Siefert Amazed at Harbaugh

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Seifert's final coaching job was with the Carolina Panthers from 1999 to 2001. There was an aging quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, on his final team. And on Seifert's staff for all three seasons with the Panthers was a young, eager assistant named Greg Roman.

"This is more of a power football game," Seifert said. "Not that we couldn't run the ball. But he leans on it more that we did with Bill and myself as coaches. Also the fact the two coaches that proceeded Jim were of the same orientation, so there was a natural flow when he took over."

Seifert is amazed at how Harbaugh has taken a team that experienced an eight-year playoff drought and achieved immediate success.

Harbaugh joined Seifert as the only 49ers coaches to win NFC West titles their first two seasons. Seifert won a Super Bowl in his first season after replacing Walsh. In Seifert's second season, the 49ers bid for a a third Super Bowl in a row was derailed with a heartbreaking loss to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game.

"But this team came back stronger this year, and that's not easy to do. What they did last year was miraculous. This year, they're putting the cherry on the cake. It's mind-boggling what coach Jim Harbaugh has done."

What Harbaugh has been able to do, Seifert said, is somehow shift an attitude in which losing had turned into a bad habit. How many times with Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary as coaches did the 49ers lose games that were seemingly in their grasp in the fourth quarter?

"That team had been developing for the last few years, but the attitude is a key thing," Seifert said. "They were good, but they always seemed to figure out a way to lose. For him to come in and in a year turn that around was remarkable."

"I'm most excited about San Francisco getting an opportunity to win a sixth Super Bowl and tie Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is known as a tough football town. People don't think of San Francisco as a tough football town. So this is pretty unique thing to experience as a fan."