I agree with a lot of what you say Scott.. though I do think Kaep is a bit better than you give credit for. He has had some HUGE games against good teams (last year- Chicago, NO, NE, GB, Atl, Baltimore to name a few.. this year against GB twice), but he has a long way to go and was much more up and down this year.. and in his bad games (far worse than any last year), he was in most cases the main reason they lost (NO, Carolina, Indy for sure).
As you say, the Niners are very good and I think may have had a very similar, maybe even a better record the 2nd half of last year through this year had Alex been starting. On a scale of 1-10, Alex was consistently a 5-6.. rarely, if ever a 10 (save for NO playoff game) but almost never a 2 or 3. Kaep on the other hand is capable of being a 9 one week and a 1 the next. That said, if he develops a true pocket presence (meaning to trully feel rush without losing downfield focus like Russell, get through his progressions, deliver balls ON TIME!!) he will be unstoppable, and I see why Harbaugh made the very tough decision to give him the job.
As is, he's very limited in what he does. He can run for sure, but I actually don't think he has nearly the pocket feel or elusiveness that Wilson does. He also seems far more comfortable throwing after a play breaks down and once he's left the pocket.. main reason being, at this point "reads/progressions" dissappear and it more or less devolves into a 1/2 field game of see target- throw to target.. or run. It also seems like he makes a lot of pre-snap decisions and really locks into a single receivers for extended stretches (Crab last year, Boldin most of this year, Crab in the playoffs). I think a lot of QB's make pre-snap choices, but the great ones are able to adjust and re-adjust/reset feet/throw in a split second. The Crab v. Sherman was a really tough example for me to watch (I was sitting in that corner too!!!!). He had trips left and 2 quick developling routes (Patton a quick hitch and Davis on a quick out) were open. Had he even looked left, he may have noticed he had a sure 5-7 yards with Patton, who was on the sideline and could've stepped out of bounds.. or with a block from Davis, could've had a shot for more. But Kaep, rather than making a throw you complete 10 of 10 times, chose to throw a 50-50 ball (due to it's being "man on Crab"). However, against Sherman this probably becomes a 30-70 ball.. and then when slightly underthrown, becomes maybe a 10-90 ball and is more likely to get picked than completed. 2nd and 3 from the 11 with 2 TOs and 22 seconds would have been nice. As it was, he locked onto Crab pre-snap and forced it and the season's over.
Bummed out, but psyched to by psyched about football again these past 3 years, following a decade of Dennis Erickson/Mike Nolan/Mike Singletary... and can't wait to face your Hawks again 2, maybe 3 more times next year. Regardless, enjoy the game this weekend, the Seahawks definitely earned their SB berth.
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