He was a first year coach did you expect him to be perfect
No, not at all in fact. I expected rookie mistakes, I expected he'd be overwhelmed. I think it's fair to give him 4 games where those things were obvious. I wasn't surprised by the Cincinnati gaffe where we were saying "Defense on 3...1..2..." as AJ Green scored his 1st and easiest TD he will ever score in his entire career.
The problem was these things were a constant all season. They were happening in week 7 in week 11 in week 16. The alarming thing was we didn't see an improvement, if anything he digressed if that's even possible. We were 2-2 going into the bye and 2-10 the remaining 12 games losing the last 6. Say what you want about injuries but every team deals with injuries. It's football. Whether the team quit on him or whatever, the team was victim of his mistakes all season.
I mean the Alex Smith handoff? The Armond pitch on 4th and 1 when Hillis was gashing the defense? The game we ran the ball with 20 seconds left and no timeouts and didn't even get a field goal?
I'd really love the Pat Shurmur apologists to give a legitimate reason for why we should believe in him other than the lazy "He was a rookie", or "Colt sucked". Seriously break down decisions he made or didn't make and why they were right. I really want to know. I'm all for giving a rookie coach, player, whatever the benefit of the doubt but convince me that this guy showed something. Convince me he has qualities that will translate into being an advantage by him being our head coach. The rookie thing is weak IMO as Harbaugh came in to a team that was picking Top 10 the last few years. A team with a QB that for 7 years lost his starting job 14 times and had them on the verge of the Superbowl. Harbaugh unlike Shurmur wasn't a hindrance to his team he was complete opposite end of the spectrum. He was a fiery motivator. He was unconventional, creative, charismatic, passionate, accountable, involved.
He made the most of his players. He had lineman catching passes and ripping off 20 yard gains multiple times against us. He was up and down the sidelines. Talking to players, talking to coaches, clapping, yelling, encouraging, coaching, critiquing. Shurmur I shit you not looked like a Scarecrow half the time. Blank, lifeless gaze onto the field. Oh excuse me I believe we were down about 14-17 points late in a game and Phil Dawson bangs in a field goal and he held his hands high and signaled "It's good". That's about all the life we got out of him last year. A celebratory good field goal down 2 TDs and narrowly avoiding another shut out.