Last week I said that if the 49ers were able to play the Colts close and continue to see improvement from Alex Smith that this week should be looked at as a success, well that is exactly what happened and I am left with more confidence than I had in this team going into the weekend. The defense looked to be in early season form once again, but for the whole game this time and not just the second half like last week. They kept pressure on Manning and more than doubled the amount of times he has been sacked this season by bringing him down three times. Receivers not named Reggie Wayne were kept in check for the most part, and the Colts couldn’t muster a run game. That is the Niner defense that Coach Singletary was talking about all off-season.

My two defensive players of the game for the Niners this week were Aubrayo Franklin and Manny Lawson. These two were the reason the Niners were able to maintain control of the line of scrimmage on defense, Lawson was consistently pushing his man back into the back field and Franklin did a great job controlling the gaps in the middle of the line. With both of them having games like they did it is not a big surprise that Manning never got too comfortable in the pocket. The bad news for the defense (and I mean horrible if it turns out to be as bad as it could be) is that cornerback Nate Clements broke his right scapula towards the end of the game on Sunday. The scapula is a bone in the shoulder blade and if the break is serious enough Clements could miss the rest of the season because of a lack of rotation and durability in that right shoulder. Granted the level of play Shawntae Spencer has been able to bring to the field this year has been a pleasant surprise but with Walt Harris already missing for the year and Dre’ Bly’s inability to crack the starting line-up the 49ers would be in a tough position in their secondary for the remainder of the season if Clements can’t come back.

The 49ers had another potentially devastating injury on the first play of the game when left tackle Joe Staley went out with a sprained knee. Staley was unable to return to the game but the team isn’t going to comment on the seriousness of the injury until he gets reevaluated later today. With right tackle Tony Pashos out for the season more shuffling and second stringers are exactly what the Niners don’t need for their offensive line right now although it is worth noting that back up left tackle Barry Sims did a decent job against Dwight Freeney in relief. All of that being said Alex Smith did a good job leading this offense (that was severely less talented than the defense they were facing) on a couple of scoring drives. Smith posted a QB rating of 74.7 which isn’t pretty but that is in large part due to the interception that was tipped off of the hands of Michael Crabtree and not really Smith’s fault, without that interception his QB rating would have been an 87.7 which is right around where Manning’s was for the game. Smith even showed his experience in this game when the QB had a dysfunctional helmet radio and had to call the plays himself on two different occasions.

However the game wasn’t all great for Smith who threw high a few times and showed that he still needs work with this group of receivers to get better timing, but with the way the Niner defense played this game if Smith had a couple more weeks with the first team offense the 49ers could have had a much better shot at winning. This is no more evident than in the 1:11 89-yard drive that Smith engineered at the end of the second half by going 6-7 and throwing a nice ball into tight coverage for the touchdown with less than a 50 seconds left in the first half. Those are the kind of intangibles that made Smith the first overall pick and those are the skills he needs to continue to show on the field for this 49ers team.

One concern to note is how poorly the 49ers have been running the ball as of late. In the Huston game the Niners only rushed for 59 yards and 16 of those yards came from Alex Smith scrambles. This week they rushed for 113 yards, but 64 of that was on one Frank Gore TD run. Take that run away and Gore only rushed for 27 yards on 12 carries. This along with how well Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree are catching the ball tell me that the Niners might lean more towards a spread look on offense these next couple weeks. Crabtree is on pace to catch 55 passes for 685 yards this season after missing the first six games, very impressive for a rookie wide receiver and Vernon Davis leads the league in touchdown receptions with seven so far this season so a switch to a spread look might not be as risky as it sounds, the main risk is protection. Protection can become a concern for teams switching to a spread offense because the idea is to have as many skilled position players on the field as possible to run routes, this leaves maybe one player back to help the offensive line with protection and with how much the Niners O-line is struggling that might be a tall order. The only caveat to that is when in a spread formation Smith does a great job of getting rid of the ball quickly which does wonders to alleviate the rush.

There were many positives for the Niners to take out of this week and build upon for the rest of the season starting next week with the Tennessee Titans, a game that has become a must win for a team still trying to stay in the playoff hunt.