Not many coaches can or should ever quote, or attempt to sing, a Johnny Cash song, but that’s what Jim Harbaugh did Monday as he looked back on what his 49ers have accomplished to get where they are — one game away from Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium.
“Our team’s been in a lot of good primers,’’ Harbaugh said. “Been through a lot of situations. Been through tough environments, whether it be weather or opposing stadiums. Been everywhere, man. Like the Johnny Cash song, ‘We’ve been everywhere, man.’ Everywhere. Been in a lot of situations.”
The 49ers haven’t exactly been everywhere, but they’ve been pretty close as they ready themselves for Sunday’s NFC Championship against the Seahawks. These teams got where they are showing their trademark form.
The Seahawks, as they are wont to do, jumped out to an early lead in their crazed (and rain-soaked) CenturyLink Field home and held on for a 23-15 victory over the Saints. The 49ers rode out the early storm by the hyped up Panthers and then leaned on their decided playoff experience advantage for a 23-10 victory in Charlotte, N.C. Remarkably, it was the first time in the 49ers’ long and storied history that they won back-to-road playoff games, having dispatched the Packers in frigid Green Bay a week earlier.
These NFC West rivals are similar in many ways and thus have great animosity for each other. The head coaches aren’t doing lunch any time soon, either.
When Harbaugh got to Stanford he made no secret of his desire to create his program in the image of mighty USC, on a big-time roll under the charismatic Pete Carroll. The genesis of the dislike began in 2007, when Stanford as a 41-point underdog — a team that would finish that season with a record of 4-8 — upset the top-ranked Trojans. Two years later, Harbaugh and Stanford did it again, this time administering a lethal 55-21 beat-down at the L.A. Coliseum, with Harbaugh in classic run-up-the-score mode, calling for a two-point conversion late in the game with the outcome long decided. That led to a brief but tense postgame exchange, with Carroll meeting (but not greeting) Harbaugh by saying “What’s your deal?’’ and Harbaugh, in full glory, coming back with “What’s YOUR deal?’’ as he walked off.
“I haven’t seen where that’s really even talked about anymore,’’ Harbaugh said of his relationship (or lack thereof) with Carroll. “I think that might have been something four or five years ago. But, I haven’t seen it as of late. And, it would be as irrelevant now as it would have been then when people made a bigger deal out of it. So, irrelevant, irrelevant.”
Both coaches have tried to downplay the personal feud, but it hasn’t exactly gone away in the NFL. Harbaugh, in his three years with the 49ers, is 4-2 against Carroll and the Seahawks, but it has been bad news for the Niners in Seattle, where the Seahawks have beaten the 49ers the past two games by a combined score of 71-16, not faring well at all at loudest stadium in the league.
“There are a lot of loud venues, I wouldn’t want to disrespect any of the loud venues,’’ Harbaugh said. “But, I would have to say that that’s the loudest, yes. To my ear, but I’m older. Everything sounds louder to me, I think. All the music seems a lot louder.”
The Niners didn’t handle it well at all back in Week 2, when they were manhandled by the Seahawks 29-3 in Seattle and in the fourth quarter had to burn two timeouts on offense because of issues dealing with the noise. The Seahawks led that game 5-0 at halftime and then dominated the second half.
“I suppose we could have done better in areas than we did,’’ Harbaugh said. “We didn’t win the game. If you went back and looked at it there was sort of that avalanche at the end and the game got out of hand late in the game. But, we’ll learn from our mistakes. That’s how you get smart. That’s how we all get smart, right? If we learn from our mistakes, we get smart.”