The San Francisco 49ers have had a season filled with great highs and unexpected lows. After a fast start, the team hit a rough patch, only to go on another win streak and then followed that up with an ugly loss to the Carolina Panthers at home. The offense continues to sputter as quarterback Colin Kaepernick suffers a slight sophomore slump. Despite the numbers, head coach Jim Harbaugh is defending his quarterback's play.
Against the Panthers, Kaepernick went 11 for 22 in passing for just 91 yards and an interception. As a team, the 49ers put together just 151 yards of total offense, their lowest since 2006. Kaepernick took a majority of the criticism for the 10-9 after failing to get anything moving. Harbaugh is speaking up in his defense.
"Across the board, we take accountability," Harbaugh said, via the San Jose Mercury News. "We're not going to go through, dissect position-by-position, raking anybody over the coals. That's not the best thing for us. We've got a tough game coming up. We're not going to wallow in it."
Harbuagh is opting to place blame on the offense as a whole instead of calling out individual players. He noted that right now, the team is simply not in a rhythm and cannot seem to move the ball effectively. Sunday's game was plagued by negative plays, sacks and penalties that caused the offense to stall out. No matter what, Harbaugh would not call out Kaepernick as the reason.
"Everybody involved with it is working harder than you can imagine to be the winning edge we need it to be, championship-type of football," Harbaugh said. "We didn't play championship football offensively this week. Everybody involved in the unit, when you're not in the rhythm picking up first downs and being able to get in deep in your playbook -- get into the screen, get into the (quarterback) movement game, keep things off balance -- it's frustrating to all."
Harbaugh is going to have to adjust things quickly as San Francisco prepares to face the New Orleans Saints this coming week. The two teams have offenses headed in opposite directions that could spell trouble for San Francisco. The 49ers are coming off two-straight games of zero touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Saints set an NFL record with 40 first downs against the Dallas Cowboys. It will be crucial for Colin Kaepernick and company to figure things out.
