Well at least I was right about it being a three point game, outside of that few things went the way I thought they would for the 49ers on Sunday. It was more of an offensive game then I was predicting. Even though the score wasn’t much higher it than the 21-17 I predicted the pace was much faster. Unfortunately my fears about how the Texans would attack the Niners offensive line came true, as well as the success I thought they might have putting pressure up the middle. The scary part about that one is if I can see it how obvious must it be to the coaches who get paid to do nothing but dissect teams? The 49ers were saved the blow out though, thanks to the arm of Alex Smith, who had a spectacular second half throwing for over 200 yards, three touchdowns, and his lone pick coming on a last second desperation heave. With that second half you have to start to wonder if there will be more Smith and more spread offense in the Niners future this season.

This game really was a story of two halves, so it makes sense that they get looked at separately and in the fist half the 49ers were blown out 21-0. The offense was getting dominated at the line of scrimmage going no where and the Texans offense had the Niner defense so confused it could hardly tell which direction was up. The majority of the time he dropped back Matt Schaub had time to throw and the majority of the time he threw Owen Daniles was open. Fortunately the Niners limited Andre Johnson to just two receptions but they also let the Schaub hit the middle of the field and flats for some large chunks of yardage.

On the other side of the ball the 49er offense could hardly get a first down making it even harder for the defense to keep the Texans off the board late in the first half. Frank Gore had no holes to run through and Shaun Hill had trouble getting the ball out on time, part of the reason was because he was under a lot of pressure, part of it was that he was having trouble seeing the field well. Unfortunately in the last few games Hill has shown that he does not have the smarts and quick decision making to overcome his lack of tangible assets and that makes it much easier for a team to game plan against him and the limited types of routes that he can throw consistently.

The second half, however, looked much more like the 49er team that everyone saw in the first four games of the season. The defense was all over the field, moving around well and punishing the Texans’ players, and the offense looked so good one might actually go as far as to say they looked dangerous, and adjective that has not been associated with the 49ers offense for a number of years. The most interesting part about the offenses’ success in the second half was that it was out of the spread offense look, something the Niners are not supposed to be built for. But they looked built for it yesterday as former first overall pick Alex Smith led three great scoring drives: a 10-play, 66-yard touchdown drive, a five-play, 63-yard touchdown drive, and a seven-play, 73-yard touchdown drive .

Smith looked like a first overall pick should look in their fifth year in the second half of this game. He looked confident, he threw the ball with authority, saw the entire field, and got the ball out of his hands very quickly, even releasing it before receivers were open a few times but placing it perfectly for them to catch it once they hit the soft spot in the defense. A large part of the reason Smith may have looked so comfortable in the game was because of all of the work he did out of the spread, the formation that made him famous in college. The spread offense gives the safeties a number of routes to read to figure out where on the field they need to go so either the quarterback gets enough time to hit his main target because of that or the safeties make a quick decision and the QB gets one-on-one coverage somewhere on the field. The key to the spread offense is a quarterback that understands that and makes a quick decision, that is exactly what Smith excels at, not moving the defense with his eyes, not calling audibles at the line of scrimmage, but making a read and getting the ball out quickly. Further more, lets not forget that this is the best 49er team that Smith has every played on, and with Vernon Davis, Josh Morgan, and Michael Crabtree there may be more spread offense on the way for the 49ers.

The other great surprise of the game for Niner fans was the performance of Michael Crabtree. It may have been over shadowed by Vernon Davis’ 93-yard 3-touchdown performance, but Crabtree showed why he is expected to be great with 5 catches for 56 yards. Sure those numbers are too impressive, but you had to watch him work to see how he made those numbers so impressive. He showed very quick and strong hands on a ball that was throw just a moment sooner than it should have been, but even though the ball was on him faster than he expected Crabtree was able to get his hands up, grab the back end of the ball, and have enough of a grip to maintain possession as he got hit from behind and taken to the ground. He also showed very quick feet and smooth hips on every route he ran although the most impressive route I saw him run was the curl route. A very simple one sure, but I would go as far as to say that it has been a long time since I have seen a rookie stop on a dime and do a 180 like Crabtree did every time he was called to run a curl route. Those are the kinds of skills that had 49er fans excited when their team drafted him, and combine that with Smith’s performance and they can once again be excited about the future. And I know Niner fans don’t have much to brag about, but when those Raider fans start giving you guys some flak, just remind them that Michael Crabtree already has more catches this season than Darrius Heyward-Bey.