It was nice for Niner fans to see Alex Smith do so well with the offense in the second half of last week’s game against the Texans and apparently the performance was good enough for Mike Singletary to give him the keys to the car so to speak. For Smith this is the nicest car he has had to drive in his professional career. When he first got in the league smith was handed the keys to a Toyota Tercel and expected to get on the track with a grid full of BMWs. Now that the offense Smith is driving looks more like a BMW then anything else he has gotten his hands on it will be interesting to see what he can do, unfortunately for him he is going up against Payton Manning and the Colts this week, which is akin to Michael Schumacher in a brand new Ferrari.

But enough with the driving metaphors its time to talk about this weeks game, a game that the Colts will most likely win since right now they are possibly the best team in the league and just got their best defensive player back. The Niners, on the other hand, are a team on a loosing streak that has to deal with the conundrum of what is going to be their base offense for this game. In the offseason Singletary said again and again that this was going to be a run first team that relied on its defense, unfortunately that is not the kind of game that suits Smith. Smith made his name in the spread offense at Utah and showed why last week, he is great at making a pre-snap read and getting the ball out of his hands quickly, and with Michael Crabtree, Josh Morgan, and Vernon Davis he has the personnel to run that type of offense. The question now becomes what kind of offense is coordinator Jimmy Raye going to be calling for on Sunday? Smith doesn’t do so well in a conservative offense, just like Kurt Warner didn’t under Tom Coughlin in New York, but when Warner got to spread the field with great receivers in Arizona his career had resurgence. Smith and the 49ers are in a similar position, if this is the QB that gives you the best chance to win and that is why you are going with him then it only makes sense to put him in the best position to win by putting him in an offense he does well in.

Unfortunately for Smith even if the Niners go with a spread offense times are going to be tough for him on Sunday against the Colts defense. This Colts defense has been playing well through six games so far this season while missing Bob Sanders, the spark to their Super Bowl run a few years ago, and now that he is back they are looking to improve upon what they have been doing. Adding a safety as smart as Sanders always makes things harder on a QB, but it makes it especially hard on him when the QB also has to worry about Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis coming at him off the edge. With the solid play the Colts have been getting from their defensive tackles this season they haven’t had to blitz the QB so much to get pressure so they have been able to leave people back in coverage, this will most likely be their formula against the Niners as well considering how poor the Niners offensive line has played and the fact that Tony Pashos (one of the two rotating right tackles for the Niners) will be out this game. Add the high level of play the Colts are getting from their linebackers right now on top of the advantage their d-line will have over the Niners o-line and it is hard to envision the Niners run game being very productive this week.

The 49er defense can do a lot to help this team stay in this game, but as we all know the best way to stop a great QB is to get in the backfield and get pressure on him. Unfortunately for the Niners Manning has only been sacked twice this season thanks to his quick release and a great offensive line. The Niners could use a lot of different blitz looks on Manning but if a team blitzes Manning and doesn’t get to him quickly it almost always spells disaster, and without a great pass rushing linebacker it might be hard to get the desired results from a blitz. On top of that the Niner defense cannot afford to over look Dallas Clark, if they focus too much on putting pressure on Manning and don’t keep an eye on Clark then he will burn you for large chunks of yardage. The same can happen if the Niners loose sight of Pierre Garcon or Austin Collie either as both of them have also shown that they can be receiving threats for Manning as both have had big games for the Colts already this year. Thanks to the high level of play the Niners have been getting out of Nate Clements they don’t have to worry about Reggie Wayne so much, but Wayne is a great receiver and will get his yards like he does every game. Unfortunately for the Niners I don’t believe they have either the secondary or the defensive line to do what they need to do on defense to contain this high-powered Colts offense.

This is why I would like to see the Niners in a spread offense look this week, keeping in mind that games against he Colts usually turn into a bit of a shoot out that seems like the Niners best chance of keeping pace, and if the offense does manage to keep pace and the defense plays one of its better games of the year the Niners have a chance to keep this close. However, close was the operative word in that sentence and however much I would love to see the Niners win this game it looks like there is a fairly slim chance of that happening. If the Niners can still look respectable against a team as good as the Colts and Smith continues to look confident and throw with authority even against a better defense then this game will probably go down as a success for most Niner fans, myself included.