Less that a week after complaining about how Giants’ offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride was attempting to “criticize and influence officiating,” Jim Harbaugh is doing some complaining of his own. 

Harbaugh almost sounded like a disgruntled Green Bay Packers player, insinuating that the Seahawks were cheaters. His rhetorical questions to reporters suggested as much.

“Is it physical play, is it within the rules?” said Harbaugh during his Friday press conference. “I think that’s the biggest question, is it within the rules?”

While I can stomach watching Jim Harbaugh consistently screaming down officials and calling for penalties throughout a game, I’m baffled by his actions off the field—especially to suggest he’ll go crying to the league after a win, continuing to call for penalties. 

Unlike Green Bay fans, he isn’t asking for a win that was supposedly taken away. San Francisco beat the Seahawks straight up, and up until now I thought they deserved some respect for playing a more physical game than Seattle. Instead, Harbaugh is already posturing for the matchup against the Seahawks on Dec. 23.

It isn’t as if the play were physical on only the Seahawks side of the ball. Golden Tate was knocked off his route and out of bounds in the first half. No penalty was called even though Tate nearly caught it after diving over cornerback Chris Culliver.

At least the officials were consistently allowing both teams play physical football. Just as Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman weren’t called for illegal contact, San Francisco receivers got away with pushing off on occasion.

I’m sure Seahawks coach Pete Carroll could have come up with plenty of instances he’d like the league to review as well, but we haven’t heard him go complaining to the media after the game. I’d fault him a whole lost less than Harbaugh if he did, at least Carroll could complain that non-calls against the 49ers could have cost them the game.

Doug Baldwin said it best with his response on Twitter: “Jim said Sherm and BB were playing too rough. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

The only thing wrong with Baldwin’s tweet was that he didn’t take it all the way out to 140 characters.