If he starts to suck (or if he just doesn’t show the team that he can be the future) again we can go into this year’s draft looking for a QB.

Have fun dismantling my favorite team this Sunday.

I think that Alex Smith has given us a reason to be fairly optimistic in a very limited, short-term sort of way. I feel good about him in the sense that he might give me a reason this weekend to actually feel good about him.

Ultimately, I can’t really answer your first question for another couple of weeks at the minimum, and I can’t answer your second question until the season is over. There’s just not enough to go on right now. We know his development has been essentially unscoutable for two years now thanks to his shoulder, so we really have no idea how far – if at all – he’s actually progressed from the last time he took the field healthy at the very beginning of the 2007 season.

But there’s the possibility that he’s going to be very good. And that’s more than Shaun Hill (who even the supporters – and I’m one of them – would concede never had a chance to more than merely “good”).

Well this post filled up pretty quickly.

I have to say I’m kind of excited to see what Alex Smith can do…and not just because it gives me an excuse to bust out my #11 jersey. What I like is that we can finally get an idea about what Smith truly brings to the table. He’s had injury issues the last couple years and is finally 100% healthy. More importantly, he’s got more talent than he’s had in his entire time with the team.

If the 49ers decide to draft a QB in 2010, I see them taking somebody in the mid to later rounds. I would hope they want to see what Nate Davis can bring to the table, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Gore is a very dangerous weapon in the passing game.

The 49ers can’t stop anybody’s pass rush, but who knows? If Crabtree starts playing very well we could see Vernon Davis staying in to block a bit more and I’d feel comfortable with him against any pass rusher in the NFL. Beyond that, I don’t think anybody on our o-line can really contend with the Colt’s rush save for Eric Heitman.

Pass Rush: Well the 49ers offensive line has really struggled this season. They shuffled the right side of the line only to see their new right tackle, Tony Pashos, go down for the season. Adam Snyder was moved over to split time at right guard, but now might have to move back given the injury. The Colts pass rush is most definitely NOT the type of pass rush you want to deal with when your o-line is struggling. Good thing Alex Smith has good wheels.

Gore: In his first few years, Gore was often leading the team in receptions. He can definitely do good things in the passing game. However, the last year has seen the 49ers add some decent enough receivers so Gore hasn’t been as necessary in the passing game.

He was playing inconsistently, but he was also being shuffled in and out of an offensive line that a competent lineman would have easily won a starting job in. Our line is not good right now, and he was struggling to win the job. The dropoff to the “backup” won’t be all that much.

That said, I think that the loss is rather painful. Not only is it a hit to the depth along an already thin corps of players, but he really represents the 49ers’ continued failure to identify and acquire quality offensive lineman. It’s not exactly fair because Pashos had been a full-time starter on some good offensive lines, so everybody expected that he was going to be a very good acquisition. As it turned out, though, he’s just another free agent in a long line of Jonas Jennings and Marvel Smiths. Add that to the disappointing development of our many draft picks (whether we’re talking Snyder, Baas, and Rachal), and it seems like the only HITS we’ve had on the O-line these last few years have been Joe Staley and Larry Allen (and really, Larry Allen is a hall of famer, so that was a nice slam dunk of a scouting job).

So from a practical standpoint, I’d REALLY like to have the extra depth of a Pashos, but we probably won’t see much in the way of a production loss. However, from a symbolic standpoint, he’s really the latest in a long list of major failures by this front office to shore up what has been a very bad offensive line for many years now.

But because our backup couldn’t block a high school pass rusher.

No announcement has been made yet as to who will be the right tackle. When I hear more I’ll make sure and post it here. Right now, it’s hard to tell. I’m guessing Snyder moves back to right tackle, which isn’t exactly a good thing for the tackle or guard position on the right side.

1) Didn’t Freeney hurt his quad? I know Colts pass rush is going to get its sacks on us. Addition of Sanders; does that help or hurt if he’s not full up? Heard he did not play that much last week.
2) A.Smith. We’re standing by with you as well to find out if it’s the second coming or somebody just had the best week ever…
Concur that the Colts should not have trouble. I think we all knew Houston-Indy-Green Bay at Lambeau would be a tough stretch for the Niners.
I just hope Gore gets off Sunday. That would be fantastic. Good luck to your team and ours.

Gore should be 100% healthy now. He missed two games and had a bye week to boot. For one reason or another he just couldn’t get it going against the Texans though the 49ers became pass-happy in the second half. Looking for Gore to do well providing the Colts make some adjustments to Alex Smith and respect the passing game just a little bit.

