49ers Vs. Browns: Not Quite Unleashing The Hounds?

For many folks watching the 49ers hold off the Cleveland Browns yesterday, there were some concerns about the team's performance in the second half. The offense seemed to shut down for much of the third and fourth quarter. The Browns cut the lead to seven but it remains to be seen whether any second half fan consternation was due to the Browns closing in or just the fact that the 49ers offense looked anemic.

I bring this up because I read two interesting takes on that performance. One was by the Bay Area Sports Guy and one was by Tim Kawakami. TK actually seemed a bit more over the top with his enthusiasm, but both echoed somewhat related points. Kawakami focused on the swagger of a team doing what they wanted and getting the victory with little doubt. BASG looked at it more as the 49ers jumped out to an early lead and decided to not overextend themselves, but rather play a bit more restrained football.

One area that I struggle to reconcile these various points is based on the fact that the 49ers did in fact wipe the floor with Tampa Bay a few weeks ago. If the 49ers did pull their foot off the pedal yesterday (as opposed to simply struggling), did the coaching staff simply have less concern about a Browns comeback than it did about a possible Bucs comeback?

If you look at Tim Kawakami's article, he seems ready to "crown their [site decorum]." He described the victory as easy and breezy. It didn't look easy at times, but again, how much of that was the 49ers just sort of plodding along as opposed to the Browns making some kind of big impact?

More than anything I would like to get folks' take on these separate articles about the game.