ESPN: Are Packers Targeting Kaepernick?

          San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh wants to ensure that mobile quarterback Colin Kaepernick isn't blatantly targeted Sunday by the Green Bay Packers, so he has gone to the NFL for clarity about when Kaepernick is supposed to be safe before he's declared a runner. Kaepernick ran the read-option to near perfection on a big stage against Green Bay in the NFC divisional round in January. By league rule, a quarterback in that scheme isn't as protected as his peers once he leaves the pocket and it's clear he's running. "You're hearing a lot of tough talk right now. You're hearing some intimidating type of talk, the same thing we were hearing a couple years ago," Harbaugh said Wednesday. "It sounds a lot like targeting a specific player. You definitely start to wonder. "A man will usually tell you his bad intentions if you just listen. You know what's being said publicly, not what's being said privately. You hope that their intent isn't going to be anything that's not within the rules." On Tuesday, Packers outside linebacker Clay Matthews told ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" that perhaps the best way to slow read-option quarterbacks like Kaepernick is to hit them. "One of the things that the referees have told us is that when these quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback," Matthews said. "So with that, you do have to take your shots on the quarterback, and obviously they're too important to their offense. "If that means they pull them out of that type of offense and make them run a traditional, drop-back, pocket-style offense, I think that's exactly what we're going for. So you want to put hits as early and often on the quarterback and make them uncomfortable."

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