Colin Kaepernick seemed to be the only one who understood how delicate the next few days and perhaps weeks of the 49ers? season would be. Good vision on the field, good vision off it.
He was asked, based on coach Jim Harbaugh?s notion of having two quarterbacks with ?the hot hand,? if he thought he was ready to be the starting quarterback going forward, and he smiled and said, ?I don?t think one game can be a hot hand.?
Thousands will beg to differ after his exemplary work in the 49ers? ridiculously easy 32-7 throat-punching of the Chicago Bears Monday night. He gave no indication of being the neophyte he did the week before against St. Louis, not only staying in the pocket but commanding it. His raw numbers (16-of-23, 243 yards, two scores, a 133.1 rating) were arresting enough, but the way he rolled the 49er offense and even rediscovered tight end Vernon Davis in a surprisingly easy win over an allegedly good opponent.
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Indeed, starting now, he will be considered by the outside world to be the real starting quarterback ? even if the ever-coy Harbaugh decides otherwise.
In fact, you?re probably safe in thinking that Harbaugh will decide otherwise. One game does not a star make, and Harbaugh not only knows it, but frankly is banking on it. Having ?created? Smith, he isn?t likely to abandon him off one impressive performance against a broken team.
Oh, he kept the door open, to be sure. He dismissed the notion of ?the rule? that an injury doesn?t cost a player his starting job, and he said again and again, ?We have two quarterbacks with the hot hand, and we?ll make that decision when we have to make it.?
He also evaluated Kaepernick in the highest possible terms, citing ?his accuracy, poise in the pocket, running the offense, understanding the game plan,? and describing his pre-snap reads as ?in the high 90s, an A-plus operation.?
In short, Harbaugh raved about Kaepernick. But, and we cannot stress this too much, he has raved about Smith in his time, too. Harbaugh raves easily, even if all he?s doing is trying to smother a story.
Still, the Kaepernick raves, atop what all our eyes told us, creates a dynamic that hasn?t legitimately existed since the Montana-Young days. Oh, we?ve tried to create others, but the ingredients haven?t been the same. So, yes, this is about to get very very weird if Harbaugh lets it.
And he just might.
Now either he knows the dynamite with which he plays, or like so many other external pressures, he doesn?t care. He is sure that he can dominate his environment, and media speculation and the shrieks of the populace are part of that environment.
But Harbaugh is less a swashbuckler than a pragmatist, and even if Smith cannot clear all his protocols before the New Orleans game next week, he?ll want to see Kaepernick in a loud and hostile environment before he commits to anything longer term.
In short, Alex Smith will be the 49ers? starting quarterback again, and there?s no use you bitching about it. Whatever his limitations, perceived or otherwise, Smith has shown more in the aggregate than Kaepernick. And Harbaugh plays percentages.
Smith, on the other hand, is already sensing that he is about to become unpopular again, this time through no fault of his own. He has endured much in his time here, most of it as the earnest victim of the franchise?s wilderness years, and he has fixed almost all the things that have been laid at his feet by coaches who weren?t very coach-worthy and players who often weren?t.
And now that he?s shown he can handle the brand new car, people are trying to pry the keys away from him again. We may have to come to grips with the possibility that he is simply cursed.
But the real test for Smith now is narrowing his focus even more, and this is where Harbaugh can make things easy for him by telling him--if not anyone else--that he will be the starter again. He can say whatever he wants about two hot hands, but he can only put one man behind center Jonathan Goodwin. And he does not yet know with the metaphysical certitude a coach must have that Colin Kaepernick is the next superior 49er quarterback.
We all thought the Bears game would be an enormous test for either Smith or Kaepernick, and we were wrong, as it turned out. The 49er defense saw to that, holding Chicago to 143 total yards, the second lowest total of any team this season, and two yards fewer than the 145 the 49ers held the New York Jets to in Week 4. Aldon Smith stood proudly on Jason Campbell?s thorax, but nothing else worked for the Bears, either.
That, though, is the backstory. This is a quarterback controversy town, and this is a full-blown quarterback controversy, with 20 rooms, marble floors, platinum inlaid fixtures, a magnificent entry hall, and a huge garden with wild animals running free behind it.
It isn?t really, of course. Not inside the building, where such things really matter. Harbaugh isn?t ready for that one yet, only because Smith remains the smarter play.
But outside, where the screaming happens, it?s on, Jack. It?s so on.
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