A Black Line Slicing Right Through Jim Harbaugh: What Does it Mean?

There is a black line slicing right through the front of Jim Harbaugh’s cranium on my TV. What does it mean? What symbolic power does the black faded line possess?

Can Alex Smith still lead the 49ers to the promised land or is it time to move on? By John Martinez Pavliga (originally posted to Flickr as IMG_7505) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m ghetto like that.

But grills, plastic furniture and silver bullets aside, I’m possessed by the image of a focused, well-formed Jim Harbaugh split in two. It has to mean something.

The Niners are gelling. With a record of 7-2-1 they are dominating the NFC West. They are so good, their back up quarterback (blessed with so many outlandishly-gifted offensive weapons) sliced and diced Da Bears defense to the tune of 10.3 yards a play in the first half of a 32-7 Monday Night blowout. And their offense isn’t half as good as their league-leading defense, which allows a paltry 13.4 points.

But sometimes when things are going this well, there are issues on the horizon. Issues that might explain the humorous coach’s two-sided face. Like what to do with Alex Smith.

It’s not that Smith has been Pro-Bowl worthy, or that he is the clear-cut leader of a team which was 6-2-1 with him as the starter. It’s that Smith has been the cookie-cutter team quarterback, taking pay cuts, while playing fluidly efficient in Harbaugh’s system. Through nine games the eight year veteran is having the best season of his career, boasting a 104.1 quarterback rating to go along with thirteen touchdown to five interceptions. He may not be a game changer, but he’s a great game controller. And that should not be taken lightly.

This, after last year’s run to the NFC championship game, was finally Smith’s team. It was a year when Harbaugh would let-loose the reigns and allow the twenty-eight year old underachiever room to operate and grow into his own, outside the sterile conservatism of a run-first, Aker-legged offense.  But when Harbaugh has attempted to let him loose he’s failed, throwing 3 interceptions to 0 touchdowns in a blowout loss to the champion Giants on October 14th. So the word on the street is that a quarterback change is in the near future.

The athletic, fire-throwing, Colin Kaepernick was accurate, mobile, and brought a sense of passion to the position on Monday night. Not to mention, he got Vernon Davis involved to the tune of six receptions and a touchdown. The star tight end had caught just nine balls his previous four games.

Davis’s exuberant man crush after the win in favor of Kaepernick was clear.  A resonance I’m sure sent shock waves in and through the entire team.

While a black line splits through Jim Harbaugh’s heart, so it does to mine. We all know the way to a man’s heart is through food, television and beer. And while I may have two of the three locked up, I’m certain to need the third in order to complete the holy triumphant. Olivier will definitely not be the answer this go around.  I’m thinking Westinghouse. I’m thinking Harbaugh is tempted to try out a new device, and if all things fail, he can always go back to the original.