been a failure and a huge hit to the entire organization.

[Mack Kilimaro]

I wouldn't root for any of you people's favorite teams in the Super Bowl either. :thumbsup:

[James Arryn]

I would like to point out that, going into Championship weekend, when an NFL tv round table was discussing which player had the most pressure on him, they specifically qualified the discussion as 'other than Kaepernick' because of how obvious that answer was.

Yes, I think you can argue Harbaugh gets the lion's share...but his decision to switch QBs in that situation was so remarkable as to make for enough pressure to go around.

Edit: also, I think you guys are being very dismissive of how well Alex Smith was playing. Offensive POW literally the week before getting subbed, for example.

[Howdyphillip]

I wouldn't root for any of you people's favorite teams in the Super Bowl either. :thumbsup:

I'm actually really glad that the Ravens are in a Superbowl. Ray Lewis is so far at 100% at not murdering anyone the night of the game when he is actually playing.

[James Arryn]

I'm actually really glad that the Ravens are in a Superbowl. Ray Lewis is so far at 100% at not murdering anyone the night of the game when he is actually playing.

Oh, joy. Set challenges for the man.

[BLU-RAY]

I agree. If RGIII cannot come back as an effective QB it fucks the Skins over far more than if Kaep is a one hit wonder because of the long-term investment in RGIII. Kaep was brought in to make it to or win the Super Bowl. Anything less would have been a failure and a huge hit to the entire organization.

It would be Harbaugh's failure, though. Seriously, if you think that Kaepernick had more pressure than RG3 did this season, you've been following the 49ers exclusively rather than the NFL. The hype and focus on RGIII was insane. Kaepernick is part of a team; RG3 is the team.

I would take Griffin (assuming he can come back healthy) over Kaepernick; his downfield accuracy is very good, and he actually IMO has a bit of a better lateral shift than Kaepernick. It's close, though, simply because I think CK can take punishment better. Would take either of them over Wilson, but I do think Wilson will remain good; however, I don't think he'll age as well as Griffin will (or as CK has the potential to, if he becomes a better pocket QB).

[Guest]

I know that Kaep technically is a 2nd year player, but it pretty much feels like he's another rookie QB.

For quite a while now it's like "Damn, how good are Griffin, Luck, and Wilson?" Now it's more like "Damn, how good are Griffin, Luck, Wilson, and Kaepernick?"

[Bronn Stone]

There is no need to explain being a Randy Moss enthusiast. There is a need to explain not being a Randy Moss enthusiast.

Unless one is a Raiders fan. In which case, an explanation for THAT is required.

[Guest]

Unless one is a Raiders fan. In which case, an explanation for THAT is required.

:bowdown:

Sorry, but it's emoticons as needed until the like button comes back.

[Lord O' Bones]

we have threads full of Sivin and LoB making those types of comments. Compare that to the excessive RGIII fellating that goes on here.

A few things here:

That was mostly Sivin making comments that I "liked."

I'm still pissed off at the way Smith was treated by Harbaugh; right or wrong going forward.

I have always acknowledged that Kaepernick was the future and Smith was the past. Just didn't like how it went down. And I'm acknowledging right now in case it isn't clear that as a 49ers fan I was wrong and Jim was right. But as a football fan I maintain that Jim was wrong and I was right. It's annoying to deal with in your head, believe me, but doesn't mean anything here.

I don't see how you could separate the two except to say that maybe people would have pitied Kaep for being placed in an impossible situation.

Oh, I don't know. Sounds a lot like some kid named Smith to me.

[Guy Kilmore]

There is a need to explain not being a Randy Moss enthusiast.

You are from Minnesota.

[Howdyphillip]

You are from Minnesota.

No way... Randy Moss mooned the Green Bay Packers and a stadium full of their fans. No matter what happened after that, he will always remain a fan favorite there.

On another note, I would just like to add that the comments that Kaepernick or Wilson is a better runner than RGIII is absolutely insane. If you watched him in college, there would be a better understanding of just how off that statement is. Both Kaep and Wilson are very talented, but Robert Griffin is one of the fastest and quickest men in the entire world, and I say that without exaggerating.