Jim Harbaugh is determined to stick up for his quarterback. The San Francisco 49ers head coach has not been happy about the amount of hits Colin Kaepernick is being targeted with. Things got especially bad during the team's game against Green Bay when linebacker Clay Matthews placed a late hit on Kaepernick causing a fight on the field. Now the two coaches are exchanging some words to each other.
Harbaugh is accusing Matthews of throwing a punch and slap onto left tackle Joe Staley while the two teams were fighting over the late hit in the second quarter. His message to the Packers linebacker is that slapping is not a representation of a tough guy.
"I think that young man works very hard on being a tough guy," Harbaugh said, via ESPN. "He'll have some repairing to do to his image after the slap. If you're going to go to the face, come with some knuckles, not an open slap."
Matthews created the situation for himself after stating in a pre-game press conference that he would be targeting to hit Kaepernick as much as possible. The Green Bay defense was caught off guard last year by the running quarterback who rushed for a record 181 yards in the 49ers playoff win. He only made things worse when he wrapped is arm around Kaepernick's neck after he had already stepped out of bounds.
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is not concerned over Harbaugh's comments about his star linebacker. He insists Matthews was simply doing his job and he will not comment on it further.
"Clay Matthews is not a dirty player, by no means," McCarthy said. "I addressed Harbaugh's comments in the team meeting and as always we'll stay above it. I had already committed to hitting the quarterback. I guess I should have figured he was going to step out of bounds. But it's nothing personal. I went up to him later and was joking around with him. But not a very smart play. And that's kind of the end of that."
The NFL has been addressing the issue of placing hits on a mobile quarterback. Once the player leaves the pocket, they are allowed to be tackled like a running back. Matthews said prior to the game that linebackers will keep that in mind but the main goal is to simply get the player to the ground.
"It looks as if as long as that quarterback is carrying out that fake, he loses his right as a pocket passer and rules that govern that," Matthews said, via CSNBayArea.com. "We'll see the hits that are legal and what's not legal, but we think our game plan fits within the scheme of the officials and what we want to do."
The tackling issue will continue to be a situation throughout the season. As the idea of the mobile quarterback continues to grow, hits placed on them will continue to be under fire.
