San Francisco 49ers: Jim Harbaugh Conjuring Up Bad Memories of Mike Singletary

Jim Harbaugh is either a diabolical genius or in way over his head, guess we’ll have to wait two more weeks to find out.

Harbaugh failed to follow the traditional head coaching blueprint Saturday vs. the Texans, treating the third preseason game less like a dress rehearsal and more the first week of American Idol.

The 49ers auditioned starting quarterbacks, sent their second stringers to stop Andre Johnson and Arian Foster, and had an offensive playbook that was Jim Raye-esque in its lack of intricacy.

The result was an effort so pathetic that Tim Ryan, who is being paid by the 49ers’ home network, took a break from inserting the word “football” into every sentence to admit he had no idea what the 49ers were doing.

Clearly Harbaugh’s M.O. in the preseason has been not to tip his hand to opposing defenses, you knew that when he ran three consecutive off-tackles inside the 5-yard line against Oakland. But there is a difference between keeping in vanilla, to borrow another Ryan platitude, and keeping it tasteless, ineffective and unwatchable.

For example, it took about three offensive plays Saturday night for it to become clear that the 49ers’ line wasn’t going to be able to block the Houston pass rush straight-up.

Rather than dial-up a few screen passes, some quick slants, or bring in an extra blocker to slow down Mario Williams, Harbaugh left Alex Smith out there to be the meat in a Texans’ sandwich.

This was a truly bizarre decision because if Smith is really your starting quarterback, you don’t draw up a game plan that allows him to be pummeled in the preseason.

Plus, anyone who has watched Alex over his career knows any confidence he builds up in the offseason comes crashing down the minute the protection breaks down, and things start to go poorly in the real games.

Oh, and just in case Smith wasn’t insecure enough , Harbaugh decided to work Colin Kaepernick into the starting offense in the first-half, ensuring that San Francisco had no chance to establish any sort of offensive continuity and fueling the fire underneath a quarterback controversy that was supposed to have been extinguished a week ago.  

There may be a method to all of Harbaugh’s madness. Having never run an NFL offense it was always going to be hard for opposing defenses to scheme against San Francisco, and by showing essentially nothing in the preseason, the 49ers should at least have the element of surprise heading into Week 1 vs. Seattle.

But having just watched Mike Singletary try and reinvent the modern coaching wheel (the nutcracker, pants dropping, etc.) and fail in epic fashion, 49ers fans have a right to be skeptical of Harbaugh’s unorthodox approach.  

There’s a reason every other NFL team treats the third preseason game as a dry run, it’s important to see what you’ve got from your squad in a game situation before the wins and losses really matter.

Given the question marks across the 49ers’ roster it would seem like Harbaugh and Co. would need to squeeze every drop of usefulness out of the preseason, instead of treating it like a glorified inter-mural scrimmage.

Not sure what kind of poker player Jim Harbaugh is but I’m hoping he’s simply slow playing the hell out of his approach to the offense and come Week 1 he’ll show he’s holding a nut flush. But no doubt Harbaugh is taking a big gamble by holding all his cards so close to the vest.