As for what needs to go right? Well.. We need Alex Smith to play like he did in the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Texans for an entire four quarters, we need Frank Gore to make it hard for the defense to fall back in coverage and open up the way for Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis. We’d need Patrick Willis or any other defensive player to come up big with a turnover and we’d need Takeo Spikes and Michael Lewis to not be hurt too bad to play.

As for what the Colts need to do wrong? Not much, necessarily. It’d be nice to see Dwight Freeney lose a step and not punish the 49ers line too much and maybe if Peyton Manning sleeps in my accident and doesn’t show up to the game.

but I’m starting to think Gore is never going to be 100% healthy ever again. Seems like one or both of his ankles are always a little bit dinged up. And aside from two big runs against the seahawks he hasn’t done much of anything this season – of course the blame for that goes mostly to the abysmal OL

Better than Obama’s

His approval rating is still very high, although many are starting to waiver their faith in Mike. The bland offense, lack of quality O-Lineman brought in during the off-season, some time management/timeout mis-use issues…but I’d mainly say it’s just fans being fans.

Funny isn’t it that teams that struggle always change coaches and eventually they get in the habit of believing it’s all about getting the right guy…right now! We need to give him a good 3 years I say. And fans need to temper their expectations. It’s hard to go worst to first, bad to good, etc. in a year. And sometimes, it’s just a matter of everything going your way…luck if you will.

although I think we can all agree he still has plenty to learn about game-management. Also, the OC is a question mark. But Sing has shown that he has the balls to make changes and is not afraid to bench people – he also seems like he’s willing to make big adjustments to the game plan. He’s obviously a good motivator and he’s taught this team to be pretty tough – although that hasn’t shown up as much in the last few weeks. I think we’re a little disappointed in how unprepared the team looked coming off a bye week. So we support Mike but we see room for growth.

against the Rams!

from Willis and Lawson alot against the Texans.

They are our pass rushers. Interestingly enough P.Willis was rushing a lot more against Houston. Generally it’s been Haralson and Lawson from the outside…both of whom have shown flashes of being good pass rushers. Our front 3 are very tough, physical, and relentless though. If Abrayo Franklin (Nose), can command a double team on any play…the rush should be very good. Unfortunately we can’t bring the house because our secondary is still finding it’s identity.

Jimmy Raye.

Nate Clements for less-than-stellar coverage at “shut-down” corner.

Both Guards and RT.

Jimmy Raye for the offense struggling.

Mark Roman for seeming to get beat at safety a lot.

needs to be addressed, but might be better through free agency. Agree with Dave R. I would not use the Carolina pick. I hope we combine the picks and get a premier player.

I think that it would warrant a first round pick. It is really bad right now.

However, like I said above, I really don’t have a lot of faith in our front office to scout a decent offensive lineman. They’ve shown some epic fail in both the draft and free agency over the last few years.

I’m thinking we trade down on Carolina’s pick, use ours for Eric Berry/Taylor Mays or a stud pass-rusher, and then take one of the better RG/RT’s with a late first rounder. Probably pick up an extra second rounder as well where we could hope to find another O-Lineman to bring along.

The OL is probably the biggest weakness on the team at this point. I think Joe Staley can be a rock on the line, but they need some more help long term at the tackle position. The question is what kind of money you’re willing to spend. I say find the answer and take care of it. You don’t want to break the bank, but you’re gonna have to pay up for some talent.

I honestly don’t know what to expect from Alex Smith. I’d like to think last Sunday was a sign of things to come for him, but obviously one can’t project one half out to the rest of the season with any real confidence. I do think Smith is in an infinitely better position now than he was two years ago when he was last healthy. At this point, any guesses would be just that, guesses.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not excited.

God, will this paint me as a complete homer I suspect, but I think Manning can do more (especially since he’s 15 years younger!).

I am trying to run through situations where I might change my mind, or may have a few years ago (2 minute drill down by 5, 4th and long, last play of a big game, etc) and really cannot come up with one where I’d clearly say Joe. For better or worse, I grew up on the east coast and didn’t see the niners too much, except of course in really big games, where Joe shone pretty well. And as a lifelong Cowboys hater, I really liked the niners during their rise to supremacy.

But still… 18 over 16.

Peyton Manning probably is the more physically gifted player. And he’s certainly gotten over the hump of “winning the big one.” I can’t even begin to imagine what he would have done with Jerry Rice and company. Of course, I don’t know how many 49ers fans you could get to admit they’d take Manning over Montana. I think down the road though it’s a debate worth having, when things aren’t quite so intense as the week of a head-to-head matchup.