So the mistakes are less painful to discuss when you still get the win, and I wanna bring one up. This one, again, is a Harbaugh time and game management question.
What the hell was he doing going for it on 4th and 3 from our own 23 or wherever it was? That worked, fortunately...but then after that you've got an incomplete pass and a run for no gain, and with under a minute left and looking at 3rd and 10 from their own 24....he calls a timeout!? Why? Let the clock run, or make the Bengals take a timeout. Then there was an incomplete pass on 3rd and long, rather than a safe pass or just a run to eat more clock. Bengals get the ball back with about 35 seconds left.
I think allowing a TD in that scenario was unbelievable and I won't put that on Harbaugh and instead put that blame where it belongs on the defense and Eddie Jackson in particular, but moving the ball 30 yards so McPherson could try a long kick that he'd probably make was quite plausible and that is on him.
The defense dropped the ball after the above scenario unfolded and was close to invisible except for the pick by Humphrey the rest of the game. But up until that point, the defense had played quite well. Which I bring up just to negate the only one rationale for going for it and being so offensively aggressive on that drive that I can think of, which is if Harbaugh thought the defense would allow a TD no matter what. If the defense is gonna give up a TD whether Cincy gets the ball with 2 minutes on our 20 or if they get it with 30 seconds with the ball on their 20, then sure, be aggressive. But despite watching that reality unfold, I don't think it was particularly intelligent to think each scenario was an equal opportunity. And even if you doubted the defense that much, then just run out the clock more. Don't use your timeout and run the ball on 3rd and 10 and the Bengals might not get the ball back at all or if they do, they have less time and/or fewer timeouts left.
The TO after the failed draw to make it 3rd and 10 was unreal. Just absurd time management. I actually didn't mind the draw call. After you get nothing, that drives your decision. Let the clock roll or make the Bengals blow a time out. Instead we call the timeout ? Made zero sense.
