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The Harbaugh Effect - Printable Version

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The Harbaugh Effect - MDKern123 - 11-20-2011

Just curious.....  Luck's play seems a bit down this year and Alex Smith is playing out of his mind....  coincidence?

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - 97fan - 11-20-2011

I think it has much more to do with the lack of passing targets (and the sudden surge in dropped passes) in the last few games vs. last year.

Luck's targets last year:
Fleener, Reuland, Ertz, Doug Baldwin, Ryan Whalen, Owusu, Griff Whalen

Last night:
Fleener, Montgomery, Griff Whalen, Toilolo (but only until he got hurt)


Re: The Harbaugh Effect - washingtonismoney - 11-20-2011

I do wonder if a little bit is change in philosophy/coaching. Luck looks much more hesitant in terms of his run/pass decisions this year than he did in his first two years. It'd be one thing if Luck were running less but were more effective when he did, but he's running less and is less efficient when he does.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - Extra Point - 11-20-2011

"I do wonder if a little bit is change in philosophy/coaching. Luck looks much more hesitant in terms of his run/pass decisions this year than he did in his first two years."

He looks hesitant sometimes because he is trying to find an open receiver. One reason why he may be running less is because receivers are running shorter routes and not clearing out running lanes. I suspect he has been told to avoid the Catoushes as well.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - 97fan - 11-20-2011

In our last three games, Luck has faced better pass pressure than he did in virtually any game in his first two seasons. That has clearly flustered him somewhat, as it would any QB. Over time I expect him to improve in this area; as a pro, he'll certainly need to.

This was the factor that went unmentioned in all the pre-season hype of Luck. When you have the best offensive line in the nation - as we probably did last year - the quarterback's job is a lot easier. This year's line has not been as good.



Re: The Harbaugh Effect - socalstanfan1 - 11-20-2011

I think that the last few games two things have happened, both of which have already been mentioned on this thread:

1.  We have faced better defenses

2.  Luck has lost a couple of his key targets (Owusu and Ertz), and even had parts of games without a third (Toilolo, both last night and in the Oregon State game). 

I'm not trying to make excuses for Luck, but we were not all talking about his hesitation and regression before the USC game when the 3-TE offense and the running game was humming, and Luck was the talk of college football by calling a lot of his own plays from the line of scrimmage.

News Flash!  Andrew Luck is human, unable to win games playing one-on-eleven football. 

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - jwmann2 - 11-20-2011

I would love to have Luck stay for his senior season. He's not going to get any worse by staying an extra year. But players have to go to the league when your stock is the highest, look at what happened to Matt Leinhart when he came back. Luck is in the driver's seat because he can decide in January and will for sure know who the 1st team to draft will likely be.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - fullmetal - 11-20-2011

Luck should go...I don't know how big of a question mark the offensive line next year will be, and to have Luck's last year be one of frustration due to potential stagnation in receiving talent and potential drop-off in offensive line effectiveness would be disappointing.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - jayasena - 11-21-2011

(11-20-2011, 01:46 PM)Extra Point link Wrote:I suspect he has been told to avoid the Catoushes as well.

Folks, the term is spelled "cattouse", as in "Andrew Luck cattoused Sean Cattouse".

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - estephan500 - 11-21-2011

I would have loved to see luck put his head down and make a run for it on that second-half bootleg up the right side. He chose to throw it forward. Fell incomplete. The tv dude said he probably wouldn't have made the first down if he had run for it. I was thinking that he had gone for serious cattousing he might have.

(funnily, the original cattouse moment was actually a glancing blow, not all that direct.)

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - MDKern123 - 11-21-2011

(11-21-2011, 05:56 AM)garvin link Wrote:There's no question the coaching staff has told Luck not to run so much. David Shaw was quoted in a lot of pre-season articles as saying that was practically the only thing they coached him on.

There are a lot of reasons for the performance variability.  ALmost all of the points discussed already are contributing factors....  but I think this is the crux of my original post....  there is no way Harbaugh wasn't keeping Luck's technique clean and mind focused.....  Shaw seems to be just happy just to have the "lucky one" in his presence. 



Re: The Harbaugh Effect - jayasena - 11-21-2011

In Shaw's defense, he probably feels some responsibility to keep Andrew healthy. Not only is it crucial for the team, but more importantly, it would be tragic if there were to be a serious injury that would harm his draft prospects when he could have elected to not come back this year.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - JohnR34231 - 11-21-2011

Agree that it certainly didn't make much sense to have Andrew run against, say, Colorado, where we knew we would win the game anyway.

Against the Ducks, where the season and the NC was on the line, I think the decision was a little less clear cut. I thought we should have had some designated runs for him in that one.

Re: The Harbaugh Effect - CowboyIndian - 11-21-2011

(11-21-2011, 06:45 AM)estephan link Wrote:(funnily, the original cattouse moment was actually a glancing blow, not all that direct.)
Actually, if you look at the tape from the front angle, Cattouse hit Andrew in the chin with his helmet....to little effect. You can see Andrew looking at him - I thought because of the semi-dirty nature of the hit - and then watching him fall to the ground before taking off again.