The San Francisco 49ers went into Lambeau Field and beat the Green Bay Packers in dramatic fashion 30 – 22. The star of the game was Alex Smith, who played against his 2005 NFL Draft rival, Cal’s Aaron Rogers, and got the win.
(It was eight years ago that Smith was the 2005 NFL 1st Round Pick, and number one choice of the same 49ers; Rogers slid down to pick number 25, where the Packers got him, but you could see he was seething. Rogers eventually got his revenge two years ago, leading the Packers to a Super Bowl victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers.)
Now, it’s Alex Smith’s turn. After a crazy 2010 under then-Head Coach Mike Singletary, Smith found a real coach in Jim Harbaugh, who came over from Stanford, where, with David Shaw, he developed Andrew Luck. I’ve always believe Smith was a better QB than the media painted him to be, and that’s because most media folks don’t know enough football to point a finger at a coach for errors in scheme.
But that’s for another blog post.
These 49ers had a great mix of mid-range and short passes, and really fast defensive play, all used to hold the Packers consistently behind the 49ers to get the win.