Story excerpt from Grantland
That the San Francisco 49ers — a team that hasn’t had a winning record since 2002 — are 8-1 is one of the most shocking stories of the still-young NFL season. Even more shocking is how they’ve done it. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback, hasn’t turned the team around by getting back to Bill Walsh‘s West Coast offense, but instead by channeling Bo Schembechler, Harbaugh’s college coach at Michigan, and winning with physical defense and a powerful running game.
But the solid, if unspectacular, play of quarterback Alex Smith has been the glue holding San Francisco’s success together.
