Baalke’s strained relationship with former coach Jim Harbaugh led to Harbaugh’s departure following the 2014 season. Harbaugh took the Niners to the playoffs in his first three seasons, but the 49ers went 8-8 in his final year.
The 49ers’ search for Harbaugh’s replacement wasn’t exactly aggressive as the team promoted defensive line coach Jim Tomsula to the head coaching position. Tomsula was fired after going 5-11 in his only season as the team turned to Kelly.
The 49ers hired the former Eagles and Oregon coach, passing on current Dolphins coach Adam Gase, who has his team in the playoffs in his first year at the helm.
But San Francisco’s roster is a mess through poor draft choices and an passive approach with free agency.
As everyone expects, Roethlisberger will play through his latest lower-body injury, which will have an adverse affect on the great mobility he has for his size. Dropping back often on a bad foot and trying to fit balls into tight windows downfield isn’t the best away to attack the Chiefs, anyway.
Roethlisberger always has been a little off when he makes his expedited return from injury. It has happened in multiple playoff games, and the latest case in point was the rough performance he had in Baltimore in Week 8, after his injured left knee kept him out vs. New England in Week 7.
That was a small sampling of Roethlisberger’s road woes throughout the 2016 season.
In his eight combined games away from Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger rated only 78.4 and completed only 59.4 percent of his passes. He averaged 238 yards passing per game and only 6.7 per attempt. He had 9 TDs to go with 8 INTs.