Coach Jim Harbaugh issued a statement during Friday's practice in which he blasted Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride's accusations that Justin Smith plays outside of the rules, Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News reports. "Kevin Gilbride's outrageous, irrational statement regarding Justin Smith's play is, first, an absurd analogy," Harbaugh said. "Second, it is an incendiary comment targeting one of the truly exemplary players in this league. "It's obvious that the Giants coaching staff's sole purpose is to use their high visibility to both criticize and influence officiating." The 49ers (4-1) host the Giants (3-2) on Sunday in a rematch of last season's NFC Championship game, which the Giants won 20-17 in overtime en route to a Super Bowl XLVI victory. On Thursday, Gilbride told the New York media that Smith uses illegal tactics on stunts to enhance the 49ers' pass rush. "Smith is a beast on the inside, he's strong, he does as good a job of grabbing a hold of offensive linemen and allowing those twists to take place," Gilbride said in a transcript provided by the Giants. "He never gets called for it so he gets away with murder. " Source: The Redzone
You know the reason he yapped was what Harbaugh said...to try and influence the officials to watch Smith more and the Giants less...
Aaaaactuallyyyyyyy.... FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Film Room: Packers-Niners Go down to #3 where the evidence (pictures) start.
eh, it's difficult because we have been trained to follow the ball with our eyes, but if you just watch the l.o.s. in ANY nfl game, there is so much grabbing and holding going on inside by every player on both sides of the ball, the refs could call holding every play. obviously, that would make the game suck so thats why the refs generally only call holding when it greatly affects the play out in the open (hold on a lead block, hold when a blocker gets beat badly, etc.). it just rarely gets called inside so the smart teams/smart players take advantage.
Bingo! Btw if you look Justin smith wears really small shoulder pads because it makes him hard to grab onto.
