Harbaugh: “You didn’t think we were going to pull that out, did you?”

GREEN BAY – After the 49ers beat the Packers, Jim Harbaugh strode to the visiting team’s podium, locked eyes with me and said to me, “You didn’t think we were going to pull that out, did you?”

Of course I did, I said. And I really did.

Who didn’t?

“It’s not our first time,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got a lot of tough guys here and they generated a lot of toughness. And clutch. Clutch performances by Crabtree, Kaepernick, T. Brock, a lot of guys – Bowman, Willis, Vernon Davis, Frank Gore. Offensive line – great protection all day. I thought our guys kept our poise extremely well, fought and played well.

Q: Did that look like a pick-six to you that Mycah Hide dropped?

HARBAUGH: No, it didn’t. It was an incompletion (smiles).

Q: Were you urging Kaepernick to run, or were most of those called?

HARBAUGH: There wasn’t a whole lot called out there today. Our receivers were getting grabbed. I think Colin saw that and took matters into his own hands. He was around the edge a couple of times so fast. If it was a yard, it was 20, the way he was getting the edge. Just clutch. Colin Kaepernick is – I think we can all agree – a clutch performer.

Q: Were you surprised Kaepernick didn’t wear sleeves?

HARBAUGH: I asked him if he wanted to wear sleeves and he said, “No, I’ve played in colder.”

Q: What was Phil Dawson’s range for that last field goal?

HARBAUGH: Especially going the way we were going, we would have attempted it from 30 (yard line). That was about where things were standing.

Q: What do you mean when you say Kaepernick is clutch?

HARBAUGH: Somebody that answers in the clutch time of the game. The important down. The time when it matters most. That’s what I call “clutch.” He’s Kaepernick tough.

Q: What was going on with the back-to-back timeouts in the third quarter?

HARBAUGH: Kap forgot his wristband on the first play of the second half. A player lined up on the wrong side of the formation another time.

Q: In all your years playing and coaching in the NFL, how unique is Colin Kaepernick’s ability to take off and make huge plays?

HARBAUGH: The unique part is just how much ground he covers with the strides, how much ground he covers when he gets an edge, how much ground he covers when he steps up in the pocket. They go quick – 5, 10, 20. They go pretty fast. I think that’s unique. I’ve never seen that before. But he made some great throws today, too. Some clutch throws. The catch that Michael Crabtree made, and Colin – they executed. It was unbelievable. And the play that Colin – if he would have thrown it, it would have got batted down. He pulled it back and then scrambled for a first down. Clutch. Tough. Great. But like I said, our guys have done this before. It isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Onward now.

Q: When you signed Perrish Cox, did you think he’d play this much five days later?

HARBAUGH: Yeah, we figured he’d be playing a lot because of Carlos’ situation.

Q: Was Eric Wright healthy enough to play?

HARBAUGH: Yes.

Q: What influenced that call?

HARBAUGH: They were both in there. I don’t want to talk about nickel-corner controversies.

Q: How good was Crabtree?

HARBAUGH: People talk about cold weather and it is hard to catch balls, but the greatest catcher of all time (laughs). Michael Crabtree catches everything. In the northern slow lands down to the tropic, sunny scenes, he’s catching the football. Where they throw a football, he’ll be catching it.

Q: He’s the greatest catcher of all time?

HARBAUGH: I think so, that I’ve seen. I’ve said that before. That’s not new. If my life depended on it and somebody had to catch a ball, I’d enlist Michael Crabtree to do it.

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