Honestly, the comeback of Alex Smith stands incomplete.
After seasons of ridicule for his struggles to become the next 49ers quarterback in the line measured by Joe Montana and Steve Young, Smith’s Comeback Player of the Year-type season has been filled with hollow applause.
That’s because, up until now, Smith has heard more about what he hasn’t done than what he’s done.
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They say to make the playoffs is to get a ticket to the dance. And to follow an appropriate motto, there’s another saying that goes "dance with the one you brought."
"We’re going to play our game," Alex Smith said. "We’re not going to be somebody we’re not."
The statement that Saturday’s impending game at Candlestick Park is the biggest of the 49ers quarterback’s football life is as unoriginal as it is obvious.
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Call it the remnants of five previous seasons that have ended in disappointment, but Vernon Davis — San Francisco’s premier tight end of six years — has never quite been able to stomach the simple idea of watching the NFL playoffs.
“I was so upset that we didn’t make it,” he said, of all of his previous seasons. “I just couldn’t watch it.”
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Don’t downplay these 49ers. It’s safe to dream a little bigger.
Sure, simply reaching the playoffs serves as a huge step forward based on their play in recent years, but the 49ers have compiled a 2011 résumé that gives them as many — or more — reasons to reach the Super Bowl as any of their NFC counterparts.
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The 49ers have gone beyond expectations and predictions. Who imagined, after eight consecutive losing seasons, they’d finish the regular season with the second-best record in the NFL? Who dared think they would have the top defense against the rush?
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The 49ers’ 20-3 win over Pittsburgh on Monday night had great individual performances, but the combined efforts of the three Smiths carried the day and Jim Harbaugh had high praise for the trio Tuesday.
Alex Smith threw for 187 yards on 18-for-31 passing and Harbaugh said he is not only a Pro Bowler, but his quarterback of the future.
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A championship team has to meet all the challenges, and the 49ers met a big one by getting out of their comfort zone Monday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The 49ers had been playing their usual conservative game — throwing short passes, running Frank Gore, kicking field goals — instead of going boldly for touchdowns and relying on their defense and special teams.
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The first matchup between two 10-win teams on “Monday Night Football” since 1997 turned into a defensive battle that even the stadium got involved in as the 49ers earned a 20-3 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The turning point was a sack by Aldon Smith and a fumble recovery by Justin Smith on the Pittsburgh 17-yard line with 11:30 left in the fourth quarter.
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It took the playoff-bound 49ers, who have failed in the red zone more often than not lately, a trip to the Arizona desert Dec. 11 to finally get burned.
But it will be on the gridiron’s biggest stage tonight at Candlestick Park against the Pittsburgh Steelers where San Francisco will, once again, try to right its red-zone wrongs.
Last week’s 21-19 downer against the division-rival Cardinals marked more than San Francisco’s third defeat this season.
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Jim Harbaugh was talking about criticism, conceding when the 49ers lose, there will be second-guessing.
“The whys for what happened,” he calls it. The worry is not what happened, but what didn’t happen, with the 49ers unable to get a victory.
“They’re the hunted now,” Harbaugh said of his Niners, after winning the division, surprising everyone — except maybe the Niners themselves — and compiling a record tied for second-best in the NFL.
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