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It’s not Alex Smith’s poor play that was the second biggest reason for 2007, instead it is the fact that he was injured in Week Four’s matchup with Seattle.  For the purposes of judging Alex Smith’s performance in the 2007 season, there are only three games that count.

In the Monday night opener against Arizona, Jim Hostler’s gameplan of run-run-pass-punt was in full effect.  The offensive line failed to get a push up the middle, and receivers enjoyed dropping passes.  Ultimately, the game came down to Alex Smith’s arm, legs, and guts.  When the game was on the line and Smith was cut loose, he went 6 of 7 for 60 yards and two would-be touchdowns on the 49ers final drive.  He dropped a pass over the coverage into Darrell Jackson’s breadbasket, and the erstwhile Pro Bowler dropped the easy touchdown.  Battle caught one at the three and fumbled just before the goal line.  It was a 4th quarter comeback that entrenched Alex Smith in 49er lore, for good or ill.

Gameplan and redzone execution continued to plage them in week two.  The line gave Smith little time to throw, gave almost no push for Frank Gore, the receivers dropped 3rd down passes, and the gameplan showed little creativity or unpredictability.  However, Smith played well when given something to work with.  He rolled left and absorbed a hard hit as he delivered a bullet to Jackson in coverage.  He slid right and threw back across his body catching Davis in stride.  He rolled right and threw on the run, dropping the ball right over the coverage into Jackson’s hands on the sideline.  He stepped up in the pocket and delivered another bullet to Jackson as the corner fell all over him. 

The Pittsburgh game saw Jim Hostler open up the gameplan a little bit, as the 49ers moved the ball far more effectively than the previous two games.  However, as many would note as the season progressed, an initial good drive would be followed up with the run-run-pass thing again.  Against Pittsburgh, Smith continued to make good reads, make good throws, hit receivers in stride, hit them on the sidelines and hit them in the corners.  The offensive line played much better, surrendering only two sacks to the vaunted Steelers’ pass rush.

Redzone execution was the killer against the Steelers.  They could get the ball in scoring position, but do nothing with it.  Here it all comes down to play calling.  Your routes are limited, and your runs must be creative.  You cannot run dive plays when the defense is so close in.  You have to mix up the calls, which is something Smith never had.  The first drive of the game ended with two throws to Vernon Davis running a seam to the endzone.  There were no other viable options that were in the range of a touchdown or first down, and that is all on Jim Hostler.

Looking at film from last season and from this season, we see Smith making the same kinds of throws, and the same kind of reads, when he has the time.  Look at his performance against the Rams, and you see a guy completing 65% of his passes, and despite drops of would-be first downs, the throws were there.

People who say Smith isn’t accurate make me laugh.  The deep sideline throws are the absolute hardest to make in football, and Smith makes them every time.  You’ll notice a throw to Battle against Green Bay, where the defender is all over him, and Smith drops a 45-yard arc right where only his hands can catch it–and he makes these throws routinely.  In the Philadelphia game where he threw for 298 yards and two touchdowns, he makes an absolutely perfect strike under the goalposts, high where only Johnson’s hands can get it–in triple coverage.  One of the things you will remember is how much the team misses a receiver’s ability to make big plays (Antonio Bryant) and make crucial possesion catches (Eric Johnson).  Smith lacks tools to make plays.

Smith’s critics like to maintain he has mechanical flaws in his game, but most of these observations came after his injury.  When you suffer a traumatic injury such as that, the mind goes to the cause of the injury.  Clearly it was the inability of his linemen to block Rocky Bernard of the Seahawks, and Smith was harrassed for all three games.  It is no surprise, therefore, that the body reacts to this memory of trauma, and seeks to avoid it.  It got to Smith’s mind as much as his body, and since he was not fully healed, this caused problems in his mechanics.  Of course the critics also then say that they never saw anything in Smith to suggest he’d be a good quarterback.  They are entitled to their opinions, but the film shows differently.

He does not have a slow release, much as people would like to think.  What he had was the occasional inability to make a decision quickly, which is dependent on a couple of things.  One, if the offense is flooding one side of the field and protection breaks down on that side, Smith is forced to the other side, where there are no receivers.  Two, if the routes are all deep with no outlets, because Gore and Davis have to block the blitz, it takes too much time for them to develop.  If his decision-making was good last season and seems worse this season, it directly relates to teaching, gameplanning and playcalling.

Regarding Smith’s mobility, he compares best to Steve Young in former 49er quarterbacks.  Smith knows how to improvise when he has the freedom, and did a lot more of that under Turner than Hostler.  Not only is he just as fast as Young was, but when he gets out of the pocket he keeps his head up, not only to find receivers, but the key is he keeps his eyes up when he commits to the run.  He does not always look directly to the first down marker and the sidelines.  When you look at the Pittsburgh run, in particular, his focus was finding the holes and gaining the most yardage, not just getting the first down. 

On reverses or other running plays, he commits to a block.  He doesn’t hedge his bets.  If a block doesn’t come early, he keeps going downfield with the play until he finds one.  This speaks not only to Smith’s toughness and athleticism, but also his selflessness.  He has always been a team guy, and he never stops fighting when he’s on the field.  Against New Orleans, everyone praised his toughness and courage, and not a single player called him “the cowardly lion” after that game.  All of a sudden, one week later, players are lambasting him?

The unnamed players who supposedly supported Nolan over Smith, or called him “the cowardly lion,” were quoted by the ignominious San Jose Mercury News, the publication that sows discord on this team whenever it can.  If they can show cracks between Nolan/McCloughan, Nolan/The Yorks, Nolan/Smith, Smith/his team, they are going to do it every single time.  They want this franchise to fall apart because it gets what they want, which is the firing of Mike Nolan.

People said Smith was making excuses about his injury, and even his Head Coach got in some digs.  When it became evident, even obvious to most observers, that Smith’s play was vastly different after his injury, we all knew that the injury had affected him adversely.  When someone admits this to be the truth, why do those same observers call it an excuse?  If we can see direct results, then it is not an excuse.  For Smith to face questions about his toughness and confidence, especially from Mike Nolan, who praised this exact quality in Smith after New Orleans, is unreasonable and flat wrong.

Smith was never a guy who complained or ran his mouth.  He was always supportive of the team cause, he spoke highly of his coach, and other players spoke highly of him.  From Jonas Jennings to Joe Staley to Frank Gore, to even Antonio Bryant, they all saw him as their leader.  When players seemed reluctant to jump to Smith’s defense during the flap, they didn’t want their head coach to suddenly throw them under the bus the way he did Smith. 

The injury flap is largely couched in the stresses of this awful season, and winning changes everything.  Frank Gore lost his mother and his friend Sean Taylor, Nolan lost his father, and Smith was badly injured.  The season went from bad to worse and everyone has some blame in it.  But I maintain that Alex Smith is not a liability as a player, teammate, or leader.  He routinely puts himself on the line for this team, and that will not change.

In the coming days I will address the supposed preference of players for the leadership of Shaun Hill over Smith, and also the future of Alex Smith under Mike Martz.  For now, I submit my evidence to the court.  Special thanks to 49ers Paradise Forum Member westcoastguy for finding the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84QXHUcfSQY&feature=relate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GllqR_8lrVM&feature=related

http://49ersnews.com/highlights-week-1-49ers-vs-cards/

http://49ersnews.com/highlights-week-2-49ers-vs-Rams/

http://49ersnews.com/highlights-week-3-49ers-vs-steelers/