Through the first ten weeks of the NFL season no team has made a bigger turnaround than the San Francisco 49ers. After claiming their most recent victim earlier today routing the New York Giants by a final score of 27-20, the 49ers currently sit in the drivers seat in the NFC Western Division with an overall record of 8-1 and have already won more games this season than most experts predicted they'd win as well as eclipsing their win total from last year (6-10). Much of the credit for San Francisco's sudden success goes to head coach Jim Harbaugh who in his first year at the helm is slowly transforming the 49ers back into the proud franchise that made a habit out of winning during the early 80's and on into the 90's.
After taking over a depleted program at Stanford in which he helped rebuild and form what it is today, the 49ers knew what coach Harbaugh could bring to the table and they made him aware of that by offering him a 5-year, $25 Million deal during the offseason. The one thing Harbaugh has done since taking over the job other than winning of coarse is making believers out of his players most notably his quarterback Alex Smith. While many were beginning to write off the six-year QB Smith who entered the offseason a free-agent for the first time in his career, Harbaugh, a former quarterback during his playing days saw what few others saw in Alex Smith -- a second chance. Re-signing the former first overall pick of the 2005 NFL Draft was one of the first things atop Jim Harbaugh's to-do list when he landed the job and so far it's worked out quite well as Harbaugh has been able to groom Smith into the quarterback they thought they were drafting nearly seven years ago.
Though Smith hasn't put up the MVP-like numbers you'd expect from an 8-1 team, he's played smart football thus far and has avoided the forced throws and bad decisions that have haunted him throughout his professional career. And with a Pro Bowl running back in Frank Gore the burden is somewhat relieved on offense. Gore who was awarded a contract extension earlier this year has put together one of finest month and halves by any 49er running back in franchise history, logging a club record five consecutive games with at least 100 yards rushing. Even more impressive than San Francisco's offense is their defense. Led by one of the youngest and most lethal linebacker tandems in all of football, Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman, the 49er D ranks number one at stopping the run and has worked it's way up the latter in just about every single other statistical category as well.
Coming from someone like myself who's grown up a diehard 49ers fan, I can't begin to put into perspective just how impressive Harbaugh has coached this team considering the lockout-shortened offseason that did nothing but serve as an inconvenience to him and his new squad. But anyone on coach Harbaugh's coaching staff would tell you that he's not yet satisfied with the results and that there's still room for improvement as the playoffs near. Follow the team's journey as the season progresses as they get set to host the division rival Arizona Cardinals next week in San Francisco in hopes of improving their 8-1 record that ranks second in the league to only the undefeated Green Bay Packers.
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