What Harbaugh did at the end of the game tonight was brilliant. If he accepts the penalty & the safety, the Niners are up by 9 points & the Seahawks have to punt to the Niners & there is a chance that the Hawks get the ball back, score, kick an onside kick, get the ball back again & kick a field goal to win the game. Doing what he did guaranteed that the Niners win the game by taking a knee to win the game.

All hail Jim Harbaugh.

Actually there was no chance of any of that happening. You can't onside kick a punt. Seattle had a 0% chance of getting the ball back as long as SF didn't touch it, which every single coach in the league would have instructed.

All hail actual knowledge of NFL rules.

Read what I wrote again. Who said anything about an onside punt?

Read what I wrote again. There was zero chance of the Seahawks getting the ball back, or at the very least that miniscule chance was not better or worse than getting a miracle fumbled snap on a kneel down.

Bottom line: Harbaugh didn't increase the 49ers chance of winning with that decision. He just lessened the risk of one of his ST players getting improbably hurt on that safety punt. There was no chance of Seattle getting the ball back.

It was nothing close to brilliant. It was just a small decision that ended up lowering the already very small risk of someone getting hurt. The situation you just described had about the same chance of happening as Alex Smith fumbling the snap from the victory formation. It's gotta be like 500-1. All Harbaugh had to do, what any coach would have done, is just tell his players not to touch the ball unless they can easily just fall on it. The game was already won.

& the Seahawks have to punt to the Niners & there is a chance that the Hawks get the ball back, score, kick an onside kick, get the ball back again & kick a field goal to win the game.

the line went up to 9 today and then came back down to 7 at kickoff. very fishy shit

First of all, it's not a punt, it's a free kick. You can onside it just like any other free kick.

Bottom line is this, you have a 99% chance of winning whether you kneel twice there, or take the safety and leave it up to the Hawks to get 2 scores and 2 onside kicks. One of those methods doesn't involve the chance for injuries (Specifically onside kicks, which are a mess).


You kneel twice, take the win. He did the right thing. Not fishy at all.

This is dumb. Why give the other team the ball when you don't have to?
Keep the ball, keep the lead, keep control of the outcome.

Why do you have me on ignore SHARKBUCKYCHRIS?

I do not, I promise. I just missed it.

In other words, +1 to Hawg Ass's well thought out point.

I'd like to confirm Bucky Chris' point, because it's a good one -great in fact - it's a free kick of the kicking team's option, not a punt.

That was supposed to be a shot at Hawg.


I screwed it up again.

Stop the presses! Scorehead and I agree on something.

FF, the 49ers could have fumbled the free kick, remember the NFC Championship game last year? Jim Harbaugh handled the situation perfectly. Like I told Mac, Harbaugh's job is to win games, not cover spreads.

[ Anybody who laid more than 7 deserved to lose. Favorites of 7 or more, are now 8-15 on the year. If it was so easy as to just lay the wood, then we wouldn't see hotels being built in Vegas.

Listening to people complain about sports gambling might be worse than people talking about their fantasy sports team.