-- In a mild upset Monday afternoon, Jim Harbaugh didn't turn defensive when questioned about the 49ers' playing defensively on offense.

In fact, dissecting Sunday's loss against the Cowboys brought out an unusually amiable version of the 49ers' head coach.

"We're trying to solve a lot of issues," he told reporters. "I know you're trying to solve them right along with us."

If that was his brand of sarcasm, Harbaugh disguised it very well.

The pleasantry matched the tone he brought to a question about the 49ers' last possession of the first half. They had 1 minute, 48 seconds, a 14-7 lead and no timeouts. They ran a ponderous version of the no-huddle and let the clock beat them, as the Cowboys eventually would.

With no timeouts left, the 49ers got off four plays, all out of the shotgun. They gained 12 yards on the first snap, a short pass to Vernon Davis. On the next play, Alex Smith threw deep and unsuccessfully to Ted Ginn Jr. on the right side.

Between the two plays, 34 seconds rolled off the clock, despite the no-huddle pace. They handed the ball to Frank Gore for a 6-yard gain, then huddled, driving the clock from 1:10 down to 26 seconds before the next snap. They got 4 more yards on a pass to Ginn, apparently for a first down, but the clock ticked away without another play.

"Staying aggressive, but yet making sure we didn't do anything that was going to be negative for our ballclub," Harbaugh explained patiently, "and turn the ball over, giving Dallas another shot before the half. Especially with us having the ball coming out in the second half."

The 49ers had placed a foot on the Cowboys' throat in the first half, and now they were wasting a chance to grind on Dallas. Harbaugh would reassert that conservative tendency later by accepting a field goal for a 10-point lead instead of erasing the kick and taking a penalty-generated first down.

In this long era of offensive constipation from the 49ers, we have heard far worse variations on the "making sure we didn't do anything that was going to be negative" theme. The low had to be Mike Nolan's explanation for blunting a decent drive with a punt on a 4th-and-1 from the opponent's 40 near the end of an ugly half: "As bad as 24-3 is, it sure beats 27-3 or 31-3."

Given how little time the lockout allowed Harbaugh to work with his offense, a pure two-minute drill with no timeouts might have been too much to expect. Even Gore's run didn't seem unforgivably conservative, because it came out of the shotgun and initially caught the Cowboys off-guard.

"You talk about things being so close," Harbaugh said. "We ran a run play on second down, and it was so close to going for 20-25 yards."

The loss of almost 30 seconds after the run was the real problem. The next play should have been clear, negating the need for a huddle. Or the ball should have been spiked after Davis' first-down catch. It takes guts to give away that down, but that decision would have reflected more determination to make something happen before the end of the half.

Give Harbaugh credit for admitting that he was being cautious. He could have pretended otherwise. He also could have given a chilly non-answer, or even blamed the officials for not immediately calling Ginn's catch a first down, possibly allowing the 49ers to spike the ball and run another play.

Harbaugh appeared to start signaling for Smith to go to the line for a spike, but he couldn't risk doing that in case it was a fourth down in his territory.

But at some point very soon, the 49ers have to start acting like a team that savors having the ball, seeing it strictly as an opportunity rather than a hazard. If they were really eager for it, they would have used a remaining timeout to stop the clock before Dallas' tying field goal at the end of regulation. They could have salvaged about 30 seconds, but instead they let the Cowboys drive down the clock to four seconds and call their own timeout.

"I think we're in a process of finding our identity," Harbaugh said at the start of Monday's news conference.

He might have established one of his own by becoming more open and humble after a rough day. Barry Bonds was known for that. According to Lowell Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, who covered the Niners at their peak, so was Bill Walsh.

Someday, Harbaugh might sound like Andy Reid, who practiced self-flagellation a day after handcuffing Michael Vick's inexperienced replacement in the Eagles' loss in Atlanta.

"I have a young quarterback in Mike Kafka that I was way, way too conservative with," Reid said at his news conference. "I think that sent a message to our football team, and not a positive message. ... So I'm kicking myself in the tail for that right now."

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