San Francisco 49ers: A Team Building Brick by Brick

"I think we're in a process of finding our identity," Harbaugh said at the start of Monday's news conference. (SF Gate)

That is the most cogent statement of the current condition of the San Francisco 49ers made to date.  It indicates a process of building rather than a fait accompli.

Building a team that was as decimated by bad coaching, bad play calling, bad morale and bad team cohesion is a process that takes a lot of time.  It cannot be accomplished overnight. 

It is like erecting a building brick by brick.  The bottom ones have to be laid and mortared first before the walls can rise.  The 49ers are now at the moment in building where the bricklayer can be seen from the waist up behind the wall that is slowly rising.

I have read in this space many fan comments about how Harbaugh needs to ‘"open it up," be "more aggressive," throw it "down the field" and make gutsy decisions during game time.

The element that is ignored by these statements is the condition of the team he has to work with. 

The 49ers have suffered—and there is no other word quite so descriptive of their plight—through some of the worst conditions for an athletic team in the history of the NFL.  Numerous coaches, schemes, approaches, personnel, draft and ownership issues have stripped the once proud 49er franchise of the identity that made them such a proud asset to San Francisco over previous decades.

The team Harbaugh inherited had zero morale, zero team spirit and no confidence in itself.  The team Harbaugh inherited had no real chemistry between players and almost no success to point to with pride.

It takes time to build all that back up.

So Harbaugh is taking the realistic route.  He is building the confidence of the team in simple and effective plays that may not win games but do establish a foundation upon which to build the walls of a new 49ers squad.  These will be expanded as the team builds the confidence and swagger that comes with success.  Wins and losses will accumulate, but the wins will come.  His realistic and methodical team building will work in time.

The 2011 Week 2 game with the Cowboys illustrated the process.  There were times fans argued Harbaugh should have "opened it up" and cinched the win.  But he knows what he has to work with.  He knows what he is doing.  He would not push the squad into football areas where they were not yet comfortable or have confidence.

At the risk of losing a game, he opts instead for the long-term goal of creating a winning team.

He is building a team identity from the basics up. We must, as hard as it is, be patient and give him the time to do his job.  He is building the San Francisco 49ers brick by brick.