GAME DAY MEMORIES
Saints and Forty-Niners
Do you remember way long ago
when the Forty-Niners rallied to beat the Saints in a thrilling Divisional
round playoff game? Do you remember that
Alex Smith played QB for the Niners that day and made all the big plays down
the stretch?
Then do you remember how
Smith started the next season as a very efficient passer? After eight games the Niners were 6-2. Smith carried the fifth best quarterback
rating into the ninth game - behind some bums named Rogers, Peyton Manning,
Brady, and RGIII. Smith suffered a
concussion in game nine and his backup played OK that week in a game the Niners
didn't win, but didn't lose either. Then
in week ten the backup, one Colin Kaupernick, played extremely well as the
Niners clobbered the Bears in a Monday Night game.
Wait, you say that Saint playoff
game was just this past January and that it is this year that Alex Smith ranks
fifth in the league in passing and has won six of the eight games he started
and finished? You also say Smith is
healthy enough to start today's game against the Saints in New Orleans but that
Niner coach Jim Harbaugh may start Kaupernick?
Hmmmm.
This is a fascinating dilemma
to me. Mostly because it is a dilemma
that Harbaugh created on his own. In 99/100
cases like this an NFL coach would go back to the regular starter (Smith). But Harbaugh isn't your normal coach. He has left open the possibility that he
would start Kaupernick in place of a healthy Smith. Those of us who witnessed Kaupernick toy with
the Bears' defense understand Harbaugh's infatuation with the backup QB. He brings an ability that Smith lacks to open
up the offense. A deep passing game to
compliment their creative running game would make the Niners quite formidable.
And yet.....Smith took the team
to the brink of the Super Bowl last year and to the top of the AFC West this
year. How exactly did he lose his
starting job (If in fact Harbaugh starts Kaupernick)? Are players in the Niner locker room
wondering what is going on? Is there a
chance this little fling could blow up in Harbaugh's face?
Maybe Harbaugh is just toying
with us and Smith will trot out for the opening offensive series. Maybe Harbaugh knows his team a lot better
than we do and the Niners professionally go about their business and trust the
coach to put the right guy under center.
Whatever happens, Smith's
heroics last year against the Saints feels like ancient history. Life in the NFL.
